The file menu is used to start new emulated calculators from ROM files or to send files to the currently running calculator.
The
menu option can be used to open a ROM file and start up a new calculator. Each calculator runs in it's own MDI window and is (currently) completely isolated from all of the other calculators.The
menu option can be used to send files to the current emulated calculator. Note that the rules for sending files to the emulated calculator are the same as for running a real calculator - it must be switched on, and should be at the homescreen (83/83+) or in the Receive menu (82).This is where you can get access to the various simple debugging tools and options.
Using the
menu you can open a number of different windows showing information about the currently running calculator. See the relevant section below on what each window does and can be used for.Under scripts section) or load a debugging information file. The debugging information file (which can be output from Brass natively) contains information on modules, labels, breakpoints and variables.
you can choose to run a script (see theWhen
is ticked, the emulated calculator runs. Untick this menu option to pause the emulation. Note that if the calculator encounters a breakpoint and breaking on breakpoints is enabled, the calculator will freeze.You can use the
menu item to manually step one instruction at a time. If you hit a breakpoint, you can use this item to step over it.The
item resets the emulated calculator.When ticked,
pauses the emulated calculator when a breakpoint is hit. Use the menu item to step over it.You can use
to clear all the current breakpoints.This menu can be used to set the options for the debugger.
The
menu opens up the simple key binding editor. You have a list of calculator buttons (for example, [on]) under which it lists the PC keys that apply to that key (you can have multiple PC keys bound to a single calculator button). Right click a calculator button name to add a new binding or remove all of the existing ones. When you choose to add a new one, the interface 'freezes' until you press a key. This key is bound to the selected calculator button. Do note that the two calculator buttons 'matrx' and 'apps' are, in fact, the same thing.The
menu can be used to change the appearance of the emulated calculator's LCD. has options for changing the bright/dark colours used to display the LCD, and a button to reset them to the LCD-ish default colours. The other options on the menu are to control the way the 96x64 pixel calculator display is scaled up to display on your screen - from unscaled, through LCD-pixel effect 'Zoom' filters to the 'Smooth' filters.This window is always visible. It displays the current calculator screen. Not a lot to say about it, except that you can stretch it larger by dragging one of the corners. Right-click on the display to open a menu with options to
(which copies the current screen to the clipboard) or (which saves a screenshot in one of a variety of formats).This viewer displays the current 64KB Z80 address space in groups of 16-byte rows. The column on the left shows the start address for each row. You can click on a cell to select it - the address is displayed in the bottom-right hand corner. You can type an address (in hexadecimal) into the box in the bottom right (pressing Enter jumps to it).
The button on the left pops open a menu listing all the exported labels from the debugging information file, grouped into modules. Clicking on a label jumps to it.
Clicking the button marked
switches to the ASCII view - clicking it switches back to view.You can add breakpoints from this editor - just right click a cell and select
.Not a lot to describe here - just a simple viewer window
(Not implemented)
This window lists the currently active breakpoints. When a breakpoint is hit, it is selected and the font describing it is emboldened (if the window is not already open, it is opened automatically).
Right-clicking a breakpoint gives you options:
, which removes a breakpoint, and , which jumps to the memory address of the breakpoint in the memory viewer window.Scripts can be used to control an emulated calculator - for example, to reset, load, and run a particular program you are working on. Script files are just plain text. The semicolon character (;) can be used for comments.
Here are the available commands you can use in a script file.
Command | Description |
---|---|
key-down key [pause] | Press a calculator key. If a value follows it, run the calculator for that many cycles after pressing the key. |
key-up key [pause] | Performs the same action as key-down but releases the key instead. |
key-press key [pause] | Presses a key, runs for pause cycles, releases the key, runs for pause cycles. If you don't specify a value for pause, it defaults to 1000000. |
run cycles | Runs the calculator for a particular number of CPU cycles. |
send-file filename | Sends a file to the emulated calculator. |
reset-calc | Resets the emulated calculator. |
breakpoints-on | Enables breaking on breakpoints. |
breakpoints-off | Disables breaking on breakpoints. |
Here's an example script:
reset-calc ; Reset the calculator run 6000000 ; Run for about a second to warm up key-press on 6000000 ; Switch on send-file ion.8xg ; Send Ion key-press prgm key-press enter key-press enter run 6000000 ; Wait for it to install send-file program.8xp ; Send the program key-press prgm key-press enter key-press enter run 6000000 breakpoints-on ; Only enable these at the last minute key-press enter
You can use command/batch-file style environment variables inside the script files (use the %variable% syntax).
You can load a script file on the command-line using -s filename.