GEOS Programmer's Reference Guide

written by Alexander Donald Boyce
proofread and converted to hypertext by Marko Mäkelä


Preface

This document was written after having disassembled the GEOS Kernal and completely commenting and reverse engineering it. It took a great deal of time to do this, but I did it because I enjoy computer programming and deciphering other people's programs. Because of the amount of effort involved in creating this document, I do not really wish to give it away. However, I know there are other programmers who will benefit from my hard work. Therefore I am offering this document as shareware. If you get good use out of this document, send me whatever you feel it is worth to you (or some reasonable amount, personally I find it invaluable). A few dollars would be appreciated. Here is my address:

Alexander Donald Boyce
2269 Grandview Ave., Apt. 1
Cleveland Heights, Ohio 44106-3144

Thank you and happy computing!

Alex Boyce, October 1986


Table of Contents

Main Chapters

GEOS Kernal Routines
Defines all the GEOS Kernal routines along with their input and output requirements.
Device Drivers
Defines the format for Input and Printer Drivers.
File Formats
Describes the format of all of GEOS's various files.
Directory Structure
Describes the structure of a GEOS disk's directory.
Information Sector Format
Describes the structure and the data contained in a file's information sector.
Memory Map
Defines the memory locations used by GEOS.

Appendices

GEOS Errors
Defines the error numbers that can be returned by the GEOS Kernal routines.
Glossary
Defines several terms used in this document.
Fill Patterns
A representation of GEOS's 32 fill patterns.
Programming Notes
Information necessary for GEOS programming.

GEOS Kernal Routines

Alphabetical Listing

ABS16 ($C16F)
16 bit absolute value
ALLOC ($C292)
Find and allocate a disk block
APPEND ($C289)
Add a VLIR chain
BASIC ($C241)
Restart BASIC
BLKCMP ($C26E)
Memory block comparison
BLKFIL ($C17B)
Memory block fill
BLKFL2 ($C1B4)
Memory block fill with inline data
BLKMOV ($C268)
Memory block move
BLKSET ($C181)
Multiple memory location initialization
CBOX ($C142)
Draw a click box
CBOX2 ($C1AB)
Draw a click box with inline data
CBOXES ($C15A)
Draw a table of click boxes
CHARST ($C1B1)
Get a character's stats
CHGDRV ($C2BC)
Change disk drive device number
CKMOUS ($C2B3)
Check if mouse is inside a window
CLRRDY ($C232)
Stop Turbodos in a drive
CLRSTS ($C235)
Stop and remove Turbodos in a drive
CLSMNU ($C190)
Close current menu
CLSSER ($C25F)
Close serial communication
CLSWIN ($C2BF)
Close a window
CMDTBL ($C103)
Initialize a table of recurring timed events
CMENUS ($C1BD)
Close all menu levels
CONVRT ($C1EA)
Convert a disk to GEOS format
COPYB ($C12D)
Copy a box from screen 1 to screen 2
COPYB2 ($C1A5)
Copy a box from screen 1 to screen 2 with inline data
COPYB3 ($C250)
Copy a box from screen 2 to screen 1
COPYB4 ($C253)
Copy a box from screen 2 to screen 1 with inline data
COPYL ($C11E)
Copy a line from screen 2 to screen 1
COPYSP ($C1C6)
Copy a sprite data block
CURSOF ($C29E)
Turn off the text cursor
CURSON ($C29B)
Turn on the text cursor
CWIDTH ($C1C9)
Get a character's width
CWRITE ($C223)
Verify before writing sector
DEC16 ($C175)
Decrement a 16 bit integer
DECODE ($C20E)
Compute the checksum of a memory region
DELAY ($C199)
Set up a time delay
DELET2 ($C244)
Delete a temporary file
DELETE ($C238)
Delete a file
DIRDSK ($C1F0)
Create a directory entry on disk
DIRMEM ($C1F3)
Create a directory entry in memory
DRAW ($C2AA)
Draw a coded image
DRAW2 ($C2C5)
Draw a coded image with user patches
DRAWCH ($C202)
Draw a character on the screen
DRVNAM ($C298)
Compute address of disk's name
DRVSET ($C2B0)
Select a drive
DRWMNU ($C193)
Draw the current menu
DSETUP ($C214)
Setup a drive with Turbodos
DSPCHR ($C145)
Display a character
DSPNUM ($C184)
Display a 16 bit integer
DSPTX2 ($C1AE)
Display a text string with inline data
DSPTXT ($C148)
Display a text string
ENABLE ($C106)
Enable a recurring timed event
ERAMNS ($C157)
Erase all menus
ERAMNU ($C154)
Erase the current menu
EXERTN ($C109)
Force a recurring timed event to run
FALLOC ($C1FC)
Allocate sectors for a file
FALOC2 ($C24D)
Allocate sectors for a file
FONT ($C1CC)
Make a memory resident font the current font
FORBID ($C10C)
Prevent a recurring timed event from running
FREE ($C226)
Free a file's sectors
GEOSCK ($C1DE)
Check if a disk is GEOS format
GETBYT ($C2B6)
Get a byte from a file
GETIN ($C2A7)
Read a character from the keyboard
GOTO ($C280)
Goto a specific VLIR chain
GRPHC2 ($C1A8)
Process a graphic command table with inline data
GRPHIC ($C136)
Process a graphic command table
HLINE ($C118)
Draw a horizontal line in a pattern
HOLE ($C1F6)
Find a hole in the directory
INDJMP ($C1D8)
Perform an indirect jump
INIT01 ($C271)
Initialize GEOS variables
INITDV ($C1E1)
Initialize a drive
INITMS ($C14E)
Initialize the mouse
INPUT ($C1BA)
Read a line of text from the user
INSERT ($C286)
Insert a VLIR chain
INTBM ($C17E)
Intelligent memory block move
INTBM2 ($C1B7)
Intelligent memory block move with inline data
INUSE ($C2AD)
Check if a disk sector is in use
INVBOX ($C12A)
Reverse video a box
INVLIN ($C11B)
Reverse video a horizontal line
IRQRTN ($C100)
IRQ routine
LCHAIN ($C1FF)
Load a chain into memory, given the initial track and sector
LDSWAP ($C23E)
Load the SWAPFILE
LINE ($C130)
Draw/Erase/Copy an arbitrary line
LOAD ($C208)
Load a file, given a file name
LOAD2 ($C211)
Load a file, given a directory entry
LOAD3 ($C21D)
Load and run a file, given a directory entry
LOADAD ($C229)
Get a file's load address
LOADSW ($C217)
Load a file with memory swapping
LOOKUP ($C20B)
Lookup a file in the directory
MAIN ($C1C3)
GEOS's main loop
MAKCUR ($C1C0)
Create the text cursor sprite
MASL ($C15D)
Multiple 16 bit arithmetic shift left
MENU ($C151)
Menu processor
MLSR ($C262)
Multiple 16 bit logical shift right
MOUSOF ($C18D)
Turn off the mouse
MOUSON ($C18A)
Turn on the mouse
NEG16 ($C172)
Negate a 16 bit integer
NEXT ($C27A)
Move to next VLIR chain
NUMBLK ($C1DB)
Compute number of free blocks on disk
OPNDSK ($C2A1)
Open a disk
OPNSER ($C25C)
Open serial communication
PBOX ($C127)
Draw an outline in a pattern
PBOX2 ($C1A2)
Draw a solid outline with inline data
PERMIT ($C10F)
Allow a recurring timed event to execute
PFILL ($C124)
Fill a box with a pattern
PFILL2 ($C19F)
Fill a box with a pattern with inline data
PLOT ($C133)
Draw/Erase/Copy a point on the screen
POSSPR ($C1CF)
Position a sprite
PREV ($C27D)
Move to previous VLIR chain
RANDOM ($C187)
Change the random number
RD180 ($C247)
Read track 18 sector 0
READ ($C1E4)
Read a sector
READ2 ($C21A)
Read a sector with drive preset
REBOOT ($C000)
Reboot GEOS
REMOVE ($C283)
Remove a VLIR chain
RENAME ($C259)
Rename a file
RESETM ($C19C)
Reset the mouse
RESTRT ($C22C)
Load and run DESKTOP
ROWADR ($C13C)
Compute memory address of a row on the screen
RUN ($C22F)
Run a program that is in memory
SAVE ($C1ED)
Save memory to a file
SAVE2 ($C1F9)
Save memory to preallocated sectors
SD1616 ($C16C)
Signed 16 bit division
SELBSW ($C14B)
Select the BSW font
SETPAT ($C139)
Select a fill pattern
SPROFF ($C1D5)
Turn off a sprite
SPRON ($C1D2)
Turn on a sprite
START ($C115)
Start a recurring timed event's timer
STOP ($C112)
Stop a recurring timed event's timer
STRCMP ($C26B)
String compare
STRCPY ($C265)
String copy
SYSERR ($C2C2)
Report system error
TABLE ($C23B)
Create a table of file names
TBLJMP ($C2A4)
Perform a jump through a table
TEST ($C13F)
Test the value of a pixel
TRACE ($C205)
Create a list of sectors used by a file
UD1616 ($C169)
Unsigned 16 bit division
UM1616 ($C166)
Unsigned 16 bit by 16 bit multiply
UM168 ($C163)
Unsigned 16 bit by 8 bit multiply
UMUL88 ($C160)
Unsigned 8 bit by 8 bit multiply
UPDATE ($C295)
Update a VLIR file
VCLOSE ($C277)
Close a VLIR file
VLINE ($C121)
Draw a vertical line in a pattern
VLOAD ($C28C)
Load a VLIR chain
VOPEN ($C274)
Open a VLIR file
VSAVE ($C28F)
Save memory to a VLIR chain
WHATIS ($C196)
Who knows what this routine does???
WINDOW ($C256)
Window processor
WR180 ($C24A)
Write to track 18 sector 0
WRITE ($C1E7)
Write a sector
WRITE2 ($C220)
Write a sector with drive preset
ZFILL ($C178)
Fill a memory region with zeroes

Sequential Listing

REBOOT ($C000)
Reboot GEOS
IRQRTN ($C100)
IRQ routine
CMDTBL ($C103)
Initialize a table of recurring timed events
ENABLE ($C106)
Enable a recurring timed event
EXERTN ($C109)
Force a recurring timed event to run
FORBID ($C10C)
Prevent a recurring timed event from running
PERMIT ($C10F)
Allow a recurring timed event to execute
STOP ($C112)
Stop a recurring timed event's timer
START ($C115)
Start a recurring timed event's timer
HLINE ($C118)
Draw a horizontal line in a pattern
INVLIN ($C11B)
Reverse video a horizontal line
COPYL ($C11E)
Copy a line from screen 2 to screen 1
VLINE ($C121)
Draw a vertical line in a pattern
PFILL ($C124)
Fill a box with a pattern
PBOX ($C127)
Draw an outline in a pattern
INVBOX ($C12A)
Reverse video a box
COPYB ($C12D)
Copy a box from screen 1 to screen 2
LINE ($C130)
Draw/Erase/Copy an arbitrary line
PLOT ($C133)
Draw/Erase/Copy a point on the screen
GRPHIC ($C136)
Process a graphic command table
SETPAT ($C139)
Select a fill pattern
ROWADR ($C13C)
Compute memory address of a row on the screen
TEST ($C13F)
Test the value of a pixel
CBOX ($C142)
Draw a click box
DSPCHR ($C145)
Display a character
DSPTXT ($C148)
Display a text string
SELBSW ($C14B)
Select the BSW font
INITMS ($C14E)
Initialize the mouse
MENU ($C151)
Menu processor
ERAMNU ($C154)
Erase the current menu
ERAMNS ($C157)
Erase all menus
CBOXES ($C15A)
Draw a table of click boxes
MASL ($C15D)
Multiple 16 bit arithmetic shift left
UMUL88 ($C160)
Unsigned 8 bit by 8 bit multiply
UM168 ($C163)
Unsigned 16 bit by 8 bit multiply
UM1616 ($C166)
Unsigned 16 bit by 16 bit multiply
UD1616 ($C169)
Unsigned 16 bit division
SD1616 ($C16C)
Signed 16 bit division
ABS16 ($C16F)
16 bit absolute value
NEG16 ($C172)
Negate a 16 bit integer
DEC16 ($C175)
Decrement a 16 bit integer
ZFILL ($C178)
Fill a memory region with zeroes
BLKFIL ($C17B)
Memory block fill
INTBM ($C17E)
Intelligent memory block move
BLKSET ($C181)
Multiple memory location initialization
DSPNUM ($C184)
Display a 16 bit integer
RANDOM ($C187)
Change the random number
MOUSON ($C18A)
Turn on the mouse
MOUSOF ($C18D)
Turn off the mouse
CLSMNU ($C190)
Close current menu
DRWMNU ($C193)
Draw the current menu
WHATIS ($C196)
Who knows what this routine does???
DELAY ($C199)
Set up a time delay
RESETM ($C19C)
Reset the mouse
PFILL2 ($C19F)
Fill a box with a pattern with inline data
PBOX2 ($C1A2)
Draw a solid outline with inline data
COPYB2 ($C1A5)
Copy a box from screen 1 to screen 2 with inline data
GRPHC2 ($C1A8)
Process a graphic command table with inline data
CBOX2 ($C1AB)
Draw a click box with inline data
DSPTX2 ($C1AE)
Display a text string with inline data
CHARST ($C1B1)
Get a character's stats
BLKFL2 ($C1B4)
Memory block fill with inline data
INTBM2 ($C1B7)
Intelligent memory block move with inline data
INPUT ($C1BA)
Read a line of text from the user
CMENUS ($C1BD)
Close all menu levels
MAKCUR ($C1C0)
Create the text cursor sprite
MAIN ($C1C3)
GEOS's main loop
COPYSP ($C1C6)
Copy a sprite data block
CWIDTH ($C1C9)
Get a character's width
FONT ($C1CC)
Make a memory resident font the current font
POSSPR ($C1CF)
Position a sprite
SPRON ($C1D2)
Turn on a sprite
SPROFF ($C1D5)
Turn off a sprite
INDJMP ($C1D8)
Perform an indirect jump
NUMBLK ($C1DB)
Compute number of free blocks on disk
GEOSCK ($C1DE)
Check if a disk is GEOS format
INITDV ($C1E1)
Initialize a drive
READ ($C1E4)
Read a sector
WRITE ($C1E7)
Write a sector
CONVRT ($C1EA)
Convert a disk to GEOS format
SAVE ($C1ED)
Save memory to a file
DIRDSK ($C1F0)
Create a directory entry on disk
DIRMEM ($C1F3)
Create a directory entry in memory
HOLE ($C1F6)
Find a hole in the directory
SAVE2 ($C1F9)
Save memory to preallocated sectors
FALLOC ($C1FC)
Allocate sectors for a file
LCHAIN ($C1FF)
Load a chain into memory, given the initial track and sector
DRAWCH ($C202)
Draw a character on the screen
TRACE ($C205)
Create a list of sectors used by a file
LOAD ($C208)
Load a file, given a file name
LOOKUP ($C20B)
Lookup a file in the directory
DECODE ($C20E)
Compute the checksum of a memory region
LOAD2 ($C211)
Load a file, given a directory entry
DSETUP ($C214)
Setup a drive with Turbodos
LOADSW ($C217)
Load a file with memory swapping
READ2 ($C21A)
Read a sector with drive preset
LOAD3 ($C21D)
Load and run a file, given a directory entry
WRITE2 ($C220)
Write a sector with drive preset
CWRITE ($C223)
Verify before writing sector
FREE ($C226)
Free a file's sectors
LOADAD ($C229)
Get a file's load address
RESTRT ($C22C)
Load and run DESKTOP
RUN ($C22F)
Run a program that is in memory
CLRRDY ($C232)
Stop Turbodos in a drive
CLRSTS ($C235)
Stop and remove Turbodos in a drive
DELETE ($C238)
Delete a file
TABLE ($C23B)
Create a table of file names
LDSWAP ($C23E)
Load the SWAPFILE
BASIC ($C241)
Restart BASIC
DELET2 ($C244)
Delete a temporary file
RD180 ($C247)
Read track 18 sector 0
WR180 ($C24A)
Write to track 18 sector 0
FALOC2 ($C24D)
Allocate sectors for a file
COPYB3 ($C250)
Copy a box from screen 2 to screen 1
COPYB4 ($C253)
Copy a box from screen 2 to screen 1 with inline data
WINDOW ($C256)
Window processor
RENAME ($C259)
Rename a file
OPNSER ($C25C)
Open serial communication
CLSSER ($C25F)
Close serial communication
MLSR ($C262)
Multiple 16 bit logical shift right
STRCPY ($C265)
String copy
BLKMOV ($C268)
Memory block move
STRCMP ($C26B)
String compare
BLKCMP ($C26E)
Memory block comparison
INIT01 ($C271)
Initialize GEOS variables
VOPEN ($C274)
Open a VLIR file
VCLOSE ($C277)
Close a VLIR file
NEXT ($C27A)
Move to next VLIR chain
PREV ($C27D)
Move to previous VLIR chain
GOTO ($C280)
Goto a specific VLIR chain
REMOVE ($C283)
Remove a VLIR chain
INSERT ($C286)
Insert a VLIR chain
APPEND ($C289)
Add a VLIR chain
VLOAD ($C28C)
Load a VLIR chain
VSAVE ($C28F)
Save memory to a VLIR chain
ALLOC ($C292)
Find and allocate a disk block
UPDATE ($C295)
Update a VLIR file
DRVNAM ($C298)
Compute address of disk's name
CURSON ($C29B)
Turn on the text cursor
CURSOF ($C29E)
Turn off the text cursor
OPNDSK ($C2A1)
Open a disk
TBLJMP ($C2A4)
Perform a jump through a table
GETIN ($C2A7)
Read a character from the keyboard
DRAW ($C2AA)
Draw a coded image
INUSE ($C2AD)
Check if a disk sector is in use
DRVSET ($C2B0)
Select a drive
CKMOUS ($C2B3)
Check if mouse is inside a window
GETBYT ($C2B6)
Get a byte from a file
CHGDRV ($C2BC)
Change disk drive device number
CLSWIN ($C2BF)
Close a window
SYSERR ($C2C2)
Report system error
DRAW2 ($C2C5)
Draw a coded image with user patches

