[avr-chat] Storing templates in flash

[Hugo González Monteverde]

Hello all,

I am writing a program that will print some forms to a serial ticket 
printer. I want to use the program space version of printf to do 
necessary interpolation in a template. I would be using a mega8

Thing is: I want to store the templates in flash and then use them, but 
I wouldn't like to declare them in a source file, but use a "section" (I 
think that's how it can be done). This would be the structure of my code 
space:

first address:  Bootloader
1k later:       Application
starting at 7k:         Templates

...so I can use a bootloader to change only the templates.

I don't want to declare them in .c files as PROGMEM variables and 
arrays. I have seen somewhere that you can declare a section somewhere 
(linker file?) and so the costants are copied to flash (no source code 
compilation) I would then remember the address for the start of my 
templates for using that in the C programs that read the template.

How can that be done? I have looked into AVR GCC and Introducion to GCC 
documents, but I cannot find a way to declare the sections and put the 
data in.

Hope someone can point me to docs or in the right direction.

Thanks,
Hugo