Embedding a File in an Executable, aka Hello World, Version 5967

I was facing exactly the same problem when I wanted to embed 4tH bytecode into an executable. The trick is to convert the file into a C-file that can be compiled properly with any C compiler. 4tH features a program to do that. In essence it works like this: you read the file in binary mode byte by byte and convert those bytes to unsigned characters. A converted file looks like this:

static unit HelloWorld [] = {
  '\x01', '\x02', '\x04', '\x00', '\xff', '\xff', '\xff', '\x7f', '\x04',
  '\x5c', '\x03', '\x08', '\x02', '\x02', '\x02', '\x0d', '\x08', '\x08',
  '\x08', '\x05', '\x08', '\x02', '\x48', '\x65', '\x6c', '\x6c', '\x6f',
  '\x20', '\x77', '\x6f', '\x72', '\x6c', '\x64', '\x21', '\x00', '\xfd'
};

'unit' is equivalent to 'unsigned char'. You can even embed several files like this. IMHO this method is more transparent to both the programmer and the compiler. The source to do this is pretty trivial:

\ 4tH binary to .h file converter - Copyright 2007 J.L. Bezemer
\ You can redistribute this file and/or modify it under
\ the terms of the GNU General Public License

\ This file is geared toward the conversion of 4tH HX bytecode.
\ In order to convert other binary files, just change 'unit' to 'char'.
s" static unit " sconstant header      \ declaration header

include lib/argopen.4th                \ use ARG-OPEN word
include lib/ulcase.4th                 \ case conversion

     9 constant /line                  \ number of bytes per line
char ' constant quote                  \ single quote character
char , constant colon                  \ single colon character

/line string line                      \ input buffer

: .char ." '\x" <# # # #> s>lower type quote emit ;
: .char, .char colon emit space ;      ( n --)
: ?c@ dup if 1- chars + c@ else 2drop 0 then ;
: ?char if ?c@ .char else 2drop then ; ( a n f --)
: .header header type 1 args type ."  [] = {" cr ;
: .footer ." };" cr ;                  ( --)
: ?bounds space space over 0<> and if 1- then bounds ;
: read over over accept tuck <> ;      ( a n1 -- a n2 f)
: .line >r 2dup r@ ?bounds ?do i c@ .char, loop r@ ?char cr r> ;
: .lines hex begin line /line read .line until ;
: Usage argn 4 < abort" Usage: bin2h variable file h-file" ;
: OpenFiles Usage input 2 arg-open output 3 arg-open ;
: Convert Openfiles .header .lines .footer close close ;

Convert

Hans Bezemer

That is one of the most interesting things I have ever seen in this magazine. It's almost an introduction to how a linker works. It would be really excellent to expand upon this article, although I'm not expert enough to suggest in what way.

Thanks.