Detailed Listing

Function Name:
ABS16
Purpose:
16 bit absolute value.
Call address:
$C16F
Input requirements:
X
The address of the 16 bit integer.
Output:
X
The address a positive 16 bit integer.
Description:
This routine is one of the GEOS math routines. X points to a 16 bit value which if found to be negative, NEG16 is called to make it positive.
Function Name:
ALLOC
Purpose:
Allocate a block on the disk.
Call address:
$C292
Input requirements:
$08
Track to start scanning from.
$09
Sector to start scanning from.
$8200-$82FF
Track 18 sector 0, BAM.
$849C
Skew factor (default is 8).
Output:
$08
New track number.
$09
New sector number.
Errors:
See appendix I.
Description:
This routine expects that the BAM is already in memory. It scans the BAM starting at a specified location, looking for a free sector. If one is found it is returned, otherwise an error results. The sector is allocated in the BAM, and the BAM must be updated to disk afterwards in order for the sector to remain allocated.
Function Name:
APPEND
Purpose:
Append a new chain in a VLIR file.
Call address:
$C289
Input requirements:
$8496
Current chain number.
Output:
$8496
Incremented by 1.
$8497
Incremented by 1.
Preparatory routines:
VOPEN
Errors:
See appendix I.
Description:
A hole is opened up in the VLIR sector immediately following the current chain. The hole is filled with $00,$FF. This represents a null chain. This hole becomes the current chain.
Function Name:
BASIC
Purpose:
Restart BASIC with optional program load.
Call address:
$C241
Input requirements:
$02-$03
Pointer to 40 characters of text.
$0C-$0D
Pointer to file's directory entry.
$10-$11
Load address.
Preparatory routines:
LOOKUP
Description:
The 40 characters pointed to by $02-$03 are saved in a buffer. If $0C-$0D is non-zero, the file is loaded into memory at the address specified by $10-$11. BASIC is restarted with an interrupt vector. This interrupt is set up to give BASIC a chance to start up. After the time has elapsed, the 40 characters in the buffer are copied to the screen and a CR is placed in the keyboard buffer. The interrupt vector is then removed, but the NMI vector is set up to reboot GEOS. The reboot code is at $C000-$C037.
Function Name:
BLKCMP
Purpose:
Compares two blocks of memory for a fixed length.
Call address:
$C26E
Input requirements:
A
Byte count.
X
Address of zero page source pointer.
Y
Address of zero page destination pointer.
Output:
Z flag
Set accordingly.
Description:
The X and Y registers point to zero page pointers. A has the number of bytes to be compared (1-255). If A is zero, this routine will compare up to and including a zero byte. The Z flag is set accordingly. See STRCMP.
Function Name:
BLKFIL
Purpose:
Fills a memory region with a specified byte.
Call address:
$C17B
Input requirements:
$02-$03
The length of the region.
$04-$05
The address of the region.
$06
The byte to fill the region with.
Description:
A simple loop fills memory with the specified byte.
Function Name:
BLKFL2
Purpose:
Identical to BLKFIL, but with inline data.
Call address:
$C1B4
Description:
This routine takes the inline data and sets everything up before calling BLKFIL. For example:
JSR BLKFL2
.WORD Length of region
.WORD Address of region
.BYTE Byte to fill memory with
;Control returns here upon completion.
Function Name:
BLKMOV
Purpose:
Copy a block of memory.
Call address:
$C268
Input requirements:
A
Byte count.
X
Address of zero page source pointer.
Y
Address of zero page destination pointer.
Description:
The X and Y registers point to zero page pointers. A has the number of bytes to be transferred (1-255). If A is zero, this routine will copy up to and including a zero byte. See STRCPY.
Function Name:
BLKSET
Purpose:
Uses a table to set various memory locations in a uniform manner.
Call address:
$C181
Input requirements:
$02-$03
Address of a data table.
Description:
This routine allows many memory locations to be specified and set in an orderly manner. The format of the data table is as follows:
#BytesDescription
2Address to store values at.
1# of values that follow.
? Values to be stored at the designated memory region.
...More definitions.
2An address of $0000 ends the table.
Function Name:
CBOX
Purpose:
Draws a click box on the screen.
Call address:
$C142
Input requirements:
$02-$03
Pointer to the graphic data.
$04
Column in characters.
$05
The row in pixels.
$06
The width in bytes.
$07
The height in pixels.
Description:
This routine draws a click box on the screen. A click box is a box like Ok, Open, etc. These boxes are generally part of a window description. The graphic data is in a coded format. This format consists of a code byte followed by 1 or more data bytes.
  1. Code bytes less than 128 mean that the following byte is to be repeated that many times.
  2. Code bytes ranging from 128 to 219 mean that if 128 is subtracted from the code byte, then the result is the number of data bytes that follow.
  3. Code bytes ranging from 220 to 225 are special. First 219 is subtracted from the code byte, the result is the number of bytes in the pattern. Following this code byte is a repetition count for the pattern. Following this are the bytes that constitute the pattern. These could include either of the previous two code types.
Function Name:
CBOX2
Purpose:
Identical to CBOX, but with inline data.
Call address:
$C1AB
Description:
This routine takes a click box descriptor from inline data and draws it. The inline data does NOT include the processing vector, ie.
JSR CBOX2
.WORD address of graphic image
.BYTE start column in bytes
.BYTE start margin in pixels
.BYTE width of box in bytes
.BYTE height of box in pixels
; Control returns here after the box is drawn.
Function Name:
CBOXES
Purpose:
Draws all of the click boxes in a table.
Call address:
$C15A
Input requirements:
$02-$03
Pointer to a click box table (Usually $880C).
Preparatory routines:
WINDOW (optional).
Description:
This routine draws all of the click boxes by calling CBOX repeatedly until the table is exhausted. The INITMS is called to set the mouse's position. Click table format:
#BytesDescription
1# click boxes in table.
2 Column to place mouse in (0 will prevent placement).
1Row to place mouse in.
This is followed by sets of 8 bytes, one for each click box:
#BytesDescription
2Address of graphic data.
1Column position of box in characters.
1Row position of box in pixels.
1Width of box in bytes.
1Height of box in pixels.
2Address of routine to process this box.
Function Name:
CHARST
Purpose:
Get statistics for a character.
Call address:
$C1B1
Input requirements:
A
The character.
Output:
A
The position of the underline.
Y
The character's width.
X
The character's height.
Description:
Given the ASCII value of a character, this routine computes and returns the height and width, taking the style into account. The # pixels above the underline for the present font is also returned.
Function Name:
CHGDRV
Purpose:
Change the device number of a drive.
Call address:
$C2BC
Input requirements:
A
New device number for drive.
$8489
Current drive number.
Output:
$BA
New device number.
$8489
New device number.
$8492-$8495
Appropriate bytes are reset and set.
Errors:
See appendix I.
Description:
The current drive is made ready, then the new device number is sent to Turbodos which will change it. This results in the drive being set as the current drive but with a new device number, and with Turbodos up and running. The status bytes at $8492-$8495 are changed, the old one is reset and the new one has bits 6 and 7 set.
Function Name:
CKMOUS
Purpose:
Check if the mouse is in a box.
Call address:
$C2B3
Input requirements:
$06
Top margin.
$07
Bottom margin.
$08-$09
Left margin.
$0A-$0B
Right margin.
Output:
A
$00 - outside box, $FF - inside box.
Description:
This routine simply compares the present mouse location stored at locations $3A-$3C against the box's boundaries. A is set to $00 if the mouse is outside, $FF if it is inside.
Function Name:
CLRRDY
Purpose:
Turn off Turbodos.
Call address:
$C232
Input requirements:
$8489
Current drive number.
Description:
Turbodos is terminated in the current drive.
Function Name:
CLRSTS
Purpose:
Clear the drive ready status.
Call address:
$C235
Input requirements:
$8489
Current drive number.
Output:
Appropriate status byte is reset.
Description:
This routine terminates Turbodos in the current drive, and resets the drive status byte at $8492-$8495.
Function Name:
CLSMNU
Purpose:
Backs up a menu level.
Call address:
$C190
Description:
This routine erases the present menu, and pops back one level.
Function Name:
CLSSER
Purpose:
Close off serial communication.
Call address:
$C25F
Errors:
See appendix I.
Description:
This routine resets the I/O ports after serial communication is complete. This routine is called after calls to READ2, WRITE2 or CWRITE.
Function Name:
CLSWIN
Purpose:
Close a window.
Call address:
$C2BF
Output:
$02
Command byte from window processor.
$851D
Command byte from window processor.
Description:
The window is erased and the memory addresses that the window processor saved are restored. Control returns to the caller of WINDOW.
Function Name:
CMDTBL
Purpose:
Sets up a table of recurring timed events.
Call address:
$C103
Input requirements:
A
The number of entries in the table.
$02-$03
A pointer to the table of counters and routine addresses.
Description:
This routine copies a table of subroutine addresses and counter values into GEOS's tables at $872D and $8755. The counters will be decremented on each call to IRQRTN. When they reach zero, they are reset and the associated routine is called by the GEOS main loop. The command bytes are initially set to disable the counters. Several calls to ENABLE are needed to start the counters running, one for each entry in the table. The table consists of pairs of words. The first is the address of the subroutine to be executed each time the counter reaches zero and the second is the counter value. This appears to be the rudiments of multitasking GEOS. The table of command bytes at $8719 are bit oriented and operate according to the following table:
Bit 7
Timer reached zero, call the subroutine.
Bit 6
Disable the execution of the routine. This does NOT affect the counter.
Bit 5
Initially set by CMDTBL, causes the counter to stop running.
Bit 4
Though not referenced anywhere in the GEOS Kernal, this bit also stops the counter. This bit is NOT touched by any of the GEOS routines, including ENABLE.
Function Name:
CMENUS
Purpose:
Closes all menu levels.
Call address:
$C1BD
Preparatory routines:
MENU
Description:
This routine is not the same ERAMNS. The menus are cleared one at a time and the previous levels are reprocessed in reverse order until all menus are closed.
Function Name:
CONVRT
Purpose:
Converts a disk to GEOS format.
Call address:
$C1EA
Errors:
See appendix
Description:
This routine modifies the directory header to include the GEOS format message. It also allocates a sector to be used for the border from DESKTOP.
Function Name:
COPYB
Purpose:
Copies a box from screen 2 to screen 1.
Call address:
$C12D
Input requirements:
$06
The top margin.
$07
The bottom margin.
$08-$09
The left margin.
$0A-$0B
The right margin.
Description:
This routine copies a box from screen 2 ($6000) to screen 1 ($A000). Location $2F is unaffected. This routine calls COPYL repeatedly to copy each line of the box.
Function Name:
COPYB2
Purpose:
Identical to COPYB, but with inline data.
Call address:
$C1A5
Description:
This routine copies a box from screen 2 ($6000) to screen 1 ($A000). The box descriptor is inline with the calling code. See PFILL2 for an example.
Function Name:
COPYB3
Purpose:
Copies a box from screen 2 to screen 1.
Call address:
$C250
Input requirements:
$06
The top margin.
$07
The bottom margin.
$08-$09
The left margin.
$0A-$0B
The right margin.
Description:
This routine copies a box from screen 1 ($A000) to screen 2 ($6000). Location $2F is unaffected. This routine calls COPYL repeatedly to copy each line of the box.
Function Name:
COPYB4
Purpose:
Identical to COPYB3, but with inline data.
Call address:
$C253
Description:
This routine copies a box from screen 1 ($A000) to screen 2 ($6000). The box descriptor is inline with the calling code. See PFILL2 for an example.
Function Name:
COPYL
Purpose:
Copies a horizontal line from screen 2 to screen 1.
Call address:
$C11E
Input requirements:
$08-$09
The left margin.
$0A-$0B
The right margin.
$18
The row number.
Description:
This routine copies a horizontal line from screen 2 ($6000) to screen 1 ($A000). Location $2F is unaffected.
Function Name:
COPYSP
Purpose:
Copies a sprite into GEOS's storage area.
Call address:
$C1C6
Input requirements:
$08
The sprite number (0-7).
$0A-$0B
Pointer to the sprite data.
Description:
This routine simply copies 63 bytes of data pointed to by $0A-$0B to the specified sprite block. GEOS uses sprite blocks 40 to 47.
Function Name:
CURSOF
Purpose:
Turn off text cursor.
Call address:
$C29E
Output:
$84B4
Bit 6 is cleared.
Preparatory routines:
CURSON
Description:
Sprite 1 (GEOS's text cursor) is turned off, bit 6 of location $84B4 is reset. The blink rate is set to 60 (once per second).
Function Name:
CURSON
Purpose:
Turn on text cursor.
Call address:
$C29B
Input requirements:
$84BE-$84BF
Column to place cursor in.
$84C0
Row to place cursor on.
Output:
$84B4
Bit 6 is set.
Description:
Turns on sprite 1 and positions it. It also sets bit 6 of location $84B4. The blink rate is set to 60, once per second. Sprite 1 is the text cursor for GEOS.
Function Name:
CWIDTH
Purpose:
Returns the width of a character.
Call address:
$C1C9
Input requirements:
A
The ASCII value of the character.
Output:
A
The width of the character.
Description:
This routine simply takes the difference of the bit stream indices to get the characters width. The delete character has its width loaded from $8807. This routine is called by CHARST.
Function Name:
CWRITE
Purpose:
Conditionally write a sector to disk.
Call address:
$C223
Input requirements:
$04
Track number.
$05
Sector number.
$0A-$0B
Pointer to data buffer.
Preparatory routines:
DSETUP
Errors:
See appendix I.
Description:
The first thing this routine does is try to read the desired sector. If the read succeeds, nothing happens. Three attempts are made at the read. After these read attempts, the sector is written to the disk, by calling WRITE2. If the write succeeded without any errors, then the routine restarts itself. It will make five attempts at this loop. If after five attempts, the sector can not be read reliably, an error 39 results. This routine is usually called after the sector has been written out with a call to WRITE2. WRITE calls this routine to verify the sector.
Function Name:
DEC16
Purpose:
Decrements a 16 bit value.
Call address:
$C175
Input requirements:
X
The address of the 16 bit integer.
Output:
X
The address of the 16 bit result.
Description:
This routine is one of the GEOS math routines. X points to a 16 bit value which is decremented by 1.
Function Name:
DECODE
Purpose:
Compute a checksum for a data region.
Call address:
$C20E
Input requirements:
$02-$03
Pointer to data region.
$04-$05
Length of region.
Output:
$06-$07
Checksum of region.
Description:
This routine is called by the boot-up routines to compute the checksum of GEOS BOOT. This checksum is used to create the interrupt vector address. The reason for this was to prevent piracy. This can be used to check the integrity of a memory region. This is actually more of a CRC computation then a checksum and the formula is a little too complex to explain here.
Function Name:
DELAY
Purpose:
Sets up a time delay.
Call address:
$C199
Input requirements:
$02-$03
Amount of time delay value in 60ths of a second.
Description:
The counter is saved on a stack, as well as the return address of the caller. Control is passed back a level higher than the caller. When the timer runs out, control will return where it left off. This allows programs to incorporate delays without halting GEOS's many independent processes. This and CMDTBL appear to be the beginnings of multitasking for GEOS.
Function Name:
DELET2
Purpose:
Delete a temporary file.
Call address:
$C244
Input requirements:
$08-$09
Pointer to table of tracks and sectors.
$0E-$0F
Pointer to file name.
Errors:
See appendix I.
Description:
This routine removes the file from the directory. It uses the table of tracks and sectors to free up the sectors used by the file. This routine is used to clean up a temporary file that was not completed.
Function Name:
DELETE
Purpose:
Delete a file from the disk.
Call address:
$C238
Input requirements:
$02-$03
Pointer to file name.
Errors:
See appendix I.
Description:
The specified file is deleted from the current drive.
Function Name:
DIRDSK
Purpose:
Creates a directory entry on the disk.
Call address:
$C1F0
Input requirements:
$14-$15
$8100, required.
$16
# of directory sectors to skip first.
$8100-$81FF
Information sector for file.
$8300-
Track and sector list for file.
Output:
$8400-$841D
Directory entry (written to the disk).
Preparatory routines:
FALLOC
Errors:
See appendix
Description:
This routine is used by SAVE and calls DIRMEM. Because of this, assumptions are made. The first is that the information sector is at $8100-$81FF and that $14-$15 point there. The first two bytes of the information sector are the address of the filename. These are reset by this routine to $00, $FF. Another assumption made by this routine is that $8300 is a list of usable tracks and sectors; specifically, $8300-$8301 are the track and sector for the information sector and $8302-$8303 are the track and sector of the first sector of the file.
Function Name:
DIRMEM
Purpose:
Create a directory entry in memory.
Call address:
$C1F3
Input requirements:
$14-$15
$8100, required.
$8100-$81FF
Information sector for file.
$8300-
Track and sector list for file.
Outputs:
$8400-$841D
Directory entry.
Preparatory routines:
FALLOC
Errors:
See appendix
Description:
See DIRDSK for a complete list of all the assumptions made by this routine.
Function Name:
DRAW
Purpose:
Draw a section of a coded graphic image.
Call address:
$C2AA
Input requirements:
$02-$03
Pointer to graphic image data.
$04
Column to start on, in bytes.
$05
Row to start drawing the image on.
$06
Image width in bytes.
$07
Image height in pixels
$18
# bytes to skip on the left side.
$19
# bytes on the right side.
$1A-$1B
# rows to skip down.
Description:
