from JAAT.

An IDE (Integrated Development Environment) for the Ace? Well not quite but with the asm templates, a text editor, TASM and Eightyone you can get something close. Below are three versions using three different text editors. UltraEdit , ConTEXT and Notepad++ I like UltraEdit text editor but its not free. Notepad++ and ConTEXT editors are free and easy to setup it also has a Z80 machine code language highlighting file. I'm sure you can setup any text editor that will allow you to run applications from within the editor.

J.A.D.E. Setup with ConTEXT editor.

J.A.D.E. Setup with UltraEdit editor (Version 15.00.0.1535).

J.A.D.E. Setup with Notepad++ editor (Version 5.3.1)

First download ConTEXT and install it to its default install folder. Also download TASM assember, this will not have an install option but comes as a zip file. Unzip TASM to a folder in your C drive such as C:\TASM. You will also need the EightyOne emulator installed on your system.

Next just follow the next few screen shots to set ConTEXT editors environment options > Execute Keys.

First from conTEXTs menu bar select Options then Environment Options. In the window you will see a panel with User exce keys, below three buttons, click Add and enter asm and click OK.

Next we will set conTEXTs F9 key to run TASM and compile the a template text file to a TAP file. Look carefully at the next window shot.

Things to Note:
Execute: Browse to and select the TASM executable.
Start in: %p (File path)
Parameters: -80 -b -l %n %F.tap
This will create a TAP file depending on the template used (see templates), a Dict or Byte tap, output to same filename with 'TAP' extension.

Hint: TASM Compile to TAP - here is the tool tip message when you hover your mouse over the user buttons.

Next we will set conTEXTs F10 key to run EightyOne emulator. Look carefully at the next window shot.

Things to Note:
Execute: Browse to and select the EightyOne executable.
Start in: %p (File path)
Parameters: %p\ %F.tap
The file path and name with the TAP extension will be passed to EightyOne.
The compiled TAP file will be shown in EightyOnes TAP manager.

Hint: RUN EightyOne - here is the tool tip message when you hover your mouse over the user buttons.

All done. To test download this file idetest.asm and open with conTEXT. Press F9 and if all has been set correctly idetest.asm will be passed to TASM to compile into a Byte TAP file. In the window shot below you can see that the TASM output has been captured to be displayed in the output console window.

Next if you press F10, EightyOne will lunch and the name of the TAP file will be passed to EightyOnes TAP manager. Make sure EightyOne has the 32K RAM option selected, you can then enter 0 0 BLOAD idetest 30000 CALL you screen should fill with x's. You can resize the windows as shown in the screen shot below.

UltraEdit is very simple to setup. From the menu select Advanced then Tool Configuration

Menu Item : TASM compile is the name used in the tool menu.
Command Line: C:\TASM\TASM.EXE -80 -b -l %N.asm %N.tap
This is how TASM is called, %N is used for the file name.
Working Directory: C:\TASM - This is where the text files are.

Under the Options Tab have Program Type set as DOS Program alsoSave Active File checked.
Under the Output Tab select Output to List Box also have the Capture Output ticked.

Next Insert a new menu item and fill it out like the screen shot below.

Menu Item :81 run is the name used in the tool menu.
Command Line: C:\EightyOne\EightyOne.exe %P%N.tap
This is how EightyOne is called, %N is used for the file name.
Working Directory: C:\TASM - This is where the TAP file was compiled to.

Under the Options Tab have Program Type set as Windows Program alsoSave All Files First checked.
Under the Output Tab select Output to List Box.

You can also add the two menu options to the main menu bar, as in the screen shot below.

All done. To test download this file idetest.asm and open with UltraEdit. click the tool button to launch and if all has been set correctly idetest.asm will be passed to TASM to compile into a Byte TAP file. In the window shot below you can see that the TASM output has been captured to be displayed in the output console window.

First download Notepad++ and install it to its default install folder. Also download TASM assember, this will not have an install option but comes as a zip file. Unzip TASM to a folder in your C drive such as C:\TASM.
You will also need the EightyOne emulator installed on your system.

