Now that all the settings are squared away, it’s time to have Retro C IDE and Code Builder be able to build some software. The picture below shows the window building group on the left and system selection radio buttons and code text box on the right. The controls in the Window Definition group will change to based on which system is selected, the example below is for the Commodore systems. (Here’s a link to a video that gives a brief demo : Retro C IDE in action)
Here is what the Atari, Atmos and Apple look like :
Atari : (Atari has a different way of handling colors)
Atmos:
Apple : (has monochrome text mode)
Once the selections are made the C code can be built, saved, compiled and run in an emulator. This can be done with a single button/menu selection, or in steps with separate menu selections. The tool strip Play button (Code Save Compile Run) or the Easy Build menu option will do it all in one step. The C, Save Code, Compile and Run in Emulator buttons/menu items can be used to do this individually.
The Play, Easy Build and Generate C Code all result in running the Code Builder routine and populate the Code Text Box with the C code to build the application. Of course the code will be different for each system. Below is the Commodore example :
The applicate is set up so that each step of the Easy Build process runs before the next step starts, this ensures that code is built before it is saved, saved before compile and so on. At this point the file names and directory for the source code are hard coded, this will be changed to user definable as I move forward in the project.
The resulting program running in the emulator for Commodore 64 looks like this :
The next post will show how a menu system can be built and added to the application.