The coding of the image is the same as that of the click boxes, see CBOX for more information. This routine seems to be for drawing pieces of Photo Scraps. Photo Scraps have this coded format. The parameters for this routine allow a section of the image to be drawn by specifying how many rows to skip down,as well as how many bytes to skip on the left and the right of the desired section. This is not used by GEOpaint unless GEOpaint converts its files because they are in a different format; however, Photo Scraps are in this format.
Function Name:
DRAW2
Purpose:
Draw a section of a coded graphic image.
Call address:
$C2C5
Input requirements:
$02-$03
Pointer to graphic image data.
$04
Column to start on, in bytes.
$05
Row to start drawing the image on.
$06
Image width in bytes.
$07
Image height in pixels
$18
# bytes to skip on the left side.
$19
# bytes on the right side.
$1A-$1B
# rows to skip down.
$1C-$1D
First user vector.
$1E-$1F
Second user vector.
Description:
This routine is identical to DRAW, except that before each byte is read, the first user routine is called. The second user routine is called before reading each byte that is not part of a pattern (Command bytes greater than 219). These user routines might be for disk reading, in order to draw an image that is not memory resident.
Function Name:
DRAWCH
Purpose:
Draws a character.
Call address:
$C202
Input requirements:
A
The ASCII value of the character.
$05
Row to print on (1 above the underline).
$18-$19
Column to print in.
$33
The top margin (Usually 0).
$34
The bottom margin (Usually 199).
Description:
This routine is not exactly the same as DSPCHR. This routine does not process control characters at all. It also does not check left and right margins at all. It only checks top and bottom margins so that it stays on screen.
Function Name:
DRVNAM
Purpose:
Compute the address of the disk's name.
Call address:
$C298
Input requirements:
X
Address to place pointer in.
$8489
Current drive number.
Output:
Location in zero page pointed to by X has the address of the current drive's name.
Preparatory routines:
OPNDSK
Description:
This routine computes the address of the current drive's name by multiplying the drive number (minus 8) by 18, then the offset of $841E is added to that. The result of the computation is stored at the zero page address in X.
Function Name:
DRVSET
Purpose:
Set current drive.
Call address:
$C2B0
Input requirements:
A
Device number of drive (8-11).
Output:
$BA
Set to new device number.
$8489
Set to new drive number.
Description:
If the drive being specified is not the current drive then CLRRDY is called to clear the current drive. Then locations $BA and $8489 are set to the new drive number. No other locations are affected, nor is anything actually done with the drive.
Function Name:
DRWMNU
Purpose:
Redraws the present menu.
Call address:
$C193
Description:
This routine redraws the current menu.
Function Name:
DSETUP
Purpose:
Sets up a drive with Turbodos.
Call address:
$C214
Input requirements:
$8489
Current drive number.
Errors:
See Appendix I.
Description:
This routine initializes the current drive, sending Turbodos if necessary. It then causes the drive to run Turbodos. This routine is called by several of the disk I/O routines, most notably are READ and WRITE. Upon initializing the drive, the drive's status byte is set to the appropriate value. The status bytes are stored at $8492-$8495 and have the following bit definitions:
Bit 7
Turbodos is loaded.
Bit 6
Turbodos is running.
Function Name:
DSPCHR
Purpose:
Displays a character on the screen.
Call address:
$C145
Input requirements:
A
The character to be printed.
$02-$03
Pointer to extra data (Used by a few control characters, not needed otherwise).
$05
The row for printing (1 above the underline).
$18-$19
The column to start printing.
$33
The top margin (Usually 0).
$34
The bottom margin (Usually 199).
$35-$36
The left margin.
$37-$38
The right margin.
Preparatory routines:
SELBSW or FONT
Errors:
Branches through $84AB-$84AC if right margin is exceeded.
Description:
This routine displays a character in a given location in the current font and style. The style byte in location $2E is coded as follows:
Bit 7
Underline
Bit 6
Boldface
Bit 5
Reversed video
Bit 4
Italics
Bit 3
Outline
Either SELBSW or FONT must be called prior to using this routine, in order to set up the font pointers. SELBSW is called during GEOS's boot-up procedure, as well as by the menu processor. Several control characters have special properties. Those which require a data pointer are marked with an asterisk in the following table:
Ctrl-H
Delete previous character.
Ctrl-I
Tab.
Ctrl-J
Move straight down a line.
Ctrl-K
Set text cursor to 0,0.
Ctrl-L
Move straight up a line.
Ctrl-M
Move to the beginning of the next line.
Ctrl-N
Turn on underlining.
Ctrl-O
Turn off underlining.
Ctrl-P *
Followed by a table suitable for GRPHIC.
Ctrl-R
Turn on reverse video.
Ctrl-S
Turn off reverse video.
Ctrl-T *
Followed by 2 bytes which specify the new column.
Ctrl-U *
Followed by a byte which specifies the new row.
Ctrl-V *
Followed by 3 bytes which specify the new print position.
Ctrl-W *
Skips the next 3 bytes.
Ctrl-X
Turn on Boldface.
Ctrl-Y
Turn on Italics.
Ctrl-Z
Turn on Outline.
Ctrl-
Turn off all effects, return to plain text.
Those entries marked with an asterisk (*) should only be used from DSPTXT because they require $02-$03 to be a pointer to get extra data. As with GRPHIC, Ctrl-P must be the last command because the zero byte that terminates GRPHIC will terminate DSPTXT.
Function Name:
DSPNUM
Purpose:
Display an unsigned 16 bit integer.
Call address:
$C184
Input requirements:
A
Control value (See description).
$02-$03
The value to be displayed.
Description:
This routine converts the value at $02-$03 to decimal ASCII and displays it using DSPCHR. The control value in A is defined as follows:
Bit 7
0
right justify the number.
1
left justify the number, ie. no justify.
Bit 6
0
print leading zeroes.
1
skip leading zeroes.
Bits 0-5
The field width in pixels for right justification.
Function Name:
DSPTX2
Purpose:
Identical to DSPTXT, but with inline code.
Call address:
$C1AE
Input requirements:
$35-$36
The left margin.
$37-$38
The right margin.
Preparatory routines:
SELBSW or FONT
Errors:
Branches through $84AB-$84AC if right margin is exceeded.
Description:
This routine creates a pointer to the text, calls DSPTXT, then returns to the code immediately following the text.
JSR DSPTX2
.WORD The column to start printing in
.BYTE Row for line of print (1 above the underline)
.BYTE Text to be displayed
.BYTE 0
; Control returns here after text is printed.
Function Name:
DSPTXT
Purpose:
Displays an entire string of text.
Call address:
$C148
Input requirements:
$02-$03
Pointer to text string.
$05
The row for printing (1 above the underline).
$18-$19
The column in which to start printing.
$33
The top margin (Usually 0).
$34
The bottom margin (Usually 199).
$35-$36
The left margin.
$37-$38
The right margin.
Preparatory routines:
SELBSW or FONT
Errors:
Branches through $84AB-$84AC if right margin is exceeded.
Description:
This routine calls DSPCHR to display each character in a string. The string is terminated by a zero byte.
Function Name:
ENABLE
Purpose:
Enables a recurring timed event.
Call address:
$C106
Input requirements:
X
The index into the command table at $8719.
Preparatory routines:
CMDTBL
Description:
This routine enables a specific timer in the table at $8719 by resetting bits 5 and 6 in the command table. It also copies the initial value into the timer table at $87F1. The command table must have been previously set up by a call to CMDTBL.
Function Name:
ERAMNS
Purpose:
Erases all open menus.
Call address:
$C157
Preparatory routines:
MENU
Description:
This routine erases all of the menus. It calls ERAMNU repeatedly to accomplish this. It then sets the menu level counter ($84B7) to $00.
Function Name:
ERAMNU
Purpose:
Erases the current menu from the screen.
Call address:
$C154
Preparatory routines:
MENU
Description:
This routine will erase the current menu. It does NOT pop up a level. It simply erases it from the screen. If the vector at $84B1 was set, then that is the routine called to erase the menu; otherwise, a blank pattern is selected with SETPAT and PFILL is called. The default setting for $84B1 is COPYB.
Function Name:
EXERTN
Purpose:
Forces a timed event to execute,regardless of its timer.
Call address:
$C109
Input requirements:
X
The index into the command byte table at $8719.
Preparatory routines:
CMDTBL
Description:
This routine sets bit 7 of a specific command byte in the table at $8719. This simulates the timer having run out.
Function Name:
FALLOC
Purpose:
Allocate enough sectors for a file.
Call address:
$C1FC
Input requirements:
$06-$07
Number of bytes to be saved.
$0A-$0B
Address of buffer for track and sector list.
Output:
Buffer is filled with a set of tracks and sectors.
Errors:
See Appendix
Description:
Given a byte count and a pointer to a buffer, this routine attempts to allocate enough sectors. This routine is called prior to saving a file. The track and sector list is not limited in length, available disk space not withstanding. The list is terminated with a track number of zero and the appropriate byte count in the sector location. Note if an error occurs during the allocation, the sectors already allocated are not freed up. Either this must be done or the disk must be validated.
Function Name:
FALOC2
Purpose:
Allocate enough sectors for a file.
Call address:
$C24D
Input requirements:
$06-$07
Number of bytes to be saved.
$08
Track to start looking from.
$09
Sector to start looking from.
$0A-$0B
Address of buffer for track and sector list.
Output:
Buffer is filled with a set of tracks and sectors.
Errors:
See Appendix
Description:
This routine is almost identical to FALLOC. As a matter of fact, FALLOC falls into this routine after setting $08-$09 to point to track 1 sector 0. This routine allows the user to specify where on the disk to start looking for free sectors, possibly speeding things up.
Function Name:
FONT
Purpose:
Change the current font.
Call address:
$C1CC
Input requirements:
$02-$03
Pointer to font header in memory.
Output:
$26
# pixels above line of print.
$27-$28
The number of bytes in the bit stream.
$29
The point size.
$2A-$2B
Pointer to the table of the bit stream indices.
$2C-$2D
Pointer to the bit stream.
Description:
This routine simply copies the header block from the font to zero page. This makes the font the current font for all character output. (See DSPCHR, DSPTXT and DSPTX2).
Function Name:
FORBID
Purpose:
Disables the execution of a timed event.
Call address:
$C10C
Input requirements:
X
The index into the command table at $8719.
Preparatory routines:
CMDTBL
Description:
This routine sets bit 6 of a specific command byte in the table at $8719. This prevents the associated routine from executing, regardless of its timer. This does NOT stop the timer from running. If the timer runs out while the routine is disabled, when the timer is reenabled, the associated routine will be executed. This routine is the complement to PERMIT.
Function Name:
FREE
Purpose:
Deallocates all of a file's sectors.
Call address:
$C226
Input requirements:
$14-$15
Pointer to directory entry.
Preparatory routines:
LOOKUP (Pointer must be copied).
Errors:
See Appendix I.
Description:
Given the directory entry of a file, all of its sectors are returned to the free pool. The directory pointer should be pointing to the directory entry at $8400 and not the pointer returned by LOOKUP. This is due to memory conflicts that will arise. This routine uses $8000-$82FF for its buffer areas.
Function Name:
GEOSCK
Purpose:
Checks if a disk is GEOS format or not.
Call address:
$C1DE
Input requirements:
$0C-$0D
Pointer to buffer with track 18 sector 0.
Output:
Z
Set if non-GEOS, reset if GEOS format.
A,$848B
$00 if non-GEOS, $FF if GEOS format.
Description:
This routine expects that track 18 sector 0 has already been read. It compares 11 bytes, starting with the 173rd, against 'GEOS format'. It sets $848B so that the current drive is kept track of.
Function Name:
GETBYT
Purpose:
Read a byte from a file.
Call address:
$C2B6
Input requirements:
$0C
Index of last byte in buffer.
$0D
Index to next character in buffer.
$0A-$0B
Pointer to disk buffer.
Output:
A
Character that was read.
Errors:
See Appendix I.
Description:
The initial sector must have been read because the first two bytes in the buffer are used to find the next track and sector. Bytes are read from the buffer until there are no more, then the next sector is read from the disk. This can continue until the last character of the last sector is read. After this an error 11 (End of file) will be returned.
Function Name:
GETIN
Purpose:
Get a key from the keyboard.
Call address:
$C2A7
Output:
A
Character or $00 if there are none.
Description:
This routine takes a key from the keyboard buffer, if there is one. If there are no characters in the buffer, then a zero is returned.
Function Name:
GOTO
Purpose:
Get a specific VLIR chain.
Call address:
$C280
Input requirements:
A
VLIR chain number.
Output:
Y
Track of VLIR chain.
$04
Track of VLIR chain.
$05
Sector of VLIR chain.
$8496
Set to A.
Preparatory routines:
VOPEN
Errors:
See Appendix I.
Description:
This routine gets the track and sector of a specific chain in the open VLIR file. It does not check to see if the chain exists (ie. track is zero). It does check if this chain is greater than zero and less than the number of VLIR chains (Location $8497). VLIR chains are numbered from 0 to N-1, where N is the number of chains.
Function Name:
GRPHC2
Purpose:
Identical to GRPHIC, but with inline data.
Call address:
$C1A8
Description:
This routine takes an inline data table, creates a pointer to it, then calls GRPHIC to process it. See PFILL2 for an example of inline data tables.
Function Name:
GRPHIC
Purpose:
Process several graphics commands designated by a table.
Call address:
$C136
Input requirements:
$02-$03
Pointer to the table of commands.
Description:
This routine executes the graphic commands present in a table. This routine is used by DSPCHR (Control-P), DSPTXT (By calling DSPCHR), and WINDOW (Command 15). The following table describes the available commands:
Graphic Command Table
Command#BytesDescription
01Stop, end of table.
14Set column and row variables.
24Draw a line.
34Pattern fill a region.
41No operation.
52Set fill pattern.
64+ Set position and display text. MUST BE last command because the zero byte that ends the text also ends this command table.
74Draw a solid lined box.
83Add an offset to column variable.
92Add an offset to row variable.
104 Add offsets to both column and row variables.
Command 1 is used to set the column and row variables used by all of the other commands which require two points. The format of the commands is that all of the necessary data follows the command byte. For example, the commands to erase the entire screen would look like this:
.BYTE $05,$00
.BYTE $01
.WORD 0
.BYTE 0
.BYTE $03
.WORD 320
.BYTE 199
.BYTE $00
In the case of command 6, after the column and row bytes in the command comes the text that is to be displayed. For example:
.BYTE $06
.WORD 50
.BYTE 50
.BYTE 'Hello world!'
.BYTE $00
Function Name:
HLINE
Purpose:
Draws a horizontal line on the screen.
Call address:
$C118
Input requirements:
A
The actual bit pattern for the line.
$08-$09
The left margin.
$0A-$0B
The right margin.
$18
The row number.
Description:
This routine draws a horizontal line on the hires screen in a given pattern. See also ROWADR.
Function Name:
HOLE
Purpose:
Find a hole in the directory, or make one.
Call address:
$C1F6
Output:
Y
Index of hole in buffer.
$04
Directory track number (Should be 18).
$05
Directory sector number.
$16
# directory sectors to skip first.
$8000-$80FF
Buffer for directory sector.
Description:
This routine scans the disk's directory looking for a deleted file, by first skipping a certain number of sectors. This allows the user to find a hole in a given directory page. If one is not found in any of the available directory sectors, then a new sector is added to the directory.
Function Name:
INDJMP
Purpose:
Conditional jump.
Call address:
$C1D8
Input requirements:
A
The high byte of the jump vector.
X
The low byte of the jump vector.
Description:
If A and X are zero, the jump is not performed. If A and X are nonzero, the jump is performed.
Function Name:
INIT01
Purpose:
Part of GEOS's boot-up process.
Call address:
$C271
Description:
Initializes the VIC chip and the I/O chips. Some global memory is also initialized. It also resets the preferences and all the drives. The default drive is reset by a call to DSETUP.
Function Name:
INITDV
Purpose:
Initializes a drive.
Call address:
$C1E1
Input requirements:
$04
Track to position the disk drive head at.
$05
Sector to position the disk drive head at.
Errors:
See Appendix
Description:
Makes sure that current drive has Turbodos running. It also positions the head over a particular sector.
Function Name:
INITMS
Purpose:
Initializes the mouse.
Call address:
$C14E
Input requirements:
C
flag Clear if the mouse position should not be set.
C
flag Set if the mouse position should be set.
Y
The row position for the mouse (optional).
$18-$19
The column position for the mouse (optional).
Description:
This routine turns on the mouse and positions it if desired. If the column is set to 0, the mouse is not positioned even is the C flag is set. It also sets up the button pressed vector $84A1-$84A2 and the close menu vector $84A7-$84A8. It also clears the flag at $84B6. This routine does not actually turn on the mouse. It calls MOUSON to reset bit 7 of location $30; this will cause GEOS's interrupt routines to turn on the mouse.
Function Name:
INPUT
Purpose:
Input a line of text from the user.
Call address:
$C1BA
Input requirements:
$02-$03
Address of text and buffer.
$04
Flag byte ($87D3).
$05
Row to print text on (1 above the underline).
$06
Maximum length of input.
$0A-$0B
Vector for user routine for right margin exceeded (optional).
$18-$19
Column to start printing text at.
$84A3-$84A4
Address for CR entered.
Output:
$24-$25
Pointer to text buffer (copied from $02-$03). Buffer will be modified according to the user's input.
$84A3-$84A4
Cleared to $0000.
Description:
