Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!columbia!rutgers!clyde!cuae2!ihnp4!inuxc!pur-ee!uiucdcs!uxc.cso.uiuc.edu!hamilton From: hamilton@uxc.cso.uiuc.edu Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: Pattern Matching & documentatio Message-ID: <172200019@uxc.cso.uiuc.edu> Date: Fri, 19-Dec-86 16:19:00 EST Article-I.D.: uxc.172200019 Posted: Fri Dec 19 16:19:00 1986 Date-Received: Wed, 24-Dec-86 21:43:12 EST References: <1135@cbmvax.cbmvax.cbm.UUCP> Lines: 33 Nf-ID: #R:cbmvax.cbmvax.cbm.UUCP:1135:uxc.cso.uiuc.edu:172200019:000:1639 Nf-From: uxc.cso.uiuc.edu!hamilton Dec 19 15:19:00 1986 carolyn@cbmvax says: > Well Matt, there is no magic document. I wish there was. > What we have is the AmigaDOS source code. > > BCPL is a bit like C, and it is possible to decipher and even > make changes to localized portions of the code. But when you > start to trace code that interfaces with the private global functions > via run-time linking, you get stopped by tables of labels and vectors > that specify numerical offsets into other tables that are built at > run time. And if you manage to make it to the other side of the > table because a corresponding label on the other side happens to > have a similar name, you get stuck there because because that code > starts loading registers with labels defined as offsets into the > run-time table. > > So, you can either pay Tim King to reveal the inner secrets, > or wait until someone here has time to decipher a very large and > very complex program that jumps all over the place. or, you can send those sources to me and i'll write the magic document for you :-)! seriously, i've been analysing those "tables of labels and vectors" from disassemblies of the kickstart, with at least moderate success. the hardest part has been guessing what each module does, based on study of the assembler opcodes. if i had reasonably descriptive labels, half the job would be done! wayne hamilton U of Il and US Army Corps of Engineers CERL UUCP: {ihnp4,pur-ee,convex}!uiucdcs!uiucuxc!hamilton ARPA: hamilton%uiucuxc@a.cs.uiuc.edu USMail: Box 476, Urbana, IL 61801 CSNET: hamilton%uiucuxc@uiuc.csnet Phone: (217)333-8703 CIS: [73047,544] PLink: w hamilton