🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <8902011219.AA17736@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU> UG1459@SYSE.SALFORD.AC.UK writes:
>Does anyone know of a *LEGAL* way of calling programs in the cartridge port?
>I know the desktop does this but and has it listed as device 'c:', but try
>issuing a list of device 'c:' from GEMDOS just produces a directory of device
>C: (i.e. Hard/Ram disk). Also are applications loaded from the cartridge port
>as an EXEC would do, or are they run in situ.

GEMDOS itself does not support the cartridge, in terms of being able to run
a program from the cartridge. the desktop code handles the cartridge, and 
displays the info in the cartridge in standard window on the desktop. as for
a *legal* way to run programs from the cartridge, i don't think there is 
provision in the current GEMDOS/GEM operating system to call a cartridge
program. if you're interested, in Atari ST Internals, by abacus, there is
a couple of pages on the cartridge port, and the organization of data on the
cartridge, including how a program is stored. It may be a simple matter of
writing a small stub program, that is normally called from GEMDOS, which simply
does a jsr to the program on the cartridge, since programs on cartridge are
usually absolute (ie: programs on cartridge are usually relocated into 
cartridge address space, thus you can call them directly, or at least the atari
vt100 cartridge is like this.) i believe this is all the desktop is doing when
you click on a program icon in the cartridge window.

try bugging atari about it. i'm sure you'll get as little help from them
as i have gotten    :-)     good luck!


-- 
Ignac A. Kolenko          watmath!watcgl!electro!ignac      

"Perhaps if we built this large wooden badger ..."
   - from Monty Python and the Holy Grail