This routine is rather powerful. It displays a line of text, if there was any text to display. Then the text cursor is turned on. Several of the jump vectors are used. $84AB-$84AC is the vector for the right margin being exceeded. $84A9-$84AA is the vector for a character being typed. $84A3-$84A4 is the vector for CR entered. After everything is set up, control returns to the caller; however, the input is handled by the interrupt drivers. When a CR is entered, control goes through the vector at $84A3-$84A4. The flag byte at location $04 is copied to $87D3 and has the following property: If bit 7 is set, then use the user's routine whose address is stored at locations $0A-$0B for the right margin is exceeded routine.
Function Name:
INSERT
Purpose:
Insert a new chain in a VLIR file.
Call address:
$C286
Input requirements:
$8496
Current chain number.
Output:
$8497
Incremented by 1.
Preparatory routines:
VOPEN
Errors:
See Appendix I.
Description:
A hole is opened up in the VLIR sector starting with the current chain. The hole is filled with $00,$FF. This represents a null chain.
Function Name:
INTBM
Purpose:
Intelligent block move.
Call address:
$C17E
Input requirements:
$02-$03
The source address.
$04-$05
The destination address.
$06-$07
The length of the region to be moved.
Description:
This routine will perform an intelligent, ie. non-conflicting, block move of memory. If an attempt is made to move a block of memory to a destination that is within the block, the transfer is done from back to front so as to prevent the conflict, or 'ripple effect'.
Function Name:
INTBM2
Purpose:
Identical to INTBM, but with inline data.
Call address:
$C1B7
Description:
This routine uses the inline data to set everything up before calling INTBM. For example:
 JSR INTBM2
.WORD Source address
.WORD Destination address
.WORD Length of transfer
;Control returns here upon completion.
Function Name:
INUSE
Purpose:
Check if a disk sector is in use.
Call address:
$C2AD
Input requirements:
$0E
Track to be checked.
$0F
Sector to be checked.
$8200-$82FF
Track 18 sector 0, BAM buffer.
Output:
X
Index into BAM of the appropriate byte.
Z flag
Set if the sector is in use.
$11
Index to track's data in BAM.
$13
Bit mask for the desired sector.
Preparatory routines:
RD180
Description:
This routine is used by ALLOC to test if a sector is already in use.
Function Name:
INVBOX
Purpose:
Inverts the pixels in a box.
Call address:
$C12A
Input requirements:
$06
The top margin.
$07
The bottom margin.
$08-$09
The left margin.
$0A-$0B
The right margin.
Description:
This routine reverses the pixels in a given box by repeatedly calling INVLIN. See also ROWADR.
Function Name:
INVLIN
Purpose:
Inverts a horizontal line on the screen.
Call address:
$C11B
Input requirements:
$08-$09
The left margin.
$0A-$0B
The right margin.
$18
The row number.
Description:
This routine reverses the pixels on a horizontal line on the hires screen. If the pixel was on it will now be off; if it was off it will now be turned on. See also ROWADR.
Function Name:
IRQRTN
Purpose:
Handles several items that occur at regular timed intervals.
Call address:
$C100
Description:
GEOS sets up the raster interrupt on the VIC chip to cause an interrupt every sixtieth of a second. This routine is called by GEOS after each interrupt. First it reads the input device and updates the mouse's position, turning it on if necessary. It then scans the command table at $8719 to see if any of the command bytes have both bits 4 and 5 reset. If so, it then decrements the associated counter at $86F1. If the counter reaches zero, its value is reset and bit 7 of the associated command byte is set. This will cause the appropriate subroutine to be executed the next time the table is polled. The next part of this routine is to decrement all nonzero counters in the stack at $877F. The routine to blink the text cursor is called next. Finally, the random number generator at $850A is updated.
Function Name:
LCHAIN
Purpose:
Load memory from disk.
Call address:
$C1FF
Input requirements:
$04
Initial track number.
$05
Initial sector number.
$06-$07
Byte count of load.
$10-$11
Load address.
Output:
$0C
Index to last sector loaded.
$8300-
List of tracks and sectors track were loaded.
Preparatory routines:
LOADAD
Errors:
See Appendix I.
Description:
This routine assumes that the file has been located in the directory and that the initial track and sector are known.
Function Name:
LDSWAP
Purpose:
Reload the SWAPFILE.
Call address:
$C23E
Preparatory routines:
LOADSW
Errors:
See Appendix I.
Description:
This routine reloads the SWAPFILE, then deletes it. The last window description is reprocessed to restore the screen and control is returned to the original program that called LOADSW.
Function Name:
LINE
Purpose:
Draws, erases or copies a line on the hires screen.
Call address:
$C130
Input requirements:
N FlagC FlagOperation
1XCopy
01Draw
00Erase
$08-$09
The column for the first endpoint.
$0A-$0B
The column for the second endpoint.
$18
The row for the first endpoint.
$19
The row for the second endpoint.
Description:
This is a very versatile routine. It can copy an arbitrary line from one screen to another, as well as draw or erase lines. This routine places no restrictions on the relative positions of the endpoints. This routine calls PLOT to plot the points. See also ROWADR.
Function Name:
LOAD
Purpose:
Load and run a file.
Call address:
$C208
Input requirements:
$02
Flag byte (See description).
$06-$07
Optional data pointer.
$08-$09
Optional data pointer.
$0E-$0F
Pointer to filename.
$10-$11
Load address (optional).
Output:
$8100-$81FF
Info sector for file.
$8300-$83FF
Table of tracks and sectors that were loaded.
Errors:
See Appendix
Description:
This routine loads and runs a given file. The file must be one of the following GEOS types:
4
System file
5
Desk Accessory
6
Application
7
Application Data
9
Printer driver
10
Input driver
The execution address is taken from the information sector. If it is zero, the file is not executed, only loaded. VLIR files have only their first chain loaded. Desk Accessories swap out the memory that they use to the SWAPFILE. Upon completion, the SWAPFILE is reloaded. The flag byte at location $02 has two purposes. This first is if bit 0 is set and the file was an application, then it is not executed. Also if bit 0 is set, then locations $10-$11 have the load address; otherwise, the load address is taken from the information sector. This bit does not apply to Desk Accessories. If either bit 6 or 7 are set, then $06-$07 points to 16 bytes which are copied to $8453 (Disk name for drive 10), and $07-$08 point to 16 bytes which are copied to $8442 (Disk name for drive 11).
Function Name:
LOAD2
Purpose:
Load a file.
Call address:
$C211
Input requirements:
$14-$15
Pointer to directory entry.
$886B
Flag byte.
$886C-$886D
Load address.
Output:
$8100-$81FF
Info sector for file.
$8300-$83FF
Table of tracks and sectors that were loaded.
Preparatory routines:
LOOKUP (Pointer must be copied)
Errors:
See Appendix
Description:
This routine is called by LOAD to perform the load. This routine does not try to execute the file loaded, nor is it limited to the file types that LOAD is. However, this routine can not be used to load Non-GEOS files because the info sector must be present. If bit 0 of location $886B is set, then the load address is taken from locations $886C-$886D instead of the info sector. The directory entry pointer should point to $8400 and not the pointer returned by LOOKUP. This is due to memory conflicts that will arise.
Function Name:
LOAD3
Purpose:
Load and possibly run a file.
Call address:
$C21D
Input requirements:
$02
Flag byte (See description).
$06-$07
Optional data pointer.
$08-$09
Optional data pointer.
$0E-$0F
Pointer to filename.
$10-$11
Load address (optional).
Output:
$8100-$81FF
Info sector for file.
$8300-$83FF
Table of tracks and sectors that were loaded.
Errors:
See Appendix
Description:
This routine is called by LOAD to load Application files. Like LOAD2, this routine is not limited to any particular file type, except that it also can not load a Non-GEOS file. See LOAD for a description of the flag byte, data pointers and load address.
Function Name:
LOADAD
Purpose:
Get the load address of a file.
Call address:
$C229
Input requirements:
$14-$15
Pointer to directory entry.
Output:
$04
Track of file's first sector.
$05
Sector of file's first sector.
$10-$11
Load address for file.
$8100-$81FF
Info sector for file.
$8300-$8301
Track and sector of info sector.
Errors:
See Appendix I.
Description:
This routine loads the info sector for a file into the buffer at $8100. The load address is set from $8147-$8148. This routine is called by all the load routines.
Function Name:
LOADSW
Purpose:
Load and run a file using the SWAPFILE.
Call address:
$C217
Input requirements:
$14-$15
Pointer to directory entry.
Output:
$8100-$81FF
Info sector for file (Modified).
$8300-$83FF
List of tracks and sectors that were loaded.
Preparatory routines:
LOOKUP (Pointer must be copied).
Errors:
See Appendix I.
Description:
This routine is used to load Desk Accessories. The info sector is loaded to determine the necessary memory region. This region is saved to a file called 'SWAPFILE', whose info sector is the same as the file to be loaded. The difference is that the text field is cleared, and the file type is System file (Type 4). LDSWAP must be eventually called to reload the SWAPFILE and return to normal operation. The directory entry pointer should point to $8400, and the pointer returned by LOOKUP. This is due to memory conflicts that will arise.
Function Name:
LOOKUP
Purpose:
Lookup a filename in the directory.
Call address:
$C20B
Input requirements:
$0E-$0F
Pointer to filename.
$886E
Flag byte.
Output:
$04
Track for directory sector.
$05
Sector for directory sector.
$0C-$0D
Pointer to file name entry.
$8000-$80FF
Directory sector.
$8400-$841D
Copy of directory entry.
Errors:
See Appendix
Description:
This is a very useful routine. Given a text string of a filename, this routine will find it in the directory. If the flag byte at $886E is $00, then both drives 8 and 9 will be scanned if necessary. If the flag is $FF, then the lookup is only to the current drive. If there is only one drive, then this flag has no effect. The directory sector is loaded into a buffer at $8000, and the track and sector are in locations $04 and $05. The particular directory entry is copied to $8400 and the pointer to the entry in the buffer is stored at $0C-$0D.
Function Name:
MAIN
Purpose:
Enters GEOS's main loop.
Call address:
$C1C3
Input requirements:
$849B-$849c
Address of user's addition to GEOS's main loop (optional).
Description:
This loop does whatever polling is needed. First the button is checked, as well as the keyboard and the mouse's position. The command table at $8719 (See CMDTBL) is scanned for executable routines. Then the counters at $877F (See DELAY) are checked; those that have reached zero have their associated routines executed. The memory image of the clock is updated. Then the alarm clock is checked. Finally, the user's addition to the main loop, if there is one, is executed. This loop continues forever.
Function Name:
MAKCUR
Purpose:
Makes a vertical bar cursor sprite.
Call address:
$C1C0
Input requirements:
A
The height of the cursor minus 1 (0-41)
Output:
Sprite block #41 ($8A40-$8A7E) is made into a vertical bar of a given height.
Description:
Given the desired height, a vertical bar is created in the sprite block. If the height is greater than 21, then the height is halved and the sprite is Y-expanded. No check is performed on the height. If a height greater than 41 is used then the memory for next few sprites will be affected.
Function Name:
MASL
Purpose:
16 bit multiple arithmetic shift lefts.
Call address:
$C15D
Input requirements:
Y
The shift count.
X
The address of the 16 bit value to be shifted.
Output:
X
Result of shifts.
Description:
This routine is one of the GEOS math routines. X has the address of a 16 bit integer in zero page, which is to be shifted left by the count in Y.
Function Name:
MENU
Purpose:
Draws and sets everything up for pull down menus and submenus.
Call address:
$C151
Input requirements:
A
Menu option to position mouse on (0 to #options-1)
$02-$03
Pointer to the menu descriptor.
Description:
This is an extremely powerful routine. It does everything for menu processing. Once control returns to the program that created the menu, the program can return to the GEOS main line, or do anything else. It is important to note that menus only appear on screen 1. Location $2F is saved and restored during the drawing phase. The left and right margins are also left unaltered. The following is a description of a menu descriptor:
#BytesDescription
1Top margin of entire menu.
1Bottom margin of entire menu.
2Left margin of entire menu.
2Right margin of entire menu.
1Code byte:
Bit 7
vertical menu.
Bit 6
set secondary box descriptor to full screen; this allows the mouse to be moved outside of a menu without causing it to be closed.
Bits 0-4
# entries in menu.
This is followed by sets of 5 bytes; as many as there are entries.
#BytesDescription
2Address of the text for this option.
1Code byte which describes what to do with the address that follows:
Bit 7
operand is the address of a submenu descriptor.
Bit 6
call subroutine, it must return a result in $02-$03 which is either 0 or the address of the next submenu.
If neither bit is set, then when this option is selected it will flash before the routine is executed. Control does not return to the menu processor.
2Address of either a submenu descriptor or a routine to be executed.
Function Name:
MLSR
Purpose:
16 bit multiple logical shift rights.
Call address:
$C262
Input requirements:
Y
The shift count.
X
The address of the 16 bit value to be shifted.
Output:
X
Result of shifts.
Description:
This routine is one of the GEOS math routines. X has the address of a 16 bit integer in zero page, which is to be shifted right by the count in Y.
Function Name:
MOUSOF
Purpose:
Turns off the mouse.
Call address:
$C18D
Description:
This routine resets bit 7 of location $30, and actually turns off the mouse sprite.
Function Name:
MOUSON
Purpose:
Turns on the mouse.
Call address:
$C18A
Description:
This routine sets bit 7 of location $30. The interrupt routines will turn on the mouse when it tries to update its position.
Function Name:
NEG16
Purpose:
Negates a 16 bit value.
Call address:
$C172
Input requirements:
X
The address of the 16 bit integer
Output:
X
The address of the 16 bit result.
Description:
This routine is one of the GEOS math routines. X points to a 16 bit value which is negated. The value of X is not affected.
Function Name:
NEXT
Purpose:
Move to next VLIR chain.
Call address:
$C27A
Output:
Y
Track of VLIR chain.
$04
Track of VLIR chain.
$05
Sector of VLIR chain.
$8496
Incremented by 1.
Preparatory routines:
VOPEN
Errors:
See Appendix I.
Description:
This routine gets the track and sector of the next chain in the open VLIR file. It does not check to see if the chain exists (ie. track is zero). It does check if this chain is in range (against $8497).
Function Name:
NUMBLK
Purpose:
Counts the number of free blocks in the BAM that is in RAM.
Call address:
$C1DB
Input requirements:
$0C-$0D
Pointer to buffer with track 18 sector 0.
Output:
$0A-$0B
The number of free blocks.
Preparatory routines:
RD180
Description:
This routine expects that the BAM has already been read into memory. All that it does is add up the number of free blocks in each track.
Function Name:
OPNDSK
Purpose:
Opens a disk to GEOS.
Call address:
$C2A1
Input requirements:
$8489
Current drive number.
Output:
$848B
$00/$FF Geos format or not.
$841E-$8465
Appropriate buffer will have disk's name.
Errors:
See Appendix I.
Description:
The current drive is initialized by calling INITDV. GEOS format is checked for, and the disk's name is copied into the appropriate buffer at $841E-$8465.
Function Name:
OPNSER
Purpose:
Open serial communication.
Call address:
$C25C
Errors:
See Appendix I.
Description:
This routine sets up the I/O ports for high speed serial communication with the disk drives. This routine is called prior to calling READ2, WRITE2 or CWRITE.
Function Name:
PBOX
Purpose:
Draws the outline of a rectangular box in a given pattern.
Call address:
$C127
Input requirements:
A
The actual bit pattern for the box.
$06
The top margin.
$07
The bottom margin.
$08-$09
The left margin.
$0A-$0B
The right margin.
Description:
This routine draws the outline of a rectangular box in a given pattern. This routine calls HLINE and VLINE to draw the outline. See also ROWADR.
Function Name:
PBOX2
Purpose:
Identical to PBOX, but with inline data.
Call address:
$C1A2
Description:
This routine draws a solid outline of a box, which is described by inline code. See PFILL2 for an example.
Function Name:
PERMIT
Purpose:
Enables the execution of a timed event.
Call address:
$C10F
Input requirements:
X
The index into the command table at $8719.
Preparatory routines:
CMDTBL
Description:
This routine resets bit 6 of a specific command byte in the table at $8719. This allows the associated routine to be executed when its timer runs out. If the timer had run out while the routine was disabled, GEOS will execute the routine when it gets to it. This is the complement to FORBID.
Function Name:
PFILL
Purpose:
Fills a rectangular box with a selected design.
Call address:
$C124
Input requirements:
$06
The top margin.
$07
The bottom margin.
$08-$09
The left margin.
$0A-$0B
The right margin.
Preparatory routines:
SETPAT
Description:
This routine fills a rectangular box in a given design. This routine calls HLINE repeatedly. See also ROWADR.
Function Name:
PFILL2
Purpose:
Identical to PFILL, but with inline data.
Call address:
$C19F
Preparatory routines:
SETPAT
Description:
This routine is identical to PFILL except that data that describes the box is part of the inline code. For example:
JSR PFILL2
.BYTE Top margin
.BYTE Bottom margin
.WORD Left margin
.WORD Right margin
; Control returns here after box is filled.
Function Name:
PLOT
Purpose:
Draws, erases or copies a pixel on the hires screen.
Call address:
$C133
Input requirements:
N FlagC FlagOperation
1 X Copy
0 1 Draw
0 0 Erase
$08-$09
The column number.
$18
The row number.
Description:
This is a very versatile routine. It can copy a point from one screen to another, as well as draw or erase it. This routine is called by LINE to draw lines. See also ROWADR.
Function Name:
POSSPR
Purpose:
Sets the position of a sprite.
Call address:
$C1CF
Input requirements:
$08
Sprite number (0-7).
$0A-$0B
Sprite X position.
$0C
Sprite Y position.
Preparatory routines:
COPYSP
Description:
This routine copies the sprite's position to the VIC chip, relieving the user of the burden of handling the crossover in the screen from column 255 to column 256.
