Writing the glue code

Collapse OS's kernel code is loosely knit. It supplies parts that you're expected to glue together in a “glue code” asm file. Here is what a minimal glue code for a shell on a Classic RC2014 with an ACIA link would look like:

; The RAM module is selected on A15, so it has the range 0x8000-0xffff
.equ	RAMSTART	0x8000
.equ	RAMEND		0xffff
.equ	ACIA_CTL	0x80	; Control and status. RS off.
.equ	ACIA_IO		0x81	; Transmit. RS on.

jp	init

; interrupt hook
.fill	0x38-$
jp	aciaInt

.inc "err.h"
.inc "ascii.h"
.inc "core.asm"
.inc "str.asm"
.inc "parse.asm"
.equ	ACIA_RAMSTART	RAMSTART
.inc "acia.asm"

.equ	STDIO_RAMSTART	ACIA_RAMEND
.equ	STDIO_GETC	aciaGetC
.equ	STDIO_PUTC	aciaPutC
.inc "stdio.asm"

; *** BASIC ***

; RAM space used in different routines for short term processing.
.equ	SCRATCHPAD_SIZE	0x20
.equ	SCRATCHPAD	STDIO_RAMEND
.inc "lib/util.asm"
.inc "lib/ari.asm"
.inc "lib/parse.asm"
.inc "lib/fmt.asm"
.equ	EXPR_PARSE	parseLiteralOrVar
.inc "lib/expr.asm"
.inc "basic/util.asm"
.inc "basic/parse.asm"
.inc "basic/tok.asm"
.equ	VAR_RAMSTART	SCRATCHPAD+SCRATCHPAD_SIZE
.inc "basic/var.asm"
.equ	BUF_RAMSTART	VAR_RAMEND
.inc "basic/buf.asm"
.equ	BAS_RAMSTART	BUF_RAMEND
.inc "basic/main.asm"

init:
    di
    ; setup stack
    ld	sp, RAMEND
    im 1

    call	aciaInit
    call	basInit
    ei
    jp  basStart

Once this is written, you can build it with zasm, which takes code from stdin and spits binary to stdout. Because out code has includes, however, you need to supply zasm with a block device containing a CFS containing the files to include. This sounds, compicated, but it's managed by the tools/zasm.sh shell script. The invocation would look like (it builds a CFS with the contents of both kernel/ and apps/ folders):

tools/zasm.sh kernel/ apps/ < glue.asm > collapseos.bin

Building zasm

Collapse OS has its own assembler written in z80 assembly. We call it zasm. Even on a “modern” machine, it is that assembler that is used, but because it is written in z80 assembler, it needs to be emulated (with libz80).

So, the first step is to build zasm. Open tools/emul/README.md and follow instructions there.

Platform constants

The upper part of the code contains platform-related constants, information related to the platform you're targeting. You might want to put it in an include file if you're writing multiple glue code that targets the same machine.

In all cases, RAMSTART are necessary. RAMSTART is the offset at which writable memory begins. This is where the different parts store their variables.

RAMEND is the offset where writable memory stop. This is generally where we put the stack, but as you can see, setting up the stack is the responsibility of the glue code, so you can set it up however you wish.

ACIA_* are specific to the acia part. Details about them are in acia.asm. If you want to manage ACIA, you need your platform to define these ports.

Header code

Then comes the header code (code at 0x0000), a task that also is in the glue code's turf. jr init means that we run our init routine on boot.

jp aciaInt at 0x38 is needed by the acia part. Collapse OS doesn't dictate a particular interrupt scheme, but some parts might. In the case of acia, we require to be set in interrupt mode 1.

Includes

This is the most important part of the glue code and it dictates what will be included in your OS. Each part is different and has a comment header explaining how it works, but there are a couple of mechanisms that are common to all.

Defines

Parts can define internal constants, but also often document a “Defines” part. These are constant that are expected to be set before you include the file.

See comment in each part for details.

RAM management

Many parts require variables. They need to know where in RAM to store these variables. Because parts can be mixed and matched arbitrarily, we can't use fixed memory addresses.

This is why each part that needs variable define a <PARTNAME>_RAMSTART constant that must be defined before we include the part.

Symmetrically, each part define a <PARTNAME>_RAMEND to indicate where its last variable ends.

This way, we can easily and efficiently chain up the RAM of every included part.

Tables grafting

A mechanism that is common to some parts is “table grafting”. If a part works on a list of things that need to be defined by the glue code, it will place a label at the very end of its source file. This way, it becomes easy for the glue code to “graft” entries to the table. This approach, although simple and effective, only works for one table per part. But it's often enough.

For example, to define block devices:

[...]
.equ	BLOCKDEV_COUNT		4
.inc "blockdev.asm"
; List of devices
.dw	fsdevGetB, fsdevPutB
.dw	stdoutGetB, stdoutPutB
.dw	stdinGetB, stdinPutB
.dw	mmapGetB, mmapPutB
[...]

Initialization

Then, finally, comes the init code. This can be pretty much anything really and this much depends on the part you select. But if you want a shell, you will usually end it with basStart, which never returns.

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