ACME

         ...the ACME Crossassembler for Multiple Environments

                       --- addressing modes ---


If a command can be used with different addressing modes, ACME has to
decide which one to use. Several commands of the 6502 CPU can be used
with either "absolute" addressing or "zeropage-absolute" addressing.
The former one means there's a 16-bit argument, the latter one means
there's an 8-bit argument.
And the 65816 CPU even knows some commands with 24-bit addressing...

So how does ACME know which addressing mode to use?
The simple approach is to always use the smallest possible argument,
of course: If the argument fits in a byte, use zeropage addressing. If
it doesn't, use absolute addressing. If it needs more than two bytes
and the 65816 CPU is chosen, use 24-bit addressing.

In most cases this works - with two exceptions. The remainder of this
text may sound somewhat confusing now, so if you don't have any
problems with addressing modes, then don't bother trying to understand
everything this texts says. :)

The two exceptions are:




***   1) Labels are defined too late

If ACME cannot figure out the argument value in the first pass, it
assumes that the command uses 16-bit addressing.

If it later finds out that the argument only needs 8 bits, ACME gives
a warning ("using oversized addressing mode") and continues. However,
if it finds out that the argument needs 24 bits, it gives an error.

These problems can be solved by defining the labels *before* using
them, so that the value can be figured out in the first pass. If this
is not possible, you can use the postfix method, effectively exactly
defining what addressing mode to use. The postfix method is described
in a separate paragraph below.




***   2) You *want* to use an oversized addressing mode

On the 65816 CPU, "zeropage addressing" is called "direct page
addressing". The difference is that the position of the "direct page"
can be changed. Then, "lda $fa" does not necessarily access the same
memory location as "lda $00fa" anymore. The same goes for 16- and 24-
bit addressing: "lda $fabc" does not necessarily access the same
memory location as "lda $00fabc", because the default bank can be set
to something other than zero.
But even on the plain 6502 CPU you might want to force ACME to use an
oversized addressing mode, for example because of timing issues.

Again there are two ways to solve the problem: You can define the
target location using leading zeros. ACME will then use an addressing
mode that is big enough even if the leading zeros would have been
other digits:

	label1 = $fb
	label2 = $00fd
	label3 = $0000ff

		lda $fa
		sta $00fc
		lda $0000fe
		sta label1
		lda label2
		sta label3

will be assembled to

  a5 fa		; lda $fa
  8d fc 00	; sta $00fc
  af fe 00 00	; lda $0000fe
  85 fb		; sta $fb
  ad fd 00	; lda $00fd
  8f ff 00 00	; sta $0000ff

The other possibility is to use the postfix method (described in the
next paragraph).




***   The postfix method

Warning: This may sound very complicated at first, but I think that
once you get used to it you'll agree it's useful. If you don't want to
use this, stick to the "leading zeros" method and don't bother about
postfixes.

Still with me? Okay:
You can force ACME to use a specific addressing mode by adding "+1",
"+2" or "+3" to the assembler mnemonic. Each one of these postfixes
sets the relevant "Force Bit" in ACME's result. If Force Bit 3 is set,
ACME will use 24-bit addressing. Force Bit 2 means 16-bit addressing
and Force Bit 1 means 8-bit addressing. Higher Force Bits have higher
priorities.

Here's an (overly complicated) example:

	label1   = $fb
	label2   = $fd
	label3+3 = $ff	; set Force Bit 3 and store in label's flags

		ldx   $fa
		ldy+2 $fc	; set Force Bit 2 (16-bit addressing)
		lda+3 $fe	; set Force Bit 3 (24-bit addressing)
		stx   label1
		sty+2 label2	; set Force Bit 2 (16-bit addressing)
		sta   label3	; no need to set Force Bit 3 as it is
				; already set in "label3".

will be assembled to

  a6 fa		; ldx $fa
  ac fc 00	; ldy $00fc
  af fe 00 00	; lda $0000fe
  86 fb		; stx $fb
  8c fd 00	; sty $00fd
  8f ff 00 00	; sta $0000ff

Postfixes given directly after the command have higher priority than
those given to the argument. As you can see, you can add the postfix
to the label definition as well (equivalent to leading zeros).

Applying the byte extraction operators ("<" gives the low byte, ">"
gives the high byte and "^" gives the bank byte of a value) to any
value will clear the argument's Force Bits 2 and 3 and set Force
Bit 1 instead. So "lda <label" will use 8-bit addressing, regardless
of the label's Force Bits. Of course, you can change this by
postfixing the command again... :)




***   The algorithm to find the right addressing mode

You don't need to read this paragraph just to use ACME, I only
included it for completeness' sake. This is a description of ACME's
strategy for finding the addressing mode to use:

First, ACME checks whether the command has any postfix. If it has,
ACME acts upon it. So postfixes have the highest priority.

Otherwise, ACME checks whether the argument has any Force Bits set
(because of leading zeros or byte extraction operators, for example)
or references to labels that have. If any Force Bit is set, ACME acts
upon it. This is the next priority level: Leading zeros or postfixes
added to the label definition.

Otherwise, ACME checks whether the argument could be figured out in
the first pass. If it couldn't, ACME tries to use a default addressing
mode (normally this will be 16-bit addressing).
In case the value could be figured out even in the first pass, then
everything's cool and froody: ACME just looks at the argument's value
and uses the smallest addressing mode that matches.

I admit that this algorithm sounds complicated, but it hasn't failed
yet. :) And in everyday usage, it does exactly what one expects.

If you want to take a closer look at the algorithm, examine the
"calc_arg_size" function in the "sources/mnemo.c" file.