HP 163x LIF format

[Tony Duell]

> 
> Hello,
> 
> I have been able to figure out the LIF Directory format for HP 163x floppy
> files. I will write up a doc for that. It is possible to mount a floppy
> under Linux, set some parameters for the floppy drive, and dd it out to an
> image file. This way one can read the floppy with the LIFUTILs out there...

Have you looked at my LIF Utilities for Linux (available, I hope, from 
http://www.hpcc.org/, if not can send you a .tar.gz file). There might be 
some useful stuff there relating to reading directory entries, etc.

I wrote this to handle the files used on the handheld calculators, and 
therefore there won't be explicit types defined for other files. But it's 
faitly clear how to add them. Ask me if you need some help. 


> In the XMas break I'll work on a doc to make that info available.
> 
> However, I'm also looking how a dir entry looks for for example an Inverse
> assembler and executable code. There is a way to load a program on these
> LA's and execute them.

I am sure yoy know this, but the things you need to find out are the 16 
bit file type code and the contents of the 4 type-dependant bytes. The 
latter could depend on the file size, or the execution entry  point, or...

-tony