Documentation on Symbols File

About

One thing that makes code easier to read is by naming global variables and functions (and also local variables, but this is not implemented right now). We store this information in a simple symbols file, which is named, eg, 'zol.lookup.txt'. This looks in jobs/zol for that file and reads from it every time you decompile any function. This means you can modify the symbols file any time.

First comes the header:

[Functions]

Next comes a list of function names. On the left is the address (Eg, 10940) and and '=' inbetween that and the name of the function which is at 10940. (Note that #x preceding the number means it is hexadecimal).

10940 = DrawSingleChar

We put a blank line to finish:

Then these are the header names:

[ReadFromHardware] - This is for hardware registers which are read to trigger a shift in state.
[Functions] - This is for naming subroutines.
[Globals] - This is for naming global variables.

Finally, here is a sample symbol file for the game Temple of Terror:

[ReadFromHardware]
#x2007= ReadPPT

[Functions]
10940 = DrawSingleChar
12231 = PrintSaveMsg_SaveGame
15080 = ClearTopScreen
65466 = KERNEL_SETLFS

[Globals]
18 = ParsedVerb
19 = ParsedNoun
20 = ParsedWithNoun
8 = ParseInputSuccessful
11 = WordTablePtr_lo
12 = WordTablePtr_hi
11686 = InputWord

[Locals]
15080.LLocal1 = Counter