Sophie: allegro-devel-4.4.1.1-2ark x86

allegro-devel-4.4.1.1-2ark.x86_64.rpm

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dat2s
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<center><h1><b>
The dat2s utility
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<p><br>
<h1><a name="Compiling Datafiles to Assembler">Compiling Datafiles to Assembler</a></h1>


<p><br>
The utility dat2s can be used to convert a datafile into an asm (.s) source 
file, which can then be assembled and linked into your program. This avoids 
the need for a separate datafile to accompany your program, and means the 
data will automatically be loaded into memory at startup. You should be 
aware, though, that large datafiles can take a long time to compile, and 
that it is not possible to compress data which is compiled in this way.

<p>
The simplest way to invoke dat2s is with the command:

<p>
   dat2s filename.dat -o output.s

<p>
The resulting asm file can then be assembled with the command:

<p>
   gcc -c output.s

<p>
This will produce an object module called output.o, which can be linked into 
your program, for example:

<p>
   gcc myprog.c -o myprog.exe output.o -lalleg

<p>
Your program can then access the contents of the datafile as simple global 
variables. Definitions for these variables can be obtained by telling dat2s 
to output a header file as well as the asm file, with the '-h' option. You 
can also use '-p' to set a prefix string for all the object names. For 
example, when applied to the datafile:

<p>
   "BMP"  - A_BITMAP
   "BMP"  - ANOTHER_BITMAP
   "SAMP" - EXPLODE
   "PAL"  - SOME_COLORS
   "FONT" - THE_FONT

<p>
the command:

<p>
   dat2s filename.dat -o output.s -h output.h -p item

<p>
produces the header:

<p>
   extern BITMAP item_a_bitmap;
   extern BITMAP item_another_bitmap;
   extern SAMPLE item_explode;
   extern PALETTE item_some_colors;
   extern FONT item_the_font;
   extern DATAFILE item_data[];

<p>
You can refer to these objects directly, for example:

<p>
   blit(&amp;item_a_bitmap, screen, 0, 0, 0, 0, SCREEN_W, SCREEN_H);

<p>
Alternatively, you can use the datafile array for compatibility with code 
that was originally written for separately loaded datafiles, with the 
standard syntax item_data[index].dat.

<p>
If your datafile contains truecolor images, be sure to call fixup_datafile()
after you have set the graphics mode. You must also call fixup_datafile()
if your platform does not support constructors (currently any non GCC-based
platform).

<p>
Note that compiled sprites are not supported and will cause dat2s to
abort whenever it encounters one of them. However you can use the '-S'
option to instruct dat2s to convert them to regular BITMAP objects.

<p>
Note that datafiles compiled by dat2s must not be appended to shared objects,
only to standalone executables. Use dat2c for this purpose.





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