[A86] Re: Alternative language compiler
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[A86] Re: Alternative language compiler
> Van: David Phillips <david@acz.org>
>
> This compiler would be for the PC. It is not really feasible to program
> anything complex on the calc, due to it having a limited amount of ram,
> no safe way to store source code, and having a limited input device.
>
> The goal of the language would be to make it easier to write programs,
> because assembly is tedious. The compiler would generate code that would
> be almost as good as hand written assembly. It should generate code that
> is as good or better than code written by the average beginner. Any time
> critical code like sprite routines would be written in assembly, but
> control logic would be written in the high level language.
Take a look at SDCC v2.3.0 ( http://sdcc.sourceforge.net ), the Z80 port
has improved giganticaly since the last time I saw it (almost
'handwritten'). The beauty about this compiler is the intermediate code, so
you could write a frontend
(?right word?) that generates iCode for your language, and the backends do
the rest.
The major problem I see is that it hasn't got a decent lib (only fairly
basic standard C stuff). You can also still only compile for one target
(let's say CrASH[82], versus Ion[83(+)]), and you need to 'manualy' switch
to another target by copying a new crt0.o file into the Z80-lib directory.
Which also means that 'descriptions' and 'icons' (stored in the shell
header) would be always the same unless you assemble a new crt0.o file.
This are all 'fixable', but your compiler will have the same problems in
advance (no matter what road you take to create your compiler), untill it
has 'grown' enough to get supported by the users.
I could send some SDCC compiled examples to this list to convince people.
Henk Poley <><
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