2017-12-25 15:00:25 +00:00
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IL65 / 'Sick' - Experimental Programming Language for 8-bit 6502/6510 microprocessors
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=====================================================================================
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2017-12-21 13:52:30 +00:00
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2018-01-09 23:44:11 +00:00
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*Written by Irmen de Jong (irmen@razorvine.net)*
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2017-12-21 13:52:30 +00:00
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2018-01-08 02:31:23 +00:00
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*Software license: GNU GPL 3.0, see file LICENSE*
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2017-12-25 15:00:25 +00:00
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This is an experimental programming language for the 8-bit 6502/6510 microprocessor from the late 1970's and 1980's
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as used in many home computers from that era. IL65 is a medium to low level programming language,
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which aims to provide many conveniences over raw assembly code (even when using a macro assembler):
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- reduction of source code length
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- easier program understanding (because it's higher level, and more terse)
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2017-12-27 22:45:22 +00:00
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- option to automatically run the compiled program in the Vice emulator
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2017-12-25 15:00:25 +00:00
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- modularity, symbol scoping, subroutines
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- subroutines have enforced input- and output parameter definitions
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2017-12-29 01:18:50 +00:00
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- various data types other than just bytes (16-bit words, floats, strings, 16-bit register pairs)
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2017-12-29 00:16:39 +00:00
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- automatic variable allocations, automatic string variables and string sharing
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2018-01-09 23:44:11 +00:00
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- constant folding in expressions (compile-time evaluation)
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2017-12-25 15:00:25 +00:00
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- automatic type conversions
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- floating point operations
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2018-01-01 22:24:39 +00:00
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- optional automatic preserving and restoring CPU registers state, when calling routines that otherwise would clobber these
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2018-07-01 21:24:32 +00:00
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- abstracting away low level aspects such as ZeroPage handling, program startup, explicit memory addresses
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2017-12-27 22:45:22 +00:00
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- breakpoints, that let the Vice emulator drop into the monitor if execution hits them
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- source code labels automatically loaded in Vice emulator so it can show them in disassembly
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- conditional gotos
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2018-01-29 20:10:06 +00:00
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- various code optimizations (code structure, logical and numerical expressions, ...)
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2018-07-01 21:24:32 +00:00
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2017-12-25 15:00:25 +00:00
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It still allows for low level programming however and inline assembly blocks
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to write performance critical pieces of code, but otherwise compiles fairly straightforwardly
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into 6502 assembly code. This resulting code is assembled into a binary program by using
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an external macro assembler, [64tass](https://sourceforge.net/projects/tass64/).
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It can be compiled pretty easily for various platforms (Linux, Mac OS, Windows) or just ask me
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to provide a small precompiled executable if you need that.
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You need [Python 3.5](https://www.python.org/downloads/) or newer to run IL65 itself.
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IL65 is mainly targeted at the Commodore-64 machine, but should be mostly system independent.
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See [the reference document](reference.md) for detailed information.
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