ZXLOADER.SYSTEM: a compressed binary loader for Apple II

Implementing my latest idea of “let’s support everything I can” in Quicktake for Apple II came with a new challenge: in order for every program to have as much RAM as each require, the application now ships a lot of binaries, each with its own task. There’s one for configuring the camera model and serial communication, one for the application’s UI, one for viewing and printing images, four different image decoders, and six camera drivers. I already have experience using zx02 to compress assets from my Shufflepuck project, and at first, I reused that knowledge by compressing the camera drivers: it was enough to fit everything on the floppy. My camera drivers are now loaded in their destination segment with a simple zx02_decompress_in_place(drv, (char *)0xC00, (char *)0x1A00) call. This function opens the driver file, reads it, and decompresses it. But the addition of my fourth decoder, for the Chinon ES-3000 and Dycam 10-C, hit the 140kB wall on the floppy disk, and I had to find a way…