Function Name:
PREV
Purpose:
Move to previous VLIR chain.
Call address:
$C27D
Output:
Y
Track of VLIR chain.
$04
Track of VLIR chain.
$05
Sector of VLIR chain.
$8496
Decremented by 1.
Preparatory routines:
VOPEN
Errors:
See Appendix I.
Description:
This routine gets the track and sector of the previous chain in the open VLIR file. It does not check to see if the chain exists (ie. track is zero). It does check if this chain is greater than zero.
Function Name:
RANDOM
Purpose:
Modifies the random number generator at $850A-$850B.
Call address:
$C187
Output:
$850A-$850B
New seed value.
Description:
This routine changes the 16 bit random number at $850A-$850B, using a simple yet elaborate formula.
Function Name:
RD180
Purpose:
Read track 18, sector 0 from the disk.
Call address:
$C247
Output:
$04
$12, track number.
$05
$00, sector number.
$0A-$0B
$8200, address of buffer area.
$8200-$82FF
Data from track 18 sector 0.
Errors:
See Appendix I.
Description:
This routine sets up the pointers for READ, then calls it to read the sector. This is generally used to get the BAM into memory.
Function Name:
READ
Purpose:
Read a given track and sector.
Call address:
$C1E4
Input requirements:
$04
Track of sector to be read.
$05
Sector number to be read.
$0A-$0B
Pointer to buffer.
Errors:
See Appendix
Description:
Loads and runs Turbodos if it is not already there. Then reads the desired block from the disk into the buffer.
Function Name:
READ2
Purpose:
Read a sector from the disk.
Call address:
$C21A
Input requirements:
$04
Track to be read.
$05
Sector to be read.
$0A-$0B
Pointer to buffer for data.
Output:
Data is read into the desired buffer.
Preparatory routines:
DSETUP
Errors:
See Appendix I.
Description:
This routine is called by READ to read a sector. The difference between this routine and READ is that READ calls DSETUP before trying to read the sector. This routine assumes that the drive is ready with Turbodos running.
Function Name:
REBOOT
Purpose:
Reboot GEOS.
Call address:
$C000
Errors:
If load fails, system resets to BASIC.
Description:
This routine is not part of the normal GEOS KERNAL jump table. This is the routine that is set up as the NMI interrupt (RESTORE key) by GEOS when GEOS returns to BASIC. It loads 'GEOS BOOT', and executes it.
Function Name:
REMOVE
Purpose:
Remove a VLIR chain.
Call address:
$C283
Input requirements:
$8496
VLIR chain number.
Output:
$8496
Decremented if greater than or equal to $8497.
$8497
Decremented by 1.
Preparatory routines:
VOPEN
Errors:
See Appendix I.
Description:
The current VLIR chain is removed from the VLIR sector, and all the following chains are moved down one. The sectors associated with that chain are freed up.
Function Name:
RENAME
Purpose:
Rename a file.
Call address:
$C259
Input requirements:
$02-$03
Pointer to new file name.
$0E-$0F
Pointer to old file name.
Output:
$04
Track of directory sector.
$05
Sector of directory sector.
$0C-$0D
Pointer to file name in directory entry.
$8400-$841D
Copy of old directory entry.
Errors:
See Appendix I.
Description:
This routine renames a file by calling LOOKUP, then copying the new name into the entry. Finally, the sector is rewritten to the disk.
Function Name:
RESETM
Purpose:
Reset the mouse.
Call address:
$C19C
Description:
The flag at location $30 is set to $00, and the mouse sprite is turned off. However, since bit 7 of location $30 is not set, the next interrupt will turn it back on.
Function Name:
RESTRT
Purpose:
Restart DESKTOP.
Call address:
$C22C
Description:
This routine loads DESKTOP and runs it. It is called as the last part of the boot-up procedure. This is where a program should terminate.
Function Name:
ROWADR
Purpose:
Computes the address of a given row on the hires screens.
Call address:
$C13C
Input requirements:
X
The row number.
$2F
See description.
Output:
$0C-$0D
Pointer to the row on the destination screen.
$0E-$0F
Pointer to the row on the source screen.
Description:
This routine computes the address of column 0 on a given row of the hires screens. All of the graphics routines rely on this routine to get the address of the hires screens. They all take the data pointed to by $0E-$0F and store their data to both $0C-$0D and $0E-$0F. Location $2F determines which screen is pointed to by which pointer. This is as follows:
Bit 7Bit 6$0C-$0D$0E-$0F Description
00$AF00$AF00 Approximately the middle of screen 1
01Screen 2Screen 2
10Screen 1Screen 1
11Screen 1Screen 2 (Default at reset)
Function Name:
RUN
Purpose:
Execute a program already in memory.
Call address:
$C22F
Input requirements:
$02
Flag byte.
$06-$07
Data pointer (optional).
$08-$09
Data pointer (optional).
$10-$11
Start address.
Output:
$06-$07
Pointer to drive name 2.
$08-$09
Pointer to drive name 3.
Description:
This routine performs some initializations before executing a loaded program. If either bit 6 or bit 7 of the flag byte at location $02 is set, then the data pointed to by $06-$07 and $08-$09 are copied into the buffers for the 3rd and 4th drive names. These data blocks are limited to 16 bytes each. The initialization process selects the BSW font and initializes all of GEOS's global variables.
Function Name:
SAVE
Purpose:
Save memory to a file.
Call address:
$C1ED
Input requirements:
$14-$15
Pointer to information sector data.
$16
# directory sectors to skip first.
Errors:
See Appendix
Description:
This routine will save memory to a file; each sector is verified after the write is finished. The info sector has all the necessary information. ie. start and stop addresses, file type and structure. It must also contain the address of the filename string somewhere in memory, in the first two bytes. If the file is a VLIR file, the memory is saved to chain 0. Location $16 specifies the number of directory sectors to skip for DIRDSK and HOLE.
Function Name:
SAVE2
Purpose:
Save memory to specified sectors on the disk.
Call address:
$C1F9
Input requirements:
$0E-$0F
Pointer to list of tracks and sectors to use.
$10-$11
Start address of memory to be saved.
Preparatory routines:
FALLOC
Errors:
See Appendix
Description:
This routine is called by SAVE to actually save the memory. All of the sectors should have already been allocated. This routine stops saving memory when track 0 is found in the list of tracks and sectors.
Function Name:
SD1616
Purpose:
Signed 16 bit by 16 bit division.
Call address:
$C16C
Input requirements:
Y
The address of the 16 bit divisor.
X
The address of the 16 bit dividend.
Output:
X
The address of the 16 bit quotient.
$12-$13
The 16 bit remainder.
Description:
This routine is one of the GEOS math routines. X and Y each have the address of a term in the division. Both terms are made positive with ABS16. UD1616 is then called; if the result of the division should be negative, NEG16 is called. The quotient is stored in place of the original dividend that X pointed to. The dividend is left untouched. The remainder is always a positive integer.
Function Name:
SELBSW
Purpose:
Selects the Berkeley Softworks font.
Call address:
$C14B
Output:
$26
# pixels above line of print.
$27-$28
The number of bytes in the bit stream.
$29
The point size.
$2A-$2B
The pointer to the table of indices into the bit stream.
$2C-$2D
The pointer to the bit stream.
Description:
This routine simply copies the font header data for the BSW font to zero page for use by DSPCHR and DSPTXT.
Function Name:
SETPAT
Purpose:
Sets the current fill pattern.
Call address:
$C139
Input requirements:
A
The pattern number (0-31).
Description:
This routine sets the fill pattern used by PFILL, PFILL2, PBOX and PBOX2.
Function Name:
SPROFF
Purpose:
Turns off a sprite.
Call address:
$C1D5
Input requirements:
$08
Sprite number (0-7).
Preparatory routines:
COPYSP, POSSPR, SPRON
Description:
This routine turns the sprite off, so that it is no longer visible.
Function Name:
SPRON
Purpose:
Turns on a sprite.
Call address:
$C1D2
Input requirements:
$08
Sprite number (0-7).
Preparatory routines:
COPYSP, POSSPR
Description:
This routine turns the sprite on, so that it is visible.
Function Name:
START
Purpose:
Restarts the timer on a timed event.
Call address:
$C115
Input requirements:
X
The index into the command table at $8719.
Preparatory routines:
CMDTBL
Description:
This routine resets bit 5 of a specific command byte in the table at $8719. This enables the associated counter. This routine is the complement to STOP. This routine is NOT a replacement for ENABLE. This routine does not copy the timer's initial value as does ENABLE.
Function Name:
STOP
Purpose:
Stops the timer on a timed event.
Call address:
$C112
Input requirements:
X
The index into the command table at $8719.
Preparatory routines:
CMDTBL
Description:
This routine sets bit 5 of a specific command byte in the table at $8719. This prevents the associated timer from running. This routine is the complement to START.
Function Name:
STRCMP
Purpose:
Compare two strings for equality.
Call address:
$C26B
Input requirements:
X
Address of a zero page pointer.
Y
Address of a zero page pointer.
Output:
Z flag
Set accordingly.
Description:
The X and Y registers point to zero page pointers. The two strings are compared up to a zero byte. The Z flag is set accordingly.
Function Name:
STRCPY
Purpose:
Copy a string.
Call address:
$C265
Input requirements:
X
Address of zero page source pointer.
Y
Address of zero page destination pointer.
Description:
The X and Y registers point to zero page pointers. Data is copied up to and including a zero byte. This routine is used to copy strings by setting A to zero and calling BLKMOV.
Function Name:
SYSERR
Purpose:
Draw a system error window, and halt system.
Call address:
$C2C2
Description:
A window is drawn with the message 'System error near $xxxx', where xxxx is the hex address of the JSR SYSERR instruction. Since the system error window has no way of being closed, GEOS simply sits in its main loop forever. The BRK vector at $84AF-$84B0 is initially set to this routine.
Function Name:
TABLE
Purpose:
Create a list of filenames.
Call address:
$C23B
Input requirements:
$0E-$0F
Pointer to buffer area for file names.
$10
GEOS file type.
$11
Maximum number of file names.
$16-$17
Pointer to class.
Output:
$11
Number of files not found. The table is filled with filenames.
Errors:
See Appendix I.
Description:
This is a very useful routine. Given a GEOS file type, a list of files with that type is created. If the class pointer is non-zero then each file's info sector is checked for proper class. This is how GEOpaint and GEOwrite can both create Application Data files and not see each others files. The filenames are text strings with zero byte terminators. Each entry is indexed with a multiple of 17 (16 byte filename max. plus zero byte). Location $11 has the number of table entries not filled. To get the number of files actually found, this value must be subtracted from the original maximum buffer length.
Function Name:
TBLJMP
Purpose:
Jump through a table.
Call address:
$C2A4
Input requirements:
A
Offset into table.
$3D-$3E
Table address.
Description:
This routine is called by all of the routines that have inline data. They all set $3D-$3E to the return address of the caller, index off of this pointer to get their data, then call the appropriate routine. When the routine finishes, A is loaded with the data table's length and this routine is called to return control to the caller after the data table.
Function Name:
TEST
Purpose:
Tests the value of a point on the hires screen.
Call address:
$C13F
Input requirements:
$08-$09
The column number.
$18
The row number.
Output:
C flag
Value of the pixel.
Description:
Tests whether or not a given pixel is on or not. The carry flag is set to the value of the pixel.
Function Name:
TRACE
Purpose:
Create a table of tracks and sectors.
Call address:
$C205
Input requirements:
$04
Initial track number.
$05
Initial sector number.
$08-$09
Address of table to be created.
Output:
Table pointed to by $08-$09 is filled with all the tracks and sectors linked to the initial sector.
Errors:
See Appendix
Description:
Given an initial track and sector, this routine traces a chain and returns a list of all the tracks and sectors encountered. This routine uses the buffer at $8000-$80FF to read the sectors.
Function Name:
UD1616
Purpose:
Unsigned 16 bit by 16 bit division.
Call address:
$C169
Input requirements:
Y
The address of the 16 bit divisor.
X
The address of the 16 bit dividend.
Output:
X
The address of the 16 bit quotient.
$12-$13
The 16 bit remainder.
Description:
This routine is one of the GEOS math routines. X and Y each have the address of a term in the division. The quotient is stored in place of the original dividend that X pointed to. The dividend is left untouched.
Function Name:
UM1616
Purpose:
Unsigned 16 bit by 16 bit multiply.
Call address:
$C166
Input requirements:
Y
The address of the 16 bit multiplier.
X
The address of the 16 bit multiplicand.
Output:
X
The address of the 16 bit result.
Description:
This routine is one of the GEOS math routines. X and Y each have the address of a term in the multiplication. The result is stored in place of the original multiplicand that X pointed to. The multiplier pointed to by Y is untouched.
Function Name:
UM168
Purpose:
Unsigned 8 bit by 16 bit multiply.
Call address:
$C163
Input requirements:
Y
The address of the 8 bit multiplier.
X
The address of the 16 bit multiplicand.
Output:
X
The address of the 16 bit product.
Description:
This routine is one of the GEOS math routines. X and Y each have the address of a term in the multiplication. The result is stored in place of the original multiplicand that X pointed to. The byte following the multiplier is set to zero, then control passes to UM1616.
Function Name:
UMUL88
Purpose:
Unsigned 8 bit by 8 bit multiply.
Call address:
$C160
Input requirements:
Y
The address of the multiplier.
X
The address of the multiplicand.
Output:
X
The address of the 16 bit product.
Description:
This routine is one of the GEOS math routines. X and Y each have the address of a term in the multiplication. The result is stored in place of the original multiplicand that X pointed to. The value that Y points to is left untouched.
Function Name:
UPDATE
Purpose:
Update a VLIR file.
Call address:
$C295
Output:
$8498
Cleared to $00.
Preparatory routines:
VOPEN
Errors:
See Appendix I.
Description:
This routine writes the open VLIR file's VLIR sector to disk and updates the file's directory entry on disk (Time, date and file size). This operation is not performed if location $8498 is zero to start with. That location is a flag that tells whether the file has been altered or not. This routine is called by VCLOSE.
Function Name:
VCLOSE
Purpose:
Close a VLIR file.
Call address:
$C277
Output:
$8873
Cleared to $00.
Preparatory routines:
VOPEN
Errors:
See Appendix I.
Description:
The VLIR sector is rewritten to the disk and the directory is updated with a new time, date and file size by calling UPDATE. Location $8873 is the track number of the VLIR sector. By clearing it, GEOS says that the file is no longer in memory.
Function Name:
VLINE
Purpose:
Draws a vertical line on the screen.
Call address:
$C121
Input requirements:
A
The actual bit pattern for the line.
$08
The top margin.
$09
The bottom margin.
$0A-$0B
The right margin.
Description:
This routine draws a vertical line on the hires screen in a given pattern. See also ROWADR.
Function Name:
VLOAD
Purpose:
Load a VLIR chain.
Call address:
$C28C
Input requirements:
$06-$07
Maximum byte count of load.
$10-$11
Load address.
$8496
Current chain number.
Output:
$8302-$83FF
Table of tracks and sectors that were loaded.
Preparatory routines:
VOPEN
Errors:
See Appendix I.
Description:
This routine loads the current chain by calling LCHAIN.
Function Name:
VOPEN
Purpose:
Opens a VLIR file.
Call address:
$C274
Input requirements:
$02-$03
Pointer to file name.
Output:
$04
Track of VLIR sector.
$05
Sector of VLIR sector.
$0C-$0D
Pointer to file's directory entry.
$8100-$81FF
File's VLIR sector.
$8496
Initial chain # (Should be 0).
$8497
Number of chains.
$8498
Cleared to $00. (VLIR file modified).
$8499-$849A
File size.
$886F
Track of file's directory entry.
$8870
Sector of file's directory entry.
$8871-$8872
Pointer to directory entry.
$8873
Track for VLIR sector.
$8874
Sector for VLIR sector.
Errors:
See Appendix I.
Description:
This routine opens a VLIR file, and sets up all the variables associated with it. Only one VLIR file can be open at a time due to the fact that these variables are global.
Function Name:
VSAVE
Purpose:
Save memory to a VLIR chain.
Call address:
$C28F
Input requirements:
$06-$07
Length of save.
$10-$11
Address of memory to be saved.
$8496
VLIR chain number.
Output:
$8300-$83FF
Table of tracks and sectors that were saved to.
Preparatory routines:
VOPEN
Errors:
See Appendix I.
Description:
This routine saves a block of memory to a VLIR chain. If the chain already existed, then it is deleted first. If the length of the save is 0, then no save is performed. This would allow this routine to be used as a delete chain function.
Function Name:
WHATIS
Purpose:
Who knows?
Call address:
$C196
Output:
$02-$03
Value from $9F27-$9F28 ($3E66).
Description:
This routine seems to have absolutely no purpose. It copies a vector from $9F27-$9F28 ($3E66) to $02-$03. Locations $9F27 and $9F28 are checked by another routine at boot-up. If it is zero then the first VLIR chain of the kernal ($9000-$9FFF) is rewritten to the disk. This may be a remnant of the GEOS development environment or it may be some kind of kernal version number. The code looks like this:
LDA $9F28
STA $03
LDA $9F27
STA $02
RTS
Function Name:
WINDOW
Purpose:
Process a window descriptor.
Call address:
$C256
Input requirements:
$02-$03
Pointer to window descriptor.
Output:
$02
Window command that closed the window.
$851D
Window command that closed the window.
Description:
Like MENU, this is another very powerful routine. Given a description of the window's commands, everything gets handled. The format of the window descriptor is as follows:
.BYTE
Window type.
Bit 7
Window size follows; otherwise, use standard window size rows 40 to 135, columns 72 to 263.
Bits 0-4
Fill pattern for shadow. If zero, then no shadow is drawn.
The following six bytes are only present if bit 7 of the window type is set.
.BYTE
Top margin.
.BYTE
Bottom margin.
.WORD
Left margin.
.WORD
Right margin.
.BYTE
Command bytes followed by whatever data is needed.

