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117 lines
5.0 KiB
Plaintext
117 lines
5.0 KiB
Plaintext
This is the readme for xa, a cross-assembler for the 6502 and 65816 CPUs (and
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derivatives). xa is a small, fast, portable two-pass assembler that compiles
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under most ANSI C compilers. It is distributed under the GNU Public License
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(see COPYING).
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The current version is 2.3.4, which implements multiple improvements on
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2.3.2, a bug fix to the 2.3.0 version. 2.3.0 itself features many
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compatibility improvements and new man-based documentation. It also completed
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the merge of the 65816 and 6502/R65C02 versions and thus the current xa can
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generate code for all targets now.
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To install on a generic Unixy thing, you should be able to just type
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% make # to build the executable, and if it works ...
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% make install # to install man pages and binaries into the system
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This will create xa along with its various support utilities. Try assembling
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the cpk depacker in examples/ as a test. xa also comes with uncpk (a program
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for generating cpk archives) and printcbm (a program for listing Commodore
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BASIC test) and file65, ldo65 and reloc65 for displaying, linking and
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relocating o65 files in Andre's relocatable format (see doc/fileformats.txt).
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The loader/ directory also has goodies for managing relocatable binaries.
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Don't forget the man pages in man/. Install these into your MANPATH at your
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leisure, or read them with nroff -man (and/or groff -man).
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xa is no longer broadly supported outside of Unix due to my inability to test
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it, but has nothing that should impair it from compiling elsewhere. To wit,
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DOS compilation is still supported with the GO32 package. You should just be
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able to type
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C:\> make dos
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In addition, there are compatibility updates to allow it to compile under
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Microsoft Visual Studio and mingw. It should compile under VS2005 as written;
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look in the vstudio directory for solution and project files provided by
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Fabian Nunez. For mingw, use
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make mingw
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Similarly, Amiga and Atari ST compilation should still also function with
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their particular compatible packages.
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xa has a companion disassembler, the dxa package. dxa is not included in the
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standard xa distribution, but can be downloaded from the xa home page at
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http://www.floodgap.com/retrotech/xa/
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Please check by periodically for the latest version of both packages.
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xa was originally written and maintained by Andre Fachat. The current version
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is maintained by Cameron Kaiser.
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Please send me your comments at ckaiser@floodgap.com -- Andre's original
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readme follows and applies generally to the present version.
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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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XA is a 6502 cross compiler:
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- under GNU public license
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- can produce _relocatable_ binaries
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- The full fileformat description and 6502 file loader included.
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- also included relocation and info utilites, as well as linker
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- for any ANSI-C compliant computer (only utilities need 'stat' call
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for file size).
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- fast by hashtables
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- Rockwell CMOS opcodes
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- running under DOS and any ANSI C system (Unix, Amiga, Atari ST)
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I developed this cross assembler for the 6502 CPU family quite some time
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ago on my Atari ST. The assembler has successfully been ported to Amiga
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and Unix computer (ported? just compiled... :-)
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Lately I came across the problem to need relocatable 6502 binary files, so
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I revised the assembler from version 2.0.7 to 2.1.0, adding a (admittedly
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proprietary) 6502 relocatable binary format. But there are not many other
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formats around and they didn't fit my needs. I have developed this format
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myself and it is under the GNU public license.
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With version 2.1.1 the 'official' version of the fileformat is supported.
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To compile it, just type "make" (if you have the GNU gcc. If not, edit the
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Makefile for the compiler options). This produces "xa", the cross assembler;
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"uncpk", a small packing utility (where the C64 counterpart is in the
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examples subdirectory), "printcbm", that lists C64 BASIC files and
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'file65' that prints some information about o65 files. The "loader" in
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the loader subdirectory is a basic 6502 implementation of a relocating
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binary loader.
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"file65" prints file information on 'o65' relocatable files. "reloc65"
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can relocate 'o65' files.
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If you want to use it under DOS, you have to have the GO32 DOS crosscompiling
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tools to compile. Then just type "make dos" and you'll end up with the
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appropriate DOS binaries. This has been tested only under i386 Linux, however.
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Another archive with the DOS binaries included is provided.
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One problem on the Atari was it's broken "malloc". Therefore I used to
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alloc everything in one chunk and divide the memory by hand. So everything
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was kind of statically allocated. This is almost gone now. Only the
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temporary storage between pass1 and pass2 and the preprocessor are still
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allocated in one chunk (size definitions in xah.h). The rest is allocated
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as needed.
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The docs are in the 'doc' subdir. There also is a description of the
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6502 relocatable binary format. If you think some things could be
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expressed in a better way, feel free and mail me to improve my english ;-)
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[ The documentation is now maintained in man(1) format in man/ . -- CK ]
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Andre
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