Repository: https://github.com/abledbody/picotron-external-template
Direct download: https://github.com/abledbody/picotron-external-template/archive/refs/heads/main.zip

How to use

1. Copy this directory to wherever you want the project to be.
2. Rename the directory and template.p64 to match the name of the project.
3. Open template.p64/main.lua and...
   - Change this line: cd("/projects/template") to point at the directory of your project, keeping the leading slash.
   - Change this line: DATP = "template.p64/" to match the name of the cartridge, keeping the trailing slash.

If you're using Visual Studio Code and would like to use LuaCATS definitions for Picotron, you can either put them in C:\lualib\picotron-definitions, or you can edit settings.json to point to the directory of your choice. I personally recommend cloning Rayquaza01's definition files, but bear in mind that at time of writing, there are no fully complete and accurate definitions for Picotron, and Picotron itself is still in active development, so you may occasionally see warnings for things that are actually valid in Picotron.

Important stuff

The entry point for your project's code is src/main.lua, rather than template.p64/main.lua. All scripts go into src/ so that they are unaffected by Picotron's metadata management, and can live outside of ram/cart so that iterating on them does not require loading the cartridge more than once. When you are ready to distribute the cartridge, all you need to do is make sure there is a copy of your src directory at the root of the cartridge in ram/cart before you save or export it.

Whenever you want to refer to a file that lives in the cartridge, use DATP.. as a prefix, such as fetch(DATP.."gfx/0.gfx"). This is because the working directory is different depending on where your src directory is. If src is at the root of the cartridge, the working directory will be ram/cart. Otherwise, it will be whatever you set it to in main.lua. DATP compensates for this by always pointing to the cartridge root.

Trivia

This template is designed to be used with Sumneko's Lua language server extension for VSCode, and the Lua Comments And Type System (LuaCATS) annotations it provides.

This template comes with:

• Kira's Error Explorer (with thanks), because I find it invaluable, since as of 0.2.0d, Picotron's error handling is garbage.
• A require function, to work around how the lua language server does not recognize Picotron's include function. It's also just nicer for dependency management than include.

Picotron-specific operators such as a \ b, a ..= b, and ?x are completely unrecognized by the Lua language server, and so will show errors, even if Picotron itself recognizes them. Each has a simple substitute. a // b, a = a .. b, and print(x), respectively. One-line if statements such as if (x) print(y) are also unrecognized.

The ruler setting in .vscode/settings.json indicates where the horizontal boundary of the code.p64 app is when using its monospace font, in case that's something you care about.