All the click box descriptors are stored in a table at $880C, for GEOS to process them. This limits the number of click boxes in a window to 8. Several memory locations are saved prior to processing the window; also the stack pointer and return address are saved. After the window is drawn, control passes back to MAIN. CLSWIN must be called to return to the caller. Therefore it is essential that some means of closing a window exists, otherwise a situation like SYSERR will occur (See the SYSERR routine for more info).

The command that closes the window is the value returned to the user. ie. if a click box closes the window then the command number that drew the click box is returned. However it is the user's routine's responsibility to set the value of location $851D if a user click box is to close the window. Command #13 is another one that can close the window. User routines do not have to close the window but they may if they so desire.

The following is a list of the memory addresses stored by the window processor:

The Window processor commands are:

0
No data. This command ends the window descriptor.
1
The data for this command is the column offset in bytes and the row offset in pixels. Draw an 'OK' click box.
2
The data for this command is the column offset in bytes and the row offset in pixels. Draw a 'Cancel' click box.
3
The data for this command is the column offset in bytes and the row offset in pixels. Draw a 'Yes' click box.
4
The data for this command is the column offset in bytes and the row offset in pixels. Draw a 'No' click box.
5
The data for this command is the column offset in bytes and the row offset in pixels. Draw an 'Open' click box.
6
The data for this command is the column offset in bytes and the row offset in pixels. Draw a 'Disk' click box.
7-10
undefined commands
11
The data for this command is the column offset in pixels, the row offset in pixels, and the address of a text string. This command displays the text string at the specified offset in the window.
12
The data for this command is the column offset in pixels, the row offset in pixels and zero page address of the address of a text string. This command is similar to command 11, except for its method of addressing the string.
13
The data for this command is the column offset in pixels, the row offset in pixels, zero page address of the address of the text buffer to be used by INPUT and the maximum length of the input buffer. See INPUT for more information.
14
Set the vector at $84A9-$84AA to close the window. Generally used with command 13.
15
The data for this command is the address of a GRPHIC command table. See GRPHIC for further information.
16
The data for this command is the column offset in pixels and the row offset in pixels. This command opens a scrolling window of filenames. Locations $10 and $16-$17 must be set prior to calling WINDOW (See TABLE for more information). The filenames are stored at $8300-$83FF, to a maximum of 15 filenames. Location $885C will return the index of the selected file name. If more than 6 files are found, the sub-window will have a click box for scrolling the list.
17
The data for this command is the address of the routine for button pressed. This command sets the vector at $84A9-$84AA to a user specified routine.
18
The data for this command is the column offset in bytes, the row offset in pixels and the address of a user's 8 byte click box description, in the following format:
#BytesDescription
2Address of graphic data.
2Not used.
1Width of box in bytes.
1Height of box in pixels.
2Address of routine to process this box.
19
The data for this command is the address of a user subroutine. This command calls the user's subroutine.
Function Name:
WR180
Purpose:
Write track 18 sector 0 back to disk.
Call address:
$C24A
Input requirements:
$8200-$82FF
Data for track 18 sector 0.
Output:
$04
$12, track number.
$05
$00, sector number.
$0A-$0B
$8200, address of buffer area.
Errors:
See Appendix I.
Description:
This routine sets up the pointers for WRITE, then calls it to write the sector. This is generally used to update the BAM on the disk.
Function Name:
WRITE
Purpose:
Write a given track and sector.
Call address:
$C1E7
Input requirements:
$04
Track of sector to be written.
$05
Sector number to be written.
$0A-$0B
Pointer to buffer.
Errors:
See Appendix
Description:
Loads Turbodos if it is not already there by calling DSETUP. The desired block is then written to the disk by calling WRITE2. Finally CWRITE is called to verify the sector.
Function Name:
WRITE2
Purpose:
Write a sector to the disk.
Call address:
$C220
Input requirements:
$04
Track number.
$05
Sector number.
$0A-$0B
Pointer to data buffer.
Preparatory routines:
DSETUP
Errors:
See Appendix I.
Description:
This routine is to WRITE, as READ2 is to READ. DSETUP must have been called prior to using this routine.
Function Name:
ZFILL
Purpose:
Fills a memory region with zeroes.
Call address:
$C178
Input requirements:
$02-$03
The length of the region.
$04-$05
The address of the region.
Description:
Memory is filled with zeroes by storing a $00 at location $06 and calling BLKFIL.

Device Drivers

Input Drivers

Input drivers exist in memory from $FE80 to $FFF9. They do not have a start address since they are not executable programs. The default input driver (JOYSTICK) is built into the GEOS KERNAL; GEOS will always boot up with the joystick as the input device. The user must select another one if it is so desired. They have three entry points in the very beginning. These entry points are a jump table from $FE80-$FE88.

The first entry point at $FE80 is the master reset vector. This routine must set the mouse speed (Location $8507) to zero, as well as reset the mouse's position to 0,0 (Locations $3A-$3C). It must also clear the direction byte (Location $8506).

The second vector must reset the speed to zero (Location $8507).

The third vector actually performs the input. It must also modify the appropriate flags, adjust the mouse's speed and position.

The following is a small memory map of locations of interest to input drivers:

$30
Mouse control flag
Bit 7
Mouse is visible, do not modify the mouse's position if it is not visible.
$39
Input status flag
Bit 7
There is data in the keyboard queue, this is not used by the input driver.
Bit 6
Mouse has changed direction.
Bit 5
Button status has changed, either the button has been released or pushed since last checked.
$3A-$3B
Mouse's X position (0-319), range checking is not necessary.
$3C
Mouse's Y position (0-199), range checking is not necessary.
$8501
Mouse's maximum speed.
$8502
Mouse's minimum speed.
$8503
Acceleration factor; added or subtracted each time the input drive is scanned and the direction has not changed.
$8505
Button status: $00-pressed, $80-not pressed.
$8506
Direction; $FF if no direction is specified; otherwise a number from 0 to 7:
  3   2   1
    \ | /
 4 -- X -- 0
    / | \
  5   6   7
 
This location is needed by the scroll feature for GEOpaint. If not used, for example by a Koalapad, this feature of GEOpaint will not work, but nothing else will be affected.
$8507
Mouse's current speed.

Printer Drivers

Printer drivers exist in memory from $7900-$7FFF. This overlaps part of screen 2. Printer drivers are only memory resident when they are in use. GEOS loads the first printer driver that it can find on the disk, whenever it needs to print something. To make a particular printer driver always be the one found, all that must be done is to place it ahead of all the other printer drivers in the directory. There are five entry points to a printer driver. These form a jump table from $7900-$790E.

The first entry point, at $7900, is the master reset. This routine must initialize any global variables that need to be set. This routine is called once when the driver is loaded. Only the MPS-1000 driver uses this routine. All the others simply return without doing anything.

The second entry point, at $7903, is the printer initialization. This routine is called just prior to printing an image. The X register must be set to an error code if the printer is not available. This error code is the C64's KERNAL status byte at location $90. This routine must initialize any temporary variables used by the driver.

The third entry point, at $7906, actually performs the printing of a line. Locations $02-$03 point to the bit image graphic data for the line (640 pixels, 8 bits high, 640 bytes). Locations $04-$05 point to a buffer area free for use by the driver if it needs it. This is mainly to give printers which only print 7 pixels at a time a place to accumulate the extra bits. Locations $06-$07 point to the color data for the line. This is only for the benefit of color printers. The printer driver must not modify any of these pointers.

The fourth entry point, at $7909, closes the printer. This routine is called when the image is finished. This allows 7 bit printers to print the contents of their buffers. This is also to give the printer driver a chance to print a top of form character.

The fifth entry point, at $790C, returns the number of character columns that the printer can print in the X register. The maximum number of lines per page is returned in the Y register. The accumulator is loaded with a zero. This gives applications the ability to compute necessary buffer sizes. Typical values are 80 columns by 90 lines or 60 columns by 90 lines.

Finally, the printer driver must also include its name as a string at location $790F. This name must be the same as the filename. GEOwrite and GEOpaint will not see the driver if the filename and this text string are not the same. DESKTOP does not care.

File Formats

VLIR File Structure

A VLIR file is a tree structured file. The directory points to a single sector called the VLIR sector. This sector is a list of the initial tracks and sectors of each of its branches (or chains). If the branch address is track $00 sector $FF, then that branch does not exist and is not used. It is a place holder. A branch address of track $00 sector $00 specifies the end of the sector. This is used by the VOPEN to count the number of branches. It is possible not to have this end marker. That is the case when there are 127 branches. This limit of 127 branches explains many of GEOS's limits, ie. 127 note pad pages, 127 pictures in a photo album, 64 pages and 63 pictures in a GEOwrite file, etc. Each branch is the equivalent of a normal file, ie. each sector points to the next with the first two bytes.

Font File Format

Font files are VLIR files; the chain number (0-126) is the point size. GEOS limits a font to a point size of 48. This is probably due to memory limitations for storing the font. Nonexistent point sizes have VLIR chain addresses of $00,$FF.

Font files are identified by a unique ID number which is stored in the file's info sector at offset 130. The info sector contains a word identifier for each point size in the font. These identifiers have the form: ID# * 8 + point size. These ID words are used by GEOwrite and GEOpaint.

Font file chain format

$00
Number of pixels minus 1 above the underline. This is the line of print.
$01-$02
Number of bytes in the bit stream.
$03
Point size, character height in pixels.
$04-$05
Index from beginning of font to table of bit stream indices. Usually $0008.
$06-$07
Index from beginning of font to first bit stream.
$08-???
Table of words which are indices into the bit streams; one for each character from space (32) to the tilde (126). There is also an extra index on the end. This extra index is needed because the difference between a character's index and the next character's index is the width of the character in pixels.
???-???
Pointed to by $06-$07. The font is stored as several bit streams, one for each line of pixels. The point size is the number of bit streams. All the character images are stored in the bit stream. The GEOS KERNAL has some very sophisticated bit manipulation routines for accessing any given character.

Notes File Format

The Notes file created by the Notepad desk accessory has a VLIR file structure. Each branch is a single sector which comprises a page of the notepad. This sets the notepad's limits to 127 pages of 253 characters. 127 pages because of the limit to the number of VLIR chains, and 253 characters because a sector holds 254 data bytes (2 bytes for the next track and sector link) and the last character must be a zero to terminate to text.

Photo Scrap File

The Photo Scrap file is a coded graphics image in a sequentially structured file. The first byte is the number of bytes wide the image is (one eighth of the width in pixels). This means that photo scraps are always even multiples of eight pixels wide. The second and third byte form a word which is the number of pixels high the image is. Following these three bytes is the graphics image, coded in the same format as a click box (suitable for DRAW or DRAW2). This format consists of a code byte followed by 1 or more data bytes. The code bytes are classified into the following three basic types.

  1. Code bytes less than 128 mean that the following byte is to be repeated that many times.
  2. Code bytes ranging from 128 to 219 mean that if 128 is subtracted from the code byte then the result is the number of data bytes that follow.
  3. Code bytes ranging from 220 to 255 are special. First 219 is subtracted from the code byte, the result is the number of bytes in the pattern that will follow. Following this code byte is a repetition count for the pattern. Following this are the bytes that constitute the pattern. These could include either of the first two code types.

Since graphic images can be in color, the color data follows the graphic image data. The color data is coded in the same way as the graphic data; however, each byte of color data is the color for a block of 8 by 8 pixels (a normal character space). This is the reason that GEOpaint makes photo scraps a multiple of 8 pixels high and wide.

Text Scrap File

Text scraps are sequentially structured files. The first two bytes of which, form a word which contains the number of bytes in the scrap. Following this are text segments in the same format as GEOwrite files, ie. 4 code bytes followed by a zero byte terminated string of text. See the GEOwrite File format for more information.

