Survey posted 2005-02-15 17:43 by Jon.

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Z88DK anyone?

http://z88dk.sourceforge.net/

That was my first thought when I saw the survey, but then I figured that it could be asking for a compiler that produces more optimized output :/ I don't know, a better C compiler could be useful...

It would be more useful if someone would write a library that turns the z80 romcalls (although I think they're different on each calc) into readable functions. I should do that, but I won't, cause I don't own a z80 calc anymore.

If you rely on romcalls, BASIC is a better choice. Same speed, but much smaller programs.

That is not always true...if you are doing a lot of looping (I think - at least, GOTO's), ASM is much faster than BASIC because the target address does not have to be found each time, & I am sure there are other cases.

I voted "I have a different answer", since there _is_ a C compiler. And it has been around for a couple years. See URL.

While it may not be very optimized, I personally feel C on the z80-based calcs is a bit of a stretch, considering, if nothing else, their limited avaliability of ram, not to mention the lack of archive on many of them. I am not saying it's impossible, I just feel it won't dethrone ASM.

Is this C compiler written for the Mac?

Exactly, so wouldn't it be nice if there is a C compiler for the z80 on the level of TIGCC for the 68K calcs?

Just what I was going to say until I saw your post! I've even used it a bit, porting Bots II to the 86. It could use improvements in some areas, but overall it's pretty good.

Where'd you get the libraries? Did they come with the compiler? Did you write them yourself?

Nah, I didn't write anything myself. They came with the compiler. ;-)

And I could port it to the 85!

this would be a nice tool to have to make programing easier

Of course I want one, but is this possible?

I picked I don't have one, which isn't true, I just don't use the one I have...cause i've got an 89! w00t!

This would be great if (ONLY IF!) it worked for EVERY Z80 calculator, INCLUDING THE TI-85!!!

Ha! The 85 is probably the hardest z80 to program for. I attempted to port a 86 ASM program over to the 85 and seriously found no tools available not even simple rom equates for the OP registers...so if anyone knows of some...send em my way :-)

Try looking at asm math programs. I found (when porting to Rigel, PhatOS, UsGard, and ZShell) that Rigel is most similar to 86 style asm. SSJ Rage doesn't use Ops, but the Rigel source may prove useful. It is a pain, so code with your sanity closely gaurded.

If you use the Rigel shell, I have a list of TI83 style equates for it. The only major programming difference is the lack of a textwrite flag.

It would be very nice if there was a good one, like TIGCC for the 68ks

Shaboinka is actually working on a project called "SquirrelBox." He's pretty far into it. Check the link or go here for some more information on it:

http://www.ti-news.net/ project_view.php?project=squirrelbox

Why membership is required is beyond me. I'd be curious to have a look at it, but signing up for Yahoo is something I'm not willing to do just for this reason.

It is a nice project, but requires java libraries to run. I'll soon be getting Visual Studio and will code something a bit more useful: imagine Notepad for the z80 TI coder, with routines and code snippets ready to paste from a large selection for the 73 Flash-86... That's actually easy with Visual Basic, so anybody is truly welcome to run with the idea.

And is Java a problem...?

Ah, but with Visual Studio, it won't work on Linux or Mac. So it's really NOT that useful.

Under Linux one can run .NET programs, including those created with VB.NET, using Mono (search for it on Google). I am not sure if there is a similar project for Mac OS. On the other hand, if he meant non-.NET Visual Basic, then there is no way to run it except by emulation (such as SoftWindows or Wine).

WINE Is Not an Emulator!