[NTLK] NewtonOS ROM Source Code

[Eckhart Köppen]

On 11. Feb, 2011, at 23:21, Matthias Melcher wrote:

> If there was a way to generate fully functional assembler code from the ROM (I am thinking of static code analysis which is terribly easy for the NewtonScript parts and relatively easy for the ARM parts - but hard for all the data chunks), would that be useful to get more insight?
> 
> Would those who commented parts of the code be interested to collect all comments in a single database that could be read by this program?
> 
> Would an interactive version that allows for easy new commenting be useful?

Sounds like a good idea. I actually set up something like this for my own purposes, but haven't used it in a while, and need to check where I had it actually running. It was basically a disassembly of the Newton ROM, split into functions which were defined in the debug symbols. The source was editable for later analysis.

> Would we ever be able to compile NewtonOS as a stand-alon app?

It depends how you dump the ROM, but I think it can be done. One problem is to make sure the cross references are really working, i.e. if things shift in the memory map, all pointers have to still point to the right spot. On the other hand, changes which do not impact the memory map are easy, e.g. overwriting or patching functions and using spare memory areas for new functionality.

Eckhart