mirror of
https://github.com/KarolS/millfork.git
synced 2024-11-04 09:04:33 +00:00
90 lines
3.2 KiB
Markdown
90 lines
3.2 KiB
Markdown
[< back to index](index.md)
|
|
|
|
# Frequently Asked Questions
|
|
|
|
### Who is the target audience?
|
|
|
|
Millfork was designed to be a language for developers for old 8-bit platforms,
|
|
mostly game developers, who have little use for advanced features of C, but don't have time to write assembly.
|
|
|
|
### What was the inspiration?
|
|
|
|
The main inspirations was Atalan, but also Quetzalcoatl, Batari BASIC and NESHLA.
|
|
Sadly, Atalan has been abandoned and the compiler has been left in a non-working state.
|
|
The goal of Millfork is to succeed where Atalan failed.
|
|
|
|
### What platforms are supported?
|
|
|
|
Large programs in Millfork have been developed for Commodore 64.
|
|
|
|
Millfork was also tested (via emulators) to run trivial programs on other 8-bit Commodore computers,
|
|
Atari 8-bit computers, Apple II, BBC Micro, ZX Spectrum 48k, NEC PC-88, CP/M, NES, and Atari 2600.
|
|
|
|
Support for other devices using supported processors can be easily added, usually without even modifying the compiler.
|
|
|
|
### What microprocessors are supported?
|
|
|
|
* 6502 and its descendants: 6510, 65C02, Ricoh 2A03, and to a lesser degree CSG 65CE02, Hudson Soft HuC6280 and WDC 65816. 6509 is not supported and will not be.
|
|
|
|
* Intel 8080, Zilog Z80, Sharp LR35902 (also known as GBZ80)
|
|
|
|
### Why Millfork when I can use assembly?
|
|
|
|
* Assembly will not be portable. If you want to target both 6502 and Z80, you'd have to maintain two separate codebases.
|
|
|
|
* Millfork is more productive. The programmer doesn't have to worry about register allocation or variable sizes.
|
|
|
|
### Why Millfork when I can use C?
|
|
|
|
* Millfork is usually a bit faster.
|
|
|
|
* No runtime, so it's easier to create small programs.
|
|
|
|
* Many features usually found in advanced assemblers but rarely found in high-level languages are also available in Millfork,
|
|
like hygienic macros, binary file inclusion, explicit memory layout, formulaic array initialization.
|
|
|
|
* Millfork handles text encodings more carefully.
|
|
|
|
* A wide variety of integer types of almost arbitrary sizes.
|
|
|
|
* Semantics designed to suit 8-bit microprocessors, so usually less explicit casting is required.
|
|
|
|
* Low-level things like the carry after arithmetic operations or single bytes of larger variables.
|
|
|
|
* Built-in decimal arithmetic support.
|
|
|
|
* Easy interfacing with assembly.
|
|
|
|
### This sounds like Millfork beats C in every department, right?
|
|
|
|
Unfortunately not:
|
|
|
|
* Millfork is very picky. It avoids compiling complex expressions, especially those involving larger variables.
|
|
|
|
* Integer math support is not very complete.
|
|
|
|
* Floating point math support is absent.
|
|
|
|
* There are no complex datatypes yet.
|
|
|
|
* There are no arrays other than byte arrays.
|
|
|
|
* There are no pointers other than byte pointers.
|
|
|
|
* There is no support for linking with external libraries not written in Millfork.
|
|
You either need to rewrite foreign assembly into Millfork assembly syntax,
|
|
or generate a static binary and link it manually using the `file` directive.
|
|
|
|
Since the compiler is a work-in-progress, some of the mentioned issues might be improved upon in the future.
|
|
|
|
### Why is it called Millfork?
|
|
|
|
It stands for **MI**ddle **L**evel **L**anguage **FOR** **K**ommodore computers.
|
|
|
|
(There's also a mining town in Utah called Mill Fork, which, as fitting a compiler for obsolete machines, is currently abandoned.)
|
|
|
|
### ‟Commodore” isn't spelt with K!
|
|
|
|
Shh.
|
|
|