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42 lines
2.3 KiB
Markdown
42 lines
2.3 KiB
Markdown
Prog8 - Structured Programming Language for 8-bit 6502/6510 microprocessors
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===========================================================================
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*Written by Irmen de Jong (irmen@razorvine.net)*
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*Software license: GNU GPL 3.0, see file LICENSE*
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This is a structured 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. It 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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- option to automatically run the compiled program in the Vice emulator
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- modularity, symbol scoping, subroutines
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- subroutines have enforced input- and output parameter definitions
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- various data types other than just bytes (16-bit words, floats, strings, 16-bit register pairs)
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- automatic variable allocations, automatic string variables and string sharing
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- constant folding in expressions (compile-time evaluation)
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- automatic type conversions
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- floating point operations
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- optional automatic preserving and restoring CPU registers state, when calling routines that otherwise would clobber these
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- abstracting away low level aspects such as ZeroPage handling, program startup, explicit memory addresses
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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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- various code optimizations (code structure, logical and numerical expressions, ...)
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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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This tool 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.
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Prog8 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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