Due to the way TASM uses file names we need to use a small DOS batch file to pass some file names from Notepad++ to TASM. This is done with TASM.BAT, download it and save it to your TASM folder.

Next we need to set the external commands, from the menu select Run, then RUN again a box will pop up for you to enter the external command details.

Navigate to where you installed the EightyOne emulator, and select the 'eightyone.exe' execute file.

In the RUN box the external command we want to run is eightyone.exe, we would also like to pass eightyone the TAP name that's just been compiled with TASM. We need to add a Notepad++ environment variable to the end of 'eightyone.exe' just add the text below after eightyone.exe.

      C:\EightyOne\EightyOne.exe $(CURRENT_DIRECTORY)\$(NAME_PART).tap

Check the environment variable '$(CURRENT_DIRECTORY)\$(NAME_PART).tap' is correct before you SAVE the command. The saved name is the one that appears in the Notepad++ RUN menu. That done ,next we need to setup is TASM.

Open the Run menu and choose RUN, and navigate to where TASM is located. This time select the TASM.BAT file. Because TASM is a DOS program it will only except file names in the 8.3 DOS format. The TASM.BAT file will pass the correct file name format to TASM.exe. But will still need to pass Notepad++ environment variable '$(FULL_CURRENT_PATH) $(NAME_PART)' so add this text after the TASM.BAT as below.

     C:\TASM\TASM.bat $(FULL_CURRENT_PATH) $(NAME_PART)

What's in the TASM.bat file? Well its just a small text file that the DOS part of the your operating system can run, all it does is to pass Notepad++ environment variables to TASM in the correct format, it also pops up as an output window to show if TASM has executed correctly without any errors. see below.

@ECHO OFF
ECHO.
rem  +-------------------------------------+
rem  |  JAAT   -    www.jupiter-ace.co.uk  |
rem  | Jupiter Ace Archive Team April 2009 |
rem  |     Batch file to run TASM from     |
rem  |              Notepad++              |
rem  +-------------------------------------+
rem
ECHO   Notepad++ / TASM output window
ECHO   ==============================
rem
cd c:\TASM
rem
rem +-------------------------------------+
rem |    set location of TASM in the      |
rem |    above line 'cd c:\tasm location' |
rem +-------------------------------------+
rem
TASM.EXE -80 -b -l %1 %2.tap
rem
ECHO.
ECHO.
ECHO TASM task completed.
ECHO.
PAUSE
CLS
EXIT

Next save the external run command, remember that the saved name will show in Notepad++ RUN menu as in the image below. I saved it as 'TASM Z80 Compile'.

That's it, Notepad++ is ready. To test load in the idetest.asm, save idetest.asm to the TASM folder. when you select 'TASM Z80 Compile' the TASM.BAT file will pop up showing you if TASM competes its task of compiling idetest.asm. A TAP file will have also been created and saved to the TASM folder. If you RUN eightyone from Notepad++ RUN menu it will load eightyone and you will have the newly created TAP file in eightyone's TAP managers window ready for you to load into the emulator.

Below is a screen shot of the Notepad++ ,TASM and Eightyone setup running on Windows XP Pro SP3. Eightyone has run idetest to run the code type 0 0 BLOAD idetest 30000 CALL and you should see a screen full of x's.

What to do if you have made a typo and need to edit Notepad++ external run commands. These commands are stored in a file called shortcuts.xml and can be found by navigating to:-

C:\Documents and Settings\YOUR USER NAME\Application Data\Notepad++\shortcuts.xml

Open with a text editor to edit and correct the error, you might want to assign your external commands with shortcut keys, such as CTRL+E for eightyone or CTRL+T for TASM. If you cannot see the Application Data folder its because the folder is hidden and you will need to change it in the windows file EXPLORER. From the menu select TOOLS > Folder Options > View ... in the Advanced Options window make sure the Show hidden files and Folders is selected. Then you will find the Application Data folder.