[comp.sys.amiga.tech] Assembly Language

lphillips@lpami.wimsey.bc.ca (Larry Phillips) (10/26/90)

In <1990Oct26.233149.8978@jato.jpl.nasa.gov>, jdickson@jato.jpl.nasa.gov (Jeff Dickson) writes:
>
>	I need pointers on a good assembly language compiler-linker
>package for the Amiga. I was an avid Z80 assembly language person
>back in the 8 bit CPU days - I really like it. Any available that
>generate PRN like files that Microsoft's M80 compiler produced?

Commercial products:

  Adapt            - Excellent, produces code for all 680x0 family. Fast
  ArgAsm           - Said to be very good. Haven't tried it. Fast
  C.A.P.E          - Very good. Fast.
  DevPak (HiSoft)  - Very Good. Fast.
  Macro68          - Good. A little difficult to set up. Fast.
  MetaComco        - Not real good. Not very fast.
  Assempro         - Typical Abacus junk. If you get it free, throw it away.

Freely distributable

  A68K  - No competition. The only worthwhile freebie. Fairly fast.


I don't know what PRN files are, so I can't comment on that aspect.

Be prepared for some learning curve if you are coming from the Z80.  Operands
and addresses are the right way around. Flags are set for most operations on
data regs, so you don't have to explicitly use a compare to get the EQ, NEQ,
PL, MI conditions. Address reg operations do not set flags.

Have fun... it's a whole new thing, and much more enjoyable than the Z80.

-larry

--
It is not possible to both understand and appreciate Intel CPUs.
    -D.Wolfskill
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ 
|   //   Larry Phillips                                                 |
| \X/    lphillips@lpami.wimsey.bc.ca -or- uunet!van-bc!lpami!lphillips |
|        COMPUSERVE: 76703,4322  -or-  76703.4322@compuserve.com        |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+

jdickson@jato.jpl.nasa.gov (Jeff Dickson) (10/27/90)

Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.tech
Subject: Assembly Language 
Summary: 
Expires: 
Sender: 
Reply-To: jdickson@jato.Jpl.Nasa.Gov (Jeff Dickson)
Followup-To: 
Distribution: comp.sys.amiga.tech
Organization: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA
Keywords: 


	I need pointers on a good assembly language compiler-linker
package for the Amiga. I was an avid Z80 assembly language person
back in the 8 bit CPU days - I really like it. Any available that
generate PRN like files that Microsoft's M80 compiler produced?

						Thanks, Jeff

--------------------------------------------------------------------
Jeff S. Dickson				jdickson@zook.jpl.nasa.gov

DXB132@psuvm.psu.edu (10/27/90)

Although I can't compare it to the Z80 assembler you mentioned, I *can* say tha
t Macro68 is the best assembler for the Amiga. It supports the 68000/68010/6802
0/68030/68881/68882/68851/68040, is FAST, has tons of features, and has no know
n bugs. Technical support is excellent.

-- Dan Babcock

chem194@canterbury (John Davis, programmer at large, chemistry department) (10/28/90)

> 	I need pointers on a good assembly language compiler-linker
> package for the Amiga. I was an avid Z80 assembly language person
> back in the 8 bit CPU days - I really like it. Any available that
> generate PRN like files that Microsoft's M80 compiler produced?

well, my favoured system is Hisoft's DevPac. It comprises both a
commandline driven assembler, a _reasonable_ front end editor, and
quite a nice machine code monitor. It's fast, and best of all the 
editor/assembler/monitor integrate nicely so that from within the
editor you can do an assemble to memory, then jump to the debugger
all with two keystrokes.

It will output either Blinklable files, or executable code.

The only real problem at the moment is lack of 010/020/030 support -
they're working on this for DevPac Professional,which shouldn't be
too far away hopefully.

Of course, if you don't want the editor or the debugger, there's always
A68k, which is pd and quite reasonable.

> 
> 						Thanks, Jeff
> 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
> Jeff S. Dickson				jdickson@zook.jpl.nasa.gov

jcs@crash.cts.com (John Schultz) (10/29/90)

  

  I've used Lattice's ASM, CAPE 2.5, Devpac 2.0, and Adapt. If you've
got Lattice (or now SAS), you can use ASM for most simple things (it's
quite slow). Devpac 2.0 is the fastest assembler of the bunch, but has
some goofy syntax (like forcing you to place a switch as the first line of
your file). Devpac 2.0 and CAPE 2.5 do not support the 68020/30/40/881/882.
Adapt was written by Howesoft, and works just like CAPE (Gee, I wonder
why?)  It's basically a faster CAPE with 680x0/881/882 support. One of the
cool features of Adapt, is the ability to disassemble code showing cycle
times per instruction. No more looking through the book! Adapt is your
best bet out of this lot.


