12 KiB
Syntax
For information about types, see Types.
For information about literals, see Literals.
For information about assembly, see Using assembly within Millfork programs.
Comments
Comments start with //
and last until the end of line.
Declarations
Variable declarations
A variable declaration can happen at either top level of a file (global variables), or a top level of a function (local variables).
Syntax:
[segment(<segment>)] [volatile] [<storage>] <type> <name> [@<address>] [= <initial_value>]
-
<segment>
: segment name; if absent, then defaults todefault
. -
volatile
means that the variable is volatile. The optimizer shouldn't remove or reorder accesses to volatile variables. Volatile variables cannot be declared asregister
or `stack. -
<storage>
can be only specified for local variables. It can be eitherstack
,static
,register
or nothing.register
is only a hint for the optimizer. See the description of variable storage. -
<address>
is a constant expression that defines where in the memory the variable will be located. If not specified, it will be located according to the usual allocation rules.stack
variables cannot have a defined address. -
<initial_value>
is a constant expression that contains the initial value of the variable. Only global variables can be initialized that way. The behaviour is undefined when targeting a ROM-based platform.
You can declare multiple variables in one declaration, for example:
byte x, y @$c000, z=6, w
will declare 4 variables: uninitialized variables x
and w
, fixed-address variable y
and initialized variable z
.
For every variable x
larger than a byte, extra subvariables are defined:
-
if
x
is of typeword
orpointer
:- constituent bytes, from low to high:
x.lo
,x.hi
- constituent bytes, from low to high:
-
if
x
is of typeint24
:-
constituent bytes, from low to high:
x.b0
,x.b1
,x.b2
-
partial words:
x.loword
(=x.b1:x.b0
),x.hiword
(=x.b2:x.b1
)
-
-
if
x
is of typelong
:-
constituent bytes, from low to high:
x.b0
,x.b1
,x.b2
,x.b3
-
partial words:
x.loword
(=x.b1:x.b0
),x.hiword
(=x.b3:x.b2
)
-
-
if
x
is of a larger integral type:-
constituent bytes, from low to high:
x.b0
,x.b1
,x.b2
, etc. -
the lowest word:
x.loword
(=x.b1:x.b0
)
-
Constant declarations
const <type> <name> = <value>
TODO
Alias definitions
alias <alias> = <name> [!]
Sets an alias for a global name. Unless shadowed by a local name, the alias will point to the given global object:
byte x
alias a = x
void f() {
a = 5 // writes to the global variable x
}
void f() {
byte a
a = 5 // writes to the local variable a
}
Aliases can be used for variables, arrays, constants, functions, and types, but not for text encodings, array formats or keywords.
If the alias definition is followed by a !
, then the alias overrides any other definition of that name.
This allows for overriding definitions of library functions by another library:
void f() {}
void g() {}
alias f = g!
// now the original f is removed and all calls to f will call g instead
Array declarations
An array is a continuous sequence of bytes in memory.
An array declaration can happen at either top level of a file (global arrays), or a top level of a function (local arrays). Regardless of where they were declared, arrays are considered static.
Syntax:
[segment(<segment>)] [const] array [(<element type>)] <name> [[<size>]] [align ( <alignment> )] [@<address>] [= <initial_values>]
-
<segment>
: segment name; if absent, then defaults todefault_code_segment
as defined for the platform if the array has initial values, or todefault
if it doesn't. -
if
const
is present, the array is read-only. Read-only arrays have to have a fixed address and/or defined contents.
COMPATIBILITY WARNING! In Millfork 0.3.2 and earlier, arrays couldn't be declared const and on cartridge-based targets, preinitialized arrays were assumed to be immutable and were allocated to ROM. Since 0.3.4, only const arrays can be allocated to ROM, non-const arrays are allocated to RAM and their contents are uninitialized before a call toinit_rw_memory
. See the ROM vs RAM guide. -
<element type>
: type of the elements of the array. If omitted, the default isbyte
. -
<size>
: either a constant number, which then defines the size of the array, or a name of a plain enumeration type, in which case changes the type of the index to that enumeration and declares the array size to be equal to the number of variants in that enumeration. If the size is not specified here, then it's deduced from the<initial_values>
. If the declared size and the size deduced from the<initial_values>
don't match, then an error is raised. -
<alignment>
is either a numeric literal that is a power of 2, or keywordfast
. The array will be allocated at the address divisible by alignment.fast
means different things depending on the target platform:- on 6502, it means that the array will not cross a page boundary
- on Z80, it means that the array will not cross a page boundary
-
<address>
is a constant expression that defines where in the memory the array is or will be located. -
<initial_values>
is an array literal, see Literals. Local arrays can have initial values only if they're const.