Photo and Text Album Files

Album files are VLIR structured files, with each chain containing an individual photo scrap or text scrap.

GEOwrite File Format

GEOwrite files are VLIR structured files. The first 64 branches are the 64 pages allowed in the file. The last 63 branches are photo scraps, if there are any present in the document. See the section on Photo Scrap Files and Photo Albums for more information concerning the photos.

The first two bytes of each page form a word which is the left margin's position in pixels. The next two bytes are the right margin's position. The fifth through the sixteenth bytes form 6 words which are the tab stop positions, also in pixels. The text which follows is stored in segments. Each segment starts with 4 code bytes. The first byte is a $17, if this is a text segment (more later). The next two bytes are the font ID (coded form which includes point size; see Info Sector locations $80-$9F). The fourth byte is the style for the segment; each bit designating an attribute:

Bit 7
Underline
Bit 6
Bold
Bit 5
Reversed (not used in GEOwrite files)
Bit 4
Italics
Bit 3
Outline

Following the four code bytes is the text string which has a zero byte terminator.If the initial code byte is a $10, then this segment is not a text segment, it is a photo segment. Photo segments have five code bytes and no data section. The second byte is the width of the image in bytes. The third and fourth bytes designate the image's height in pixels. Photo segments have an extra code byte which is the VLIR chain number for the image. This could allow a document to have 63 different images but use the same image several times without storing it several times.

GEOpaint File Format

GEOpaint files are VLIR structured files. Each branch represents 2 lines of the picture. The data in the branches is stored in a coded form that is different from photo scraps and click boxes. First of all, consecutive bytes do not form a horizontal line. The bytes are in the same sequence as the Commodore stores them on the hires screen. Eight consecutive bytes fill a character position. Every eighth byte is on the same horizontal line. The data is stored in a coded form to conserve disk storage. The coding is simply a code byte followed by some data. Code bytes fall into one of the following three categories:

  1. Code bytes less than 64 determine the number of individual bytes that follow.
  2. Code bytes ranging from 64 to 127 are used for fill patterns. The least significant 6 bits determine how many character positions are to be filled. This code byte is followed by eight bytes which determine the fill pattern.
  3. Code bytes greater than 127 are 128 more than the number of times to repeat the byte that follows the code byte.

This coding scheme is used to first specify the 1280 bytes that form the two lines of the picture. This is followed by the 160 bytes which form the color data for the two lines.

Directory Structure

GEOS Directory Entry Format

$00
DOS file type
Bit 7
File closed properly.
Bit 6
File is write protected.
Bits 0-2
File type
0
DEL
1
SEQ
2
PRG
3
USR
4
REL (Not permitted under GEOS)
$01
Track number of first sector
$02
Sector number of first sector
$03-$12
File name
$13
Track number for info sector
$14
Sector number for info sector
$15
File structure
0
Sequential structure
1
VLIR format
$16
GEOS file type
0
Non-GEOS file
1
BASIC Program
2
Assembly program
3
Data file
4
System file
5
Desk Accessory
6
Application
7
Application Data
8
Font file
9
Printer driver
10
Input driver
11
Disk Driver
12
System Boot
13
Temporary
14
Auto Execute
The next few bytes define the time and date of the file's creation.
$17
Year
$18
Month
$19
Day
$1A
Hour
$1B
Minute
$1C-$1D
File size in blocks (including info sector)

Directory Header (Track 18 sector 0)

$00
Track of first directory sector
$01
Sector of first directory sector
$02
$41, ASCII 'A' indicating 4040 format
$03
$2A, DOS version
$04-$8F
Block Availability Map, BAM, 35 tracks, 4 bytes each. First byte has number of sectors free on that track. The other three bytes are a bit stream. Bit zero of the first of the three bytes is sector 0. If the bit is set, then the block is free.
$90-$9F
Disk name padded with shifted spaces ($A0)
$A0-$A1
Two extra characters for disk name
$A2-$A3
Disk ID
$A4
Shifted space ($A0)
$A5-$A6
ASCII '2A' for DOS version.
$A7-$AA
Shifted spaces ($A0)
$AB
Track for DESKTOP's buffer
$AC
Sector for DESKTOP's buffer
$AD-$BC
ASCII 'GEOS format V1.1', only the first 11 bytes are used to check for GEOS format
$BD-$FF
Filled with zeroes

Information Sector Format

Information Sector

$00
$00, track link is zero because there is only one sector
$01
$FF, number of bytes in this sector
$02-$04
$03, $15, $BF, Information sector identification bytes
$05-$43
Icon image in sprite format
$44
DOS file type
$45
GEOS file type
$46
File structure
0
sequential
1
VLIR
$47-$48
Load address
$49-$4A
End of load address
$4B-$4C
Start of execution address for program; unused otherwise.
$4D-$60
Class of file; zero byte terminated.
$61-$74
Author of file; zero byte terminated. The following GEOS file types have authors:
1
BASIC Program
2
Assembly program
5
Desk Accessory
6
Application
9
Printer driver
10
Input driver
$75-$88
For Application Data files (and Data files?), this is the class of the file that created this file.
$80-$81
For font files only, this is the ID number for the font. This is how GEOS distinguishes between fonts for GEOwrite and GEOpaint without actually storing the font name. Each font has its own unique ID number. The known fonts have the following ID numbers:
0
BSW
1
University
2
California
3
Roma
4
Dwinelle
5
Cory
6
Tolman
7
Bubble
8
Fontknox
9
Harmon
10
Mykonos
11
Boalt
12
Stadium
13
Tilden
14
Evans
15
Durant
16
Telegraph
17
Superb
18
Bowditch
19
Ormond
20
Elmwood
21
Hearst
22
Brennens (BUG)
23
Channing
24
Putnam
25
LeConte
There is a bug on FontPack I, the Brennens font should have an ID number of 22 (or Hearst should). Since these two fonts have the same ID number, only one of them can be used in any file, including in GEOpaint. When GEOS looks for a font after the user has selected it, it uses the ID byte to find it. If the ID bytes are the same, then the first file encountered is used.
$82-$9F
For font files only; ID words for each point size. These are coded as: 64 * ID# + point size.
$A0-$FF
Text field for the file; zero byte terminated

Memory Map

$01 (R6510)
Built-in 6510 I/O port, bit oriented
Bit 0
0=RAM, 1=BASIC ROM
Bit 1
0=RAM, 1=KERNAL ROM
Bit 2
0=Character set ROM, 1=I/O ports
Bits 3-5
Cassette control lines
Bits 6-7
Unconnected
$02-$03 (GPNT1)
General pointer, usually used to pass a parameter to a Kernal routine.
$04-$05 (GPNT2)
General pointer
$04 (TRACK)
Track number for disk operations
$05 (SECTOR)
Sector number for disk operations
$05 (ROW)
Row to print text on
$06-$0B (BOXSIZ)
Box size descriptor
$06 (BXTOP)
Top row of a box
$07 (BXBOT)
Bottom row of a box
$08-$09 (BXLEFT)
Left margin of a box
$0A-$0B (BXRITE)
Right margin of a box
$0C-$0D (DIRPNT)
Directory entry pointer, returned by lookup. Also used as the destination indirect pointer for hires graphic operations.
$0E-$0F (FILPNT)
Filename pointer, used to point to a file name for file operations. Also used as the source indirect pointer for hires graphic operations.
$10 (SGTYPE)
Selected GEOS file type; used by TABLE
$11 (MAXFIL)
Maximum number of files to find; used by table
$12-$13
Temporary storage areas
$14-$15 (DIRPT2)
Alternate directory entry pointer, usually points to $8400. Also used to point to a file's info sector when it is in memory.
$16 (DPAGE)
Number of directory sectors to skip before finding a hole in the directory; used by file save routines and HOLE. Also used as a parameter value to be passed to programs. Could be DESKTOP's page number.
$16-$17 (CLASSP)
Pointer to class string; used by TABLE
$18-$19 (COLUMN)
Column to print text in
$20-$21
Unused
$22-$23 (PATERN)
Pointer to fill pattern data
$24-$25 (INPPNT)
Pointer to input buffer
$26-$2E (FONTDT)
Current font data table. See Font File Format for a complete description of this header information.
$26 (PLINE)
Number of pixels above line of print. Underlining appears 1 pixel below the line of print.
$27-$28 (BSLEN)
Number of bytes in the font's bit streams
$29 (PSIZE)
Point size of the font
$2A-$2B (BSPNTS)
Address of bit stream indices table
$2C-$2D (BSPNT)
Address of the first bit stream
$2E (STYLE)
Defines the current print style
Bit 7
Underline
Bit 6
Boldface
Bit 5
Reversed video
Bit 4
Italics
Bit 3
Outline
$2F (SCNFLG)
Controls the source and destination screens, used by ROWADR. Bits 6 & 7 are used to determine the source and destination screens as follows:
76$0C-$0D$0E-$0F
00AF00AF00 (midscreen)
0121
1011
1112
If bit 5 is set, then only screen 1 is used for text (Mode 10).
$30 (MSFLAG)
Mouse control flag
Bit 7
Mouse is not visible
Bit 6
Enable checking mouse's position against current menu limits.
Bit 5
Enable checking mouse's position against click box table.
$31-$32 (MSPNT)
Pointer to the sprite data for the default mouse, usually $84C1
$33 (TOPM)
Top margin, usually 0 (Top of screen)
$34 (BOTM)
Bottom margin, usually 199 (Bottom of screen)
$35-$36 (LEFTM)
Left margin
$37-$38 (RIGHTM)
Right margin; if an attempt is made to print text past this column, control passes through $84AB.
$39 (INPFLG)
Input control flags
Bit 7
There is data in the keyboard buffer
Bit 6
Input device has changed direction
Bit 5
Button status has changed
$3A-$3B (MOUSEX)
Mouse's X position
$3C (MOUSEY)
Mouse's Y position
$3F-$40 (CBPNT)
Pointer to click box data table
$41-$42 (JMPVEC)
Jump vector used by INDJMP
$43-$44 (WINPNT)
Pointer used by WINDOW to point to the window descriptor block.
$8E
The least significant 3 bits of location $DD00, used by serial communications routines. These three bits represent the VIC memory bank number and the RS-232 output line.
$8F
A copy of location $8E with the clock and data lines set.
$6000-$7F3F (SCREN2)
Secondary hires screen, used as a backup for erasing menus and windows.
$7900-$7FFF
Printer driver address; see printer driver definitions
$7900
Master reset for a printer driver
$7903
Select printer to begin to print an image
$7906
Output line of image
$7909
Close printer, end an image
$790C
Return height and width of printed page
$790F
Printer driver's name as a text string
$8000-$80FF (BUF0)
Disk buffer #0
$8100-$81FF (BUF1)
Disk buffer #1, Info sector
$8200-$82FF (BUF2)
Disk buffer #2, Directory work area
$8300-$83FF (BUF3)
Disk buffer #3, Table of tracks and sectors
$8400-$841D (DENTRY)
Current directory entry, set up by LOOKUP
$841E-$842F (DNAME0)
Name of disk in drive 0 (device 8)
$8430-$8441 (DNAME1)
Name of disk in drive 1 (device 9)
$8442-$8453 (DNAME2)
Name of disk in drive 2 (device 10)
$8454-$8465 (DNAME3)
Name of disk in drive 3 (device 11)
$8466-$8488
Unused
$8486 (BOOTDV)
Point to index from to reach $848E
$8489 (CURDRV)
Current drive's device number
$848A (DRVFLG)
Point to index from to reach $8492
$848B (FORMAT)
Format flag of current disk,
$00
GEOS format
$FF
Non-GEOS diskette
$848C (SKEW)
Skew factor for diskette operations
$848D (NUMDRV)
Number of drive in the system
$848E-$8491
GEOS uses this table to designate the boot drive, by placing a $01 in the location corresponding to the boot drive. This table is reached by indexing off of $8486 with the device number.
$8492-$8495
Drive status bytes, indexed from $848A with the device number.
Bit 7
Turbodos is loaded
Bit 6
Turbodos is running
$8496 (CHAIN)
Current VLIR chain number
$8497 (NCHAIN)
Number of VLIR chains in the open file
$8498 (MODFLG)
Modified flag, set to $FF if the open VLIR file has been changed; $00 otherwise
$8499-$849A (VSIZE)
VLIR file size
$849B-$849C (IMAIN)
Vector for user additions to the GEOS main loop
$849D-$849E (IGIRQ)
Vector for GEOS's IRQ routine
$849F-$84A0 (IUIRQ)
Vector for a user's additions to the IRQ routine
$84A1-$84A2 (IBUTON)
Vector for button status changes
$84A3-$84A4 (ICRHIT)
Vector for carriage return entered from the keyboard
$84A5-$84A6 (IMSDIR)
Vector for mouse direction change
$84A7-$84A8 (ICLSMN)
Vector to close a menu
$84A9-$84AA (IACTON)
This vector is used for a lot of things that require an action to be performed. These items include: a character was typed, the button was released, the button was pressed and either the mouse was visible or Bit 5 of MSFLAG (location $30) was set.
$84AB-$84AC (IMARGN)
Vector for margins exceeded
$84AD-$84AE (IALARM)
Vector for the alarm clock routine
$84AF-$84B0 (IBRK)
Vector for the BRK instruction, initially this is set to SYSERR
$84B1-$84B2 (ICLEAR)
Vector for a routine to clear a region of the screen, initially set to COPYB3
$84B3 (DFTIME)
Default delay value for flashing boxes
$84B4 (CURFLG)
Text cursor control flag
Bit 7
Blink the cursor
Bit 6
Cursor is turned on
Bits 0-5 - Blink rate
$84B5 (CBFLAG)
Control flag for click box
Bit 7
Flash the box
Bit 6
Only invert the box
$84B6 (POSFLG)
Mouse position flag, set by IRQRTN
Bit 7
Mouse is below the bottom of the window, WNBOT, $84B9
Bit 6
Mouse is above the top of the window, WNTOP, $84B8
Bit 5
Mouse is to the left of the window, WNLEFT, $84BA-$84BB
Bit 4
Mouse is to the right of the window, WNRITE, $84BC-$84BD
Bit 3
Mouse is outside the menu, MNTOP, MNBOT, MNLEFT, MNRITE, $86C1-$86C6
$84B7 (NUMENU)
Number of menu levels
$84B8-$84BD
Window size description
$84B8 (WNTOP)
Top row of window
$84B9 (WNBOT)
Bottom row of window
$84BA-$84BB (WNLEFT)
Left margin of window
$84BC-$84BD (WNRITE)
Right margin of window
$84BE-$84BF (CURSX)
Text cursor's X position
$84C0 (CURSY)
Text cursor's Y position
$84C1-$84FF (DMOUSE)
Sprite data for default mouse
$8500
Unused
$8501 (MAXSPD)
Maximum mouse speed
$8502 (MINSPD)
Minimum mouse speed
$8503 (ACCEL)
Mouse's acceleration rate
$8504 (KEY)
Next key from keyboard buffer, set by GETIN
$8505 (BUTTON)
Current button status
$00
Pressed
$FF
Released
$8506 (MSDIR)
Mouse's current direction, 0-7,$FF
3 2 1
4 * 0
5 6 7
$8507 (MSPEED)
Current mouse speed
$8508-$8509
Unused
$850A-$850B (RNDNUM)
Random number generator value
$850C-$8514 (TMPFNT)
Temporary storage for font data during menu processing, copy of FONTDT, locations $26-$2E
$8515
A counter used by the click box routine, which is decremented by the IRQ service routine if it is nonzero. See Appendix IV.
$8516 (YEAR)
Current year (0-99)
$8517 (MONTH)
Current month
$8518 (DAY)
Current day of the month
$8519 (HOUR)
Current hour
$851A (MINUTE)
Current minute of the hour
$851B (SECOND)
Current second of the minute
$851C (TENTHS)
Current tenths of the second
$851D (WINCMD)
Command byte returned by the window processor
$851E (PCOLOR)
Preferred colors; high nibble for the foreground color and low nibble for the background color
$851F-$8697 (SAVBUF)
Temporary storage buffer for the window processor; see WINDOW for more information
$8698-$86BB
Unused
$86C0 (NUMOPT)
Number of options in the current menu
$86C1-$86C6
Current menu size description
$86C1 (MNTOP)
Top row of menu
$86C2 (MNBOT)
Bottom row of menu
$86C3-$86C4 (MNLEFT)
Left margin of menu
$86C5-$86C6 (MNRITE)
Right margin of menu
$86C7-$86CE (MSTACK)
Stack for menu descriptors
$86CF-$86D2 (OPTION)
Menu option that was clicked on, indexed by menu level (0-3)
$86D3-$86E1 (LIMITH)
Menu option box limits, either row values or column high bytes
$86E2-$86F0 (LIMITL)
Menu option box limits, column low bytes
$86F1-$8718 (TIMERS)
Table of running timers, see $8755
$8719-$872C (TIMCMD)
Timer command bytes
Bit 7
Execute routine, timer reached zero
Bit 6
Disable routine execution, leave timer running
Bit 5
Stop timer
Bit 4
Stop timer
$872D-$8754 (TIMRTN)
Subroutine addresses associated with each timer
$8755-$877C (TIMVAL)
Initial values for timers, copied to $86F1 when the timer reaches zero
$877D (NUMTIM)
Number of timers in table
$877E (DLYSP)
Stack pointer for delay stack
$877F-$87A6 (DLYVAL)
Time delay values
$87A7-$87CE (DLYRTN)
Return addresses for when the delay time has expired
$87CF (INPLEN)
Length of user entry
$87D0 (MAXLEN)
Maximum length of user entry
$87D1-$87D2 (TMPVEC)
Copy of IMARGN, locations $84A3-$84A4
$87D3 (MARFLG)
Margin control flag,
Bit 7
User supplies the margin exceeded routine for the window with a line of text, INPUT or window command 13
$87D4-$87D6
Column and row variables for GRPHIC processor
$87D7 (HEAD)
Head of keyboard queue
$87D8 (TAIL)
Tail of keyboard queue
$87D9 (QFLAG)
If this flag is zero, then the value of NXTKEY, location $87EA, is placed in the keyboard queue
$87DA-$87E9 (QUEUE)
Keyboard queue
$87EA (NXTKEY)
Next key to be placed in the keyboard buffer
$87EB-$87F2
Used by keyboard scan routine for debouncing the keyboard
$87F3-$87FA
Used by keyboard scan routine to prevent multiple key hits
$87FB-$8806
Used by DRAWCH to manipulate the font bit streams
$8807 (DWIDTH)
Width of previous character for delete character
$8808
Temporary storage used by the click box routine
$8809
Temporary storage used by the click box routine
$880A (BELFLG)
A non-zero value disables alarm chimes
$880B
Temporary storage used by the IRQ routine
$880C-$884F (CBTBL)
Default click box table used by the window processor; see also CBOXES
$880C (NUMCB)
Number of click boxes (8 maximum)
$880D-$880E (CBMSX)
X position of mouse after click boxes have been drawn
$880F (CBMSY)
Y position of mouse after click boxes have been drawn
$8810-$884F (CBDEFS)
Click box definitions; see CBOXES
$8850-$8851
Return address of caller to LOADSW
$8852
Copy of the SP register from LOADSW
$8853-$8854
Return address of caller to WINDOW
$8855
Copy of the SP register from WINDOW
$8856-$885C
Used by command 16 in WINDOW
$8856 (NUMFIL)
Number of files found
$8857 (OFSETL)
Left indent of file sub-window
$8858 (OFSETD)
Down indent of file sub-window
$8859-$885A (TBLPNT)
Pointer to filename table
$885B (FSTFIL)
Index of first file in the sub-window
$885C (SELFIL)
Index on selected file
$885D
Parameter passed to a program, copy of DPAGE, location $16
$885E
Copy of the status register during serial communications
$885F
Copy of location $D01A during serial communications
$8860
Copy of R6510, location $01, during serial communications
$8861
Copy of location $D015 during serial communications
$8862
Copy of location $DD00 before sending Turbodos
$8863-$8866
Command buffer for Turbodos
$8867
Copy of location $DD00 with serial lines cleared
$8868
Copy of location $DD00 with clock line set
$8869 (TRY1)
Try counter for disk read/write operations
$886A (DSTAT)
Disk status byte read by Turbodos
$886B (LDFLAG)
Load flag
Bit 0
Do not run the application being loaded; use LDADRS locations $886C-$886D as load address
$886C-$886D (LDADRS)
Alternate file load address
$886E
Reports which drive is being searched
$00
logged disk
$FF
checking other drive
$886F-$8874
Used by VLIR file routines
$886F (DTRACK)
Track number of VLIR file directory entry
$8870 (DSECTR)
Sector number of VLIR file directory entry
$8871-$8872 (VDIRPT)
Index into directory sector to VLIR file directory entry
$8873 (VTRACK)
Track number of VLIR sector
$8874 (VSECTR)
Sector number of VLIR sector
$8875 (TRY2)
Try counter used by CWRITE
$8876 (VERFLG)
Verify flag; $00=NO, $FF=YES
$8877-$89FF
Unused
$8A00-$8A3E
Sprite data block #40, GEOS sprite 0
$8A40-$8A7E
Sprite data block #41, GEOS sprite 1
$8A80-$8ABE
Sprite data block #42, GEOS sprite 2
$8AC0-$8AFE
Sprite data block #43, GEOS sprite 3
$8B00-$8B3E
Sprite data block #44, GEOS sprite 4
$8B40-$8B7E
Sprite data block #45, GEOS sprite 5
$8B80-$8BBE
Sprite data block #46, GEOS sprite 6
$8BC0-$8BFE
Sprite data block #47, GEOS sprite 7
$8C00-$8FE7 (COLDAT)
Color ram for hires screen
$8FE8-$8FFF
Sprite pointers; usually set to 40 to 47
$9000-$9FFF
First section of the GEOS Kernal
$A000-$BF3F (SCREN1)
Primary hires screen
$BF40-$FE7F
Second section of the GEOS Kernal
$FE80-$FFF9
Input driver
$FE80
Master reset for the input driver
$FE83
Set mouse speed to zero
$FE86
Read input device
$FFFA-$FFFB
NMI vector
$FFFC-$FFFD
Power up reset vector
$FFFE-$FFFF
IRQ vector