  John

eeh@public.BTR.COM (Eduardo E. Horvath eeh@btr.com) (10/30/90)

In article <1990Oct26.233149.8978@jato.jpl.nasa.gov> jdickson@jato.Jpl.Nasa.Gov (Jeff Dickson) writes:

>	I need pointers on a good assembly language compiler-linker
>package for the Amiga. I was an avid Z80 assembly language person
>back in the 8 bit CPU days - I really like it. Any available that
>generate PRN like files that Microsoft's M80 compiler produced?

>						Thanks, Jeff

>--------------------------------------------------------------------
>Jeff S. Dickson				jdickson@zook.jpl.nasa.gov

	If the PRN files are absolute listings with the mnemonics and the hex
code generated side by side, I don't think you can get the equivalent on an
Amiga.  The reason for that is that addresses are not inserted until load time,
and every load is potentially different and unique, so the hex will constantly
change.  What you want is a good source-code debugger.  That will give you the
equivalent behavior but without all of the paper 8^)  The only debugger I have
experience with is Lattice CodeProbe, which gives excellent results.  It allows
single-stepping through the source code while concurently displaying the entire
register set in a separate window.  It also has a built-in disassembler.  Make
certain that the package you buy has an equivalent or better debugger.


=========================================================================
Eduardo Horvath				eeh@btr.com
					..!{decwrl,mips,fernwood}!btr!eeh
	"Trust me, I know what I am doing." - Sledge Hammer
=========================================================================

chem194@canterbury.ac.nz (John Davis, programmer at large, chemistry department) (10/30/90)

In article <837@public.BTR.COM>, eeh@public.BTR.COM (Eduardo E. Horvath  eeh@btr.com) writes:
> In article <1990Oct26.233149.8978@jato.jpl.nasa.gov> jdickson@jato.Jpl.Nasa.Gov (Jeff Dickson) writes:
> 
>>	I need pointers on a good assembly language compiler-linker
>>package for the Amiga. I was an avid Z80 assembly language person
>>back in the 8 bit CPU days - I really like it. Any available that
>>generate PRN like files that Microsoft's M80 compiler produced?
> 
> 	If the PRN files are absolute listings with the mnemonics and the hex
> code generated side by side, I don't think you can get the equivalent on an
> Amiga.  The reason for that is that addresses are not inserted until load time,
> and every load is potentially different and unique, so the hex will constantly
> change.
 
Actually, HiSoft's DevPac supports the output of _absolute_ code ( i.e.
code ORG'd to a specific adress, such as you need for ROM-able code ),
hence with the list-to-disk option turned on it will do what is required.

I'm pretty certain a few other proper Assembler development systems
do too ... like it's very handy both for cross-development for embedded
systems, and also I guess for games that take the hardware over directly
and hence don't use the AmigaDOS code loader/relocator.
 
-----------------------------------------------------------
| o  John Davis - CHEM194@canterbury.ac.nz               o |
| o  (Depart)mental Programmer,Chemistry Department      o |
| o  University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand o | 
| o                                                      o |
| o  co-sysop AmigaINFO BBS,1200/2400 baud CCITT,        o |
| o           24 hours a day, ph NZ +3-3371-531          o |

dfrancis@tronsbox.xei.com (Dennis Francis Heffernan) (10/30/90)

|MesgID: 837@public.BTR.COM

|If the PRN files are absolute listings with the mnemonics and the hex
|code generated side by side, I don't think you can get the equivalent on an
|Amiga.
|Eduardo Horvath                         eeh@btr.com


	Oh boy!  An assembly question I CAN answer!  ;-)

	You can get listings like that out of a68k and CAPE- I've done it with
both.  Of course, you don't get absolute memory addresses; the PC starts at
zero and works its way up.  But it does show the hex code generated for each
line.

	Back to the code mines...groan.  (I've moved on from guru numbers 3 and
4 to ones like 8100009.)


dfrancis@tronsbox.xei.com   ...uunet!tronsbox!dfrancis     GEnie: D.HEFFERNAN1
"...when Fortran was introduced, it was claimed that Fortran would largely
eliminate coding and debugging!  Of course, that claim proved to be quite false"
- UNIVERSAL ASSEMBLY LANGUAGE, Robert M. Fitz & Larry Crocket