prc-tools release history

2.3

• Many improvements, including some bug fixes, to the standard C library routines; note also that the non-standard routines memscan() and strnlen() have been removed from the supplied libc
• New palmdev-prep features:
  • SDK updates which add to and override previous full SDKs can be installed in their own separate SDK directory and use another existing SDK directory as a base to be searched afterwards, without physically copying or overwriting the existing files
  • Subdirectories under each lib/target directory whose names match multilibbed compilation options (notably mown-gp) are now multilib directories; they and their subdirectories will be searched only as appropriate for the options in use
• Added m68k-palmos-trapfilt, which decodes Palm OS system API trap numbers in disassembly listings
• New build-prc option --hack (or equivalently -H) for building HackMaster hacks, which previously could not be done well without a (trivial) definition file
• GDB now clears breakpoints when the target device has been reset, so shouldn't run out of breakpoints even if you like to save Palm OS Emulator state across sessions
• The ARM compiler has been updated to GCC 3.3.1 (though the caveat mentioned below still applies)

The gasp assembler preprocessor is no longer present in binutils and hence prc-tools. In the unlikely event that you have been using it, you should use the macro facilities provided by the assembler instead.

The prebuilt binary packages no longer contain a separate driver, m68k-palmos-cpp, for the C preprocessor; if you want to generate preprocessor output you should use m68k-palmos-gcc -E instead. (And similarly for arm-.)

2.2

• Now includes an ARM configuration suitable for building stand-alone armlets, in addition to the existing m68k compilers
• The linker now allows a 32K (rather than 64K) main code section by default, producing comprehensible error messages indicating that you need to move to something larger instead of sometimes mysterious ones
• By default, build-prc now warns when the database being generated does not contain particular resources that are considered vital; for example, an application without a code #1 resource is considered an error
• The compilers and build-prc now provide a way to specify that an executable is to be bound into the final database as a stand-alone code resource, improving the build process for armlets and HackMaster hacks
• BFD and binutils now have (read-only) support for the Palm OS .prc format; for example, m68k-palmos-objdump and arm-palmos-objdump can list (-hp) the resources in a .prc file and disassemble (-d) code resources
• On Cygwin, GCC can now read files with both Unix line termination (LF) and DOS line termination (CR-LF), regardless of the mode of the underlying Cygwin mount point
• GDB's interaction with the Palm OS Simulator has been improved
• NewTypes.h can now detect that the 5.0 SDK is in use

There is also a serious caveat for the ARM configuration, which is somewhat experimental in this release: expressions requiring complex relocation, such as the initialisation of pointers to various (read-only) static data, do not work (and elicit a warning from build-prc). It is expected that this will be fixed in a future release.

2.1

• Further improved SDK searching via palmdev-prep, which should be rerun whenever you upgrade or install prc-tools or SDKs; this new utility completely replaces the old sdkfind
• The initial breakpoint in PilotMain is now mapped to SIGSTOP, so GDB can be told how to treat it (e.g. whether to stop) independently of its treatment of other breakpoints
• Building GLibs is now supported, but has not been extensively tested; using GLibs within an application (e.g. as an alternative to multiple code sections) is supported, but we do not recommend distributing a GLib for use by third parties until full interoperability testing has been done
• Added previously omitted non-throwing array versions of operator new[] to libnoexcept.a
• New build-prc features:
  • Supports database header flags recyclable and bundle
  • Warns when given an object file that has not yet been linked
  • Parsing of .def files is immune to the vagaries of LF vs. CR-LF line termination
  • The default version number in the database header is now 1 rather than 0
• Miscellaneous features common to all the Palm OS-specific utilities:
  • Error messages now always contain the right filename, and use appropriate quote marks
  • The prc-tools package version number is reported instead of an individual version number uncorrelated to those of the other utilities
• The startup code and other target libraries can now be built without the aid of a separate Palm OS SDK

2.0.92 ("2.1 pre 3")

• Fixed bug in m68k-palmos-stubgen's SysLib support
• On Unix: default PalmDev prefix changed from /usr/local/palmdev to /opt/palmdev -- but /usr/local/palmdev will still be searched, though this is deprecated

2.0.91 ("2.1 pre 2")

• Improved SDK searching via sdkfind -- this method works well with the 4.0 SDK, unlike the previous one, which required devious manual tweaks
• NewTypes.h can now detect that the 4.0 SDK is in use
• m68k-palmos-stubgen now supports SysLibs, and has basic, but incorrect, support for GLibs

2.0.90 ("2.1 pre 1")

• Fixed the floating point conversion bug
• Rewrote the multiple code resource unloader to avoid using MemPtrRecoverHandle, which doesn't work if the application has been flashed into ROM
• Added NewTypes.h, which helps insulate against different SDK versions
• Fixed clash between sys/types.h and stdlib.h
• Added libnfm.a, which simplifies use of the New Float Manager
• Compiler features:
  • Generate correctly formatted MacsBug symbols; in particular use the mangled name in C++
  • Don't implicitly wrap "extern "C"" around system headers
• GDB features:
  • Array expressions such as "print a[3]" now produce the correct results
  • Allows target palmos as a synonym of target pilot localhost:2000
  • Use MacsBug symbols as a last resort to get symbolic information about functions (e.g., Palm OS ROM functions in stack backtraces)
• build-prc features:
  • Handle raw files in subdirectories correctly, e.g., foo/tFRM03e8.bin is now made into a tFRM #1000 resource instead of a foo/ #0 resource
  • Can now read resources from files in PRC format
  • If the entry point is not at the start of a code resource, build-prc now emits a correct branch to it
  • Fixes to command line option handling
  • Fixes to .def file parsing
• Tools (build-prc and m68k-palmos-obj-res) are built with non-shared C++ support, solving the shared library not found problems with libstdc++'s _t24__default_alloc_template2b1i0.free_list on Linux Mandrake

2.0

• Default configure target changed from m68k-palmos-coff to m68k-palmos
• Multiple code resources, to support applications with more than 32K of code
• Support for (so-called multiplexed or selectorized) Palm OS version 3 and higher API functions
• Major regression from 0.5.0: GLibs not supported
• GCC and linker features:
  • Access to global variables via the A5 register by default, thus removing the need for CALLBACK_PROLOGUE-style macros
  • The linker outputs an appropriate error message when encountering an undefined symbol, instead of the previous misleading DISP16 truncated to fit message
  • (Somewhat incomplete) C++ support
• GDB features:
  • Better handling of LF v. CR-LF line termination issues
  • Breakpoints detected as such rather than as generic traps
• Build-prc features:
  • Capable of reading bfd executables (as output by the linker) directly instead of via m68k-palmos-obj-res and intermediate .grc files
  • Can set database header flags (e.g., copy-prevention and backup flags)

There were also some serious bugs:

• Some floating point patches were omitted, causing incorrect results from and infinite loops during conversions between floats and integers
• The technique used to unload multiple code resources did not work (due to a Palm OS limitation) if the application had been flashed into ROM
• The method used to find SDK headers needed devious and unsupportable tweaking to work with the 4.0 SDK released a year later

It is strongly recommended that anyone still using prc-tools 2.0 upgrade to a more recent version without these crippling bugs.

0.5.0

Other (pre-)history

John Marshall's first prc-tools-related posting was the announcement of the porting of the GCC patches to egcs-1.0.3 on 1998-07-13. He also released an 0.5.1a3 version of prc-tools on 1998-11-12.