2018-09-28 17:05:11 +00:00
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<title>Advanced Topics - 6502bench SourceGen</title>
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<h1>6502bench SourceGen: Advanced Topics</h1>
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<p><a href="index.html">Back to index</a></p>
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2018-10-08 22:30:43 +00:00
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<h2><a name="platform-symbols">Platform Symbol Files (.sym65)</a></h2>
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<p>Platform symbol files contain lists of symbols, each of which has a
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label and a value. SourceGen comes with a collection of symbols for
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popular systems, but you can create your own. This can be handy if a
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few different projects are coded against a common library.</p>
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<p>If two symbols have the same value, the older symbol is replaced by
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the newer one. This is why the order in which symbols file are loaded
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matters.</p>
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<p>Platform symbol files consist of comments, commands, and symbols.
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Blank lines, and lines that begin with a semicolon (';'), are ignored. Lines
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that begin with an asterisk ('*') are commands. Two are currently
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defined:</p>
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<ul>
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<li>*SYNOPSIS - a short summary of the file contents.</li>
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<li>*TAG - a tag string to apply to all symbols that follow in this
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file.</li>
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</ul>
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<p>Tags can be used by extension scripts to identify a subset of symbols.
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The symbols are still part of the global set; the tag just provides a
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way to extract a subset. Tags should be comprised of non-whitespace ASCII
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characters. Tags are global, so use a long, descriptive string. If *TAG
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is not followed by a string, the symbols that follow are treated as
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untagged.</p>
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<p>All other lines are symbols, which have the form:</p>
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<pre>
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label {=|@} value [;comment]
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</pre>
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<p>Labels must be at least two characters long, begin with a letter or
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underscore, and consist entirely of alphanumeric ASCII characters
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(A-Z, a-z, 0-9) and the underscore ('_'). (This is the same format
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required for line labels in SourceGen.)</p>
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<p>Use '@' for address values, and '=' for constants. The only important
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difference between them is that address values will be applied automatically
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to operands