TODO
Function declarations
A function can be declared at the top level. For more details, see Functions
Segment blocks
Instead of repeating the segment name in multiple declarations, you can wrap them in a block:
segment (s) {
byte x
word y
}
is equivalent to:
segment (s) byte x
segment (s) word y
import
statements
import <module>
Adds a module to the program.
The module is looked up first in the current working directory, and then in the include directories.
Usually, the imported module will undergo the first phase of compilation first. This means that the constants in the imported module will be resolved first, allowing you to use them in the importing module.
The only exception to this rule is when the importing graph has a cycle, in which case the order of modules within the cycle is unspecified.
All starting modules are considered to be imported by all source files explicitly mentioned on the command line.
Statements
Expression statement
TODO
if
statement
Syntax:
if <expression> {
<body>
}
if <expression> {
<body>
} else {
<body>
}
if <expression> {
<body>
} else if <expression> {
<body>
} else {
<body>
}
return
statement
Syntax:
return
return <expression>
return[]
statement (return dispatch)
Syntax examples:
return [a + b] {
0 @ underflow
255 @ overflow
default @ nothing
}
return [getF()] {
1 @ function1
2 @ function2
default(5) @ functionDefault
}
return [i] (param1, param2) {
1,5,8 @ function1(4, 6)
2 @ function2(9)
default(0,20) @ functionDefault
}
Return dispatch calculates the value of an index, picks the correct branch, assigns some global variables and jumps to another function.
The index has to evaluate to a byte or to an enum. The functions cannot be macro
and shouldn't have parameters.
Jumping to a function with parameters gives those parameters undefined values.
The functions are not called, so they don't return to the function the return dispatch statement is in, but to its caller.
The return values are passed along. If the dispatching function has a non-void
return type different that the type
of the function dispatched to, the return value is undefined.
If the default
branch exists, then it is used for every missing index.
If the index type is an non-empty enum, then the default branch supports all the other values.
Otherwise, the default
branch handles only the missing values between other supported values.
In this case, you can override it with optional parameters to default
.
They specify the maximum, or both the minimum and maximum supported index value.
In the above examples: the first example supports values 0–255, second 1–5, and third 0–20.
If the index has an unsupported value, the behaviour is formally undefined, but in practice the program will simply crash.
Before jumping to the function, the chosen global variables will be assigned parameter values. Variables have to be global byte-sized. Some simple array indexing expressions are also allowed. Parameter values have to be constants. For example, in the third example one of the following will happen:
-
if
i
is 1, 5 or 8, thenparam1
is assigned 4,param2
is assigned 6 and thenfunction1
is called; -
if
i
is 2, thenparam1
is assigned 9,param2
is assigned an undefined value and thenfunction2
is called; -
if
i
is any other value from 0 to 20, thenparam1
andparam2
are assigned undefined values and thenfunctionDefault
is called; -
if
i
has any other value, then undefined behaviour.
while
and do-while
statements
Syntax:
while <expression> {
<body>
}
do {
<body>
} while <expression>
for
statements
Warning: for
loops are a bit buggy.
Syntax:
for <variable> , <start> , <direction> , <end> {
}
for <variable> : <enum type> {
}
for <variable> : [ <comma separated expressions> ] {
}
-
<variable>
– an already defined numeric variable -
<direction>
– the range to traverse:-
to
– from<start>
inclusive to<end>
inclusive, in ascending order (e.g.0,to,9
to traverse 0, 1,... 9) -
downto
– from<start>
inclusive to<end>
inclusive, in descending order (e.g.9,downto,0
to traverse 9, 8,... 0) -
until
– from<start>
inclusive to<end>
exclusive, in ascending order (e.g.0,until,10
to traverse 0, 1,... 9) -
parallelto
– the same asto
, but the iterations may be executed in any order -
paralleluntil
– the same asuntil
, but the iterations may be executed in any order
There is no
paralleldownto
, because it would do the same asparallelto
with swapped arguments. -
-
<enum type>
– traverse enum constants of given type, in arbitrary order -
<comma separated expressions>
– traverse every value in the list, in the given order. Values do not have to be constant. If a value is not a constant and its value changes while executing the loop, the behaviour is undefined. Jumps usinggoto
across the scope of this kind of loop are disallowed.
break
and continue
statements
Syntax:
break
break for
break while
break do
break <variable>
continue
continue for
continue while
continue do
continue <variable>
goto
and label
Syntax:
goto <expression>
label <name>
The label
statement defines a constant pointer that refers to the current position in the code.
Such labels are only visible in the scope of the local function.
The goto
expression jumps to the pointer value of the expression.
Jumping using goto
across the scope of for loop that uses a fixed list or across functions is not allowed.
Computed gotos are supported:
pointer p
p = x
goto p
label x
asm
statements
See Using 6502 assembly within Millfork programs
or Using 8080/LR35902/Z80 assembly within Millfork programs.
Work in progress: For 8086, see the 8086 support disclaimer.