Appendix I: GEOS Errors

GEOS subroutines that are able to return errors, return one of the following error numbers in the X register.

2
Illegal track or sector
3
Disk full
5
File not found
6
Attempt to deallocate an unallocated block
7
Illegal VLIR chain number
8
VLIR file error; illegal track or sector specified
9
Too many VLIR chains
10
File is not a VLIR file
11
End of file, file too long
13
Device not present
31
Write protect is on
32
Read error, no sync character
35
Disk drive FDC errors:
2
Header block not found
7
Verify error after write
9
Header block checksum error
10
Data block too long
11
ID mismatch error
38
Disk drive FDC errors:
4
Data block not found
5
Data block checksum error
39
Write error (see CWRITE)

Appendix II: Glossary

This is a simple glossary for some of the terms used in this manual.

box
A rectangular region on the hires graphic screen.
click
To press the button. Usually used to select the option being pointed to by the mouse.
click box
A special control structure that appears as a box on the screen. This box is capable of being clicked on with the mouse. When the box is clicked on, some operation occurs.
cursor
The text cursor that appears when the user is asked to type something in on the keyboard. It appears as a thin vertical bar.
double click
To click twice on an option. This is used as a verification method, making sure that the user wishes to perform that operation.
font
Data that represents the graphical image of a character set.
info sector (information sector)
A sector on the disk associated with a file. This contains some information about the associated file, ie. icon image, load address, class, author and text field. See Chapter 5.
inline data
This relates to data that is in the middle of a region of machine code. The data immediately follows the subroutine call and control returns to the instruction following the data. This relieves the user of the burden of setting up the input parameters to a subroutine that is seldomly called or whose data does not change. See PFILL2 for an example of inline data.
invert
To change the pixels on the hires screen from background to foreground, or from foreground to background.
memory swapping
Used by desk accessories to save the memory that they would normally reside in. This allows them to be used from within applications because the application's memory is restored when the desk accessory is finished.
menu
A list of options for the user to select from. A menu can be either horizontal or vertical. Generally, the main menu is horizontal and the submenus are vertical.
mouse
The little arrow that is controlled by the joystick or other input device.
recurring timed event
This is a subroutine that is to be executed every so often. The amount of time between executions is stored. The interrupt routines decrement the timers every sixtieth of a second. When the timer reaches zero, the GEOS main loop calls the appropriate routine. This allows several things to seem to happen simultaneously. It is the beginnings of multitasking.
skew factor
This is the number of sector to skip over when looking for consecutive sectors for a file. It is 8 for Turbodos and 10 for DOS. The reason for using a skew factor is efficiency. If physically consecutive sectors were used, the disk drive would have to wait for a complete revolution of the disk between each sector read. The skew factor is set so that this is not necessary. A skew factor is set to a value such that by the time the computer has processed a sector, the next sector is on position to be read.
string
A sequence of bytes terminated by a zero byte. Usually used for representing text.
Turbodos
The special disk routines used by Berkeley Softworks to speed up disk access.
VLIR
Variable Length Index Record, a tree structured file structure. Presently GEOS limits files to 127 of these records.
window
A special control structure that appears as a large box on the screen, usually with a shadow. This control structure is used to elicit some form of user input or selection.
zero byte
A single byte with the value of zero.

Appendix III: Fill Patterns

     0              1              2              3
 --------       --------       --------       --------
|        |     |********|     |* * * * |     |*  **  *|
|        |     |********|     | * * * *|     | *    * |
|        |     |********|     |* * * * |     |  *  *  |
|        |     |********|     | * * * *|     |*  **  *|
|        |     |********|     |* * * * |     |*  **  *|
|        |     |********|     | * * * *|     |  *  *  |
|        |     |********|     |* * * * |     | *    * |
|        |     |********|     | * * * *|     |*  **  *|
 --------       --------       --------       --------

     4              5              6              7
 --------       --------       --------       --------
|***** **|     |*   *   |     | *** ***|     |*   *   |
|**** * *|     |  *   * |     |** *** *|     |        |
|***** **|     |*   *   |     | *** ***|     |  *   * |
|**** * *|     |  *   * |     |** *** *|     |        |
|***** **|     |*   *   |     | *** ***|     |*   *   |
|**** * *|     |  *   * |     |** *** *|     |        |
|***** **|     |*   *   |     | *** ***|     |  *   * |
|**** * *|     |  *   * |     |** *** *|     |        |
 --------       --------       --------       --------

     8              9             10             11
 --------       --------       --------       --------
| *** ***|     |********|     | * * * *|     |       *|
|********|     |        |     | * * * *|     |      * |
|** *** *|     |********|     | * * * *|     |     *  |
|********|     |        |     | * * * *|     |    *   |
| *** ***|     |********|     | * * * *|     |   *    |
|********|     |        |     | * * * *|     |  *     |
|** *** *|     |********|     | * * * *|     | *      |
|********|     |        |     | * * * *|     |*       |
 --------       --------       --------       --------

    12             13             14             15
 --------       --------       --------       --------
|*       |     |******* |     | *******|     |********|
| *      |     |****** *|     |* ******|     |*   *   |
|  *     |     |***** **|     |** *****|     |*   *   |
|   *    |     |**** ***|     |*** ****|     |*   *   |
|    *   |     |*** ****|     |**** ***|     |********|
|     *  |     |** *****|     |***** **|     |*   *   |
|      * |     |* ******|     |****** *|     |*   *   |
|       *|     | *******|     |******* |     |*   *   |
 --------       --------       --------       --------

    16             17             18             19
 --------       --------       --------       --------
|********|     |********|     |    *   |     |*   *   |
|*       |     |*       |     |   ***  |     |   * *  |
|*       |     |*       |     |  *   * |     |  *   * |
|*       |     |*       |     |**     *|     | *     *|
|*       |     |********|     |*       |     |*   *   |
|*       |     |       *|     |       *|     |        |
|*       |     |       *|     |      * |     |* * * * |
|*       |     |       *|     |     *  |     |        |
 --------       --------       --------       --------

    20             21             22             23
 --------       --------       --------       --------
|*       |     | *      |     |*     * |     |      **|
| *      |     |* *     |     | *   *  |     |*    *  |
|  *     |     |        |     |  ***  *|     | *  *   |
|        |     |        |     | *   *  |     |  **    |
|      * |     |     *  |     |*     * |     |    **  |
|     *  |     |    * * |     |       *|     |      * |
|    *   |     |        |     |       *|     |       *|
|        |     |        |     |       *|     |       *|
 --------       --------       --------       --------

    24             25             26             27
 --------       --------       --------       --------
|*****   |     |*       |     | * * * *|     |   *    |
| *** *  |     |*       |     |* * * * |     |  *     |
|  *   * |     | *     *|     | *      |     | * * *  |
| *   ***|     |  ***** |     | *      |     |* * * * |
|*   ****|     |    *   |     | * * * *|     |********|
|   * ***|     |    *   |     |    * * |     |      * |
|  *   * |     |   * *  |     |     *  |     |     *  |
| ***   *|     |***   **|     |     *  |     |    *   |
 --------       --------       --------       --------

    28             29             30             31
 --------       --------       --------       --------
|  *     |     | *** ***|     |* ******|     |        |
| * *    |     |*   *  *|     |        |     |    *   |
|*   *   |     |*   ****|     |* ******|     |   * *  |
|*   *   |     |*   ****|     |* ******|     |  * * * |
|*   *   |     | *** ***|     |* **    |     | * * * *|
|*   *   |     |*  **   |     |* **    |     |  * * * |
|     * *|     |*****   |     |* **    |     |   * *  |
|      * |     |*****   |     |* **    |     |    *   |
 --------       --------       --------       --------

Appendix IV: Programming Notes

This section contains some information on writing programs under the GEOS operating system.

It is important that all GEOS programs have an information sector. If one is missing, then DESKTOP will not allow you to open the disk (It needs the icon data). Therefore, to create GEOS programs, it is suggested that a small BASIC-Assembly language shell be added to the beginning of a user's program. This shell will consist of a BASIC SYS statement and some assembly code to delete the file (Use DELETE) and resave the file as a GEOS file (Use SAVE). After having done this, for completeness, the info sector that is in memory should be rewritten because SAVE will clear the text field. Also the directory should be modified to include the proper time and date of file creation (Use LOOKUP and WRITE). After all this has been done, a call to INIT01 and RESTRT will restart GEOS. The CONVERT program by BSW does not convert itself in this way. It is designed so that the information sector is exactly in the last disk sector of the file. It then modifies the sector links of the last two sectors and changes the directory entry for convert. This leaves the conversion code as part of the final program; the method outlined above does not. Another possibility is to use the same method as BSW, but to make the info sector the first sector after the initial shell. Then only 1 sector and the directory need be modified, and sectors for the shell program can be freed up. This is all up to a user's discretion.

If a program with a BASIC start (10 SYS2061), is to use GEOS it must first disable interrupts (SEI) and then set the system to all RAM by loading location $01 with a value of $30. This is important because GEOS resides beneath the Commodore's ROMs and I/O section. When GEOS needs to do I/O, it switches in the I/O ports, relieving the user of this burden. Also a call to INIT01 will set things up so that the GEOS graphic screen is displayed.

Application programs have everything set up for them before they are run. To terminate an application properly, a JMP RESTRT is made at some point. If the program is simply a menu, like Convert, then a call to MENU and an RTS is sufficient to be the main body of code. One of the menu options should make the jump to RESTRT. More on that RTS later.

Desk Accessories are similar to applications except that they have the memory that they reside in saved to disk first. This means that they should be relatively short programs. To decide whether something should be a desk accessory or an application, one need only determine whether it is necessary to be able to run the program from within another application (ie. like running Photo Manager from GEOpaint). Desk accessories also have some restrictions that do not apply to applications. In order for a desk accessory to open a window, the window storage area SAVBUF must be saved and later restored. This is because GEOS saved everything before executing the desk accessory. To terminate a desk accessory, the vector IMAIN should be loaded with LDSWAP and an RTS should be made. More on the RTS in a moment. Another means of terminating a desk accessory is simply to jump to LDSWAP. It is the desk accessory's responsibility to clean up after itself and to take itself out of memory.

The RTS mentioned in the previous paragraphs causes GEOS to return to its main routine (MAIN). This is a simple polling loop that looks for things to do. Half of GEOS is interrupt driven and half of it is polled. It first checks if the user has done anything, in the following order:

  1. Mouse direction change, jump through IMSDIR
  2. Button status change, jump through IBUTON
  3. Key entered from keyboard, jump through ICRHIT
  4. Mouse outside menu, jump through ICLSMN

Then the main loop looks for something to do by checking the recurring timed events and the delayed routines, executing those that are ready. The main loop then maintains the memory image of the time and date and handles the alarm clock. Finally, if there is something at IMAIN, it is called and the loop starts over.

The IRQ interrupt routine does mainly I/O operations. First it decrements location $8515 if it is non-zero (counter for click box handler). Then it scans the keyboard and enters any depressed keys into the keyboard buffer. Location $880A is then decremented if it is non-zero (chime counter). Next, a jump through IGIRQ is made to IRQRTN. After which, a jump is made through IUIRQ to process any user additions to the IRQ service routine. These additions should be fairly short so as not to make the interrupt take too long. Finally the status quo is restored and things go on their merry way.


Alexander Donald Boyce
2269 Grandview Ave., Apt. 1
Cleveland Heights, Ohio 44106-3144