Date   : Fri, 03 Jan 1997 14:47:12 +0000
From   : deweger <deweger@...>
Subject: Re: Archive format expansion

Tom Seddon wrote:
> Not necessarily. If the !STARTUP file were given a suitably
> computer-readable format, it would be a simple matter to generate menus
> for games automatically. Only the renaming of duplicatedfiles would be
> problematic, and that could be coped with by having each game in a
> separate directory. The format of the !startup file could be something
> like...
> 
> page=0 ;no change
> startup-file=$.loader
> startup-type=basic
> other-1=        ;any other
> other-2=        ;* commands
> other-3=        ;that should be
> other-4=        ;executed
> 
> and this could be examined by a menu-building program which then creates
> one volume containing a whole load of games and a customised menu.
> Furthermore, there could be a section at the top/bottom of the !startup
> file which is ignored by the computer program and is only for
> human-readable stuff, or maybe separate sections which are easily readable
> by both computers and humans which contain things like game name, software
> house, author(s), type of game, that sort of thing -- something like the
> linux software map but for BBC software. I think that if a suitable ASCII
> format, readable easily by computers and people, could be finalised it
> would be pretty useful.
> 
> I hope that made sense. If nobody has any objections to my going ahead
> and making a specification for something along these lines then I will
do so.

I think this is basically a very good idea. I do have some
questions/remarks,
however.

1. A good conversion/menu building program could use the information in
the
   !STARTUP files to build a menu. However, the way in which your
current
   DFFS conversion utility works is just adding every file in a
directory
   to the DFFS disk. This is very user-friendly. If you choose for the 
   above format, this would no longer be possible for multiple-game
disks,
   as there can be only one !STARTUP file in a DOS directory. So what
you
   may have to do is the following:
   a. create an empty DFFS disk
   b. unzip a game archive
   c. add it to the DFFS disk using a conversion utility (that also
builds
      the menu)
   d. delete the files from the game archive
   e. goto b (for a new game archive)
   I dunno if this is what you had in mind, but it seems slightly more 
   complicated than it is now. But maybe you had another solution in
mind.

2. If you wish to build a menu, it would be nice to have the name of
   the game in the menu (and thus in the startup file). Otherwise
   you get weird game names in the menu like !BOOT or START or
   TUY1.

3. What do you mean by page=0; no change? Some programs require
   to be loaded at a specific game location, e.g. &E00 or &1900.
   Therefore, the !STARTUP file should allow for this.

4. It would be nice if the !STARTUP file were not in the format as you
   describe it, but in a Beeb-readable form. This would allow
   the archive files to be directly converted into formats for other
   emulators that do not have the menu option or to be transferred 
   to a real Beeb. The game can then be started as e.g. *EXEC !STARTUP.

How about the following format? !STARTUP is a text file of the following
format.

  REM Name of game
  Commmands to start game

The "Commands to start game" are then e.g. 

  PAGE=&1900
  CHAIN "game"

This has the same "power" as the !STARTUP file format you described,
with
the additional advantage of working on any Beeb emulator and real Beeb.

Mark.