New version of DisAssem

Its been about 22 years since I released the last version of DisAssem – a disassembler for RISC OS. Now there is a new version with a few new features, bugfixes and improvements. And it works on Raspberry Pi 2.

DisAssem allows to convert binary code to BASIC, and I’ve found it incredibly useful for converting old modules to 32 bits, as I have lost the source for many parts of the software I did in the good old days. It can detect which part of a file/module is code and which is data. Labels can be added. And much more.

I have built it as a PackMan packages, but as I have no need for a personal website, I don’t really have a place to put it so that it can be include in a package source. Would anybody be interested in providing a home for the package? It is a massive 80 KB. If so, please drop a line – thanks.

Feel free to use space on the RISC OS FR server. Just ask :)

Thanks for the suggestion.

!Store hosts all its own data for reasons just like this (and to ensure future accessibility). We’d be happy to have DisAssem in the catalogue, and can also handle source code too. Just email me at the usual R-Comp address(es) and I’d be happy to set you up with all you need. You can also include screenshots, history/patch notes, and a suitable write-up. There are no fees or anything for free software.

I can second that suggestion. Uploading to !Store is extremely simple and it allows you to say what’s changed in the latest version and what the app does, with illustrations. Users have a ‘my software’ button so that they can log on and any app they have downloaded is marked green if it has been updated since they downloaded it. !Store is also supplied as standard with RISC OS for the Raspberry Pi (as is RiscPkg/PackMan).

I have noticed !Store amongst the apps but I haven’t looked into what it actually does.

I have contacted David about using his site. But thanks for the feedback. Perhaps the wiki page about how to make packages should be updated with a note about !Store: https://www.riscosopen.org/wiki/documentation/show/RISC%20OS%20Packaging%20Guide

I think you will find that !Store and Packman are, effectively, competitors or, at least, alternative (and quite different) ways of doing things.

!Store hosts all its own data for reasons just like this (and to ensure future accessibility)

The servers for the Packaging lists for PackMan stores the packages as well. The packages used by ROOL just use a different system of fetching the packages which require a web site to get them from. I agree it’s not as easy, the original riscpkg project website allowed you to upload the packages directly, but I suspect ROOL don’t have the time to do anything fancier.

I think you will find that !Store and Packman are, effectively, competitors or, at least, alternative (and quite different) ways of doing things.

I hope people think of them as alternatives, rather than competitors. It’s not an either/or thing either, both can be used at the same time. Ideally people would think of uploading free software to both to give people the choice of how they get it.

I wish !Store and Packman were complimentary. (i.e. when a package is also available in Packman, it would be nice if store could optionally install it via Packman.)

I think you mean complementary. A complement fills something up to become complete (Latin plere). I believe that compliment came in fact from the same origin, but to remember its different modern usage I like to ascribe to it a fictitious connection with plier (Latin plicare); you offer somebody a compliment while folding your body with a bow. Or is that all too complicated?

you offer somebody a compliment while folding your body with a bow

I’m failing to parse that sentence. As a traditional sort of guy, girls look cute with bows and stuff; but I’m stuck on the “folding your body with a bow”. How does one fold their body with a bow? I trust you didn’t mean fold your body into a bow. If it’s the latter, then I invite you (at your own peril) to look at http://m.imgur.com/gallery/ZNSaq (note, not for the faint hearted). Oh, and read it right to left. ;-)

I should have said while bowing. Not the kind you tie on. When the hart into the thicket springs, the ratchet hounds must follow. Apologies. Totally off topic. Put it down to aggravated hypertrophy of the verbal lobe. It is a tic.

Henrik – I’m very interested in trying out DisAssem. Anything that helps in converting from 26bit to 32bit is good.

Is DisAssem available for download anywhere yet ?

Ralph

Err Henrik – have you thought about asking Rick here – if he would host it on his site – he has a pile of ARM programming on it already.
What sort of licence are you thinking of putting DisAssem under?

DisAssem is available as a PackMan package from https://www.henrikbp.riscos.fr/ .

I’ve mailed RISC OS Open about including the packages from that site in the repository.

have you thought about asking Rick here – if he would host it on his site

While I have no objection to giving useful stuff a home, it is better on a package manager (better yet, several).
You see, millennials don’t want to look for things on dozens of disparate websites, they expect a nice friendly list of choices with software that pretty much installs itself.

This is possibly worse in terms of RISC OS as the software/company listing that Google usually points me to is like decades old and often points to stuff that you can’t even find on archive.org … http://www.riscos.com/the_archive/rol/productsdb/sw/swk.htm and if Karelia2 sounds interesting, good luck finding information on it…
What I think would be an idea for the future is for !Store to split it’s program list based upon themes. I’d consider listing some of my utilities (MoreKeys, etc) there but MoreKeys is not exactly Ovation or NetSurf, I’m somewhat averse to crapping up the list with my little offerings…
At any rate, it is perhaps the way forward to list software on a publicly known repository where it can be tidily indexed and listed.

What I think would be an idea for the future is for !Store to split it’s program list based upon themes.

You mean like the Categories that it already supports?

I’d consider listing some of my utilities (MoreKeys, etc) there but MoreKeys is not exactly Ovation or NetSurf, I’m somewhat averse to crapping up the list with my little offerings…

I’d assume that they would fit into the “Utilities” category, along with “Freeware / Public Domain” (which seems to be used in the “Olde RISC OS” sense and not the correct one); perhaps others, too. Software can go into one or more categories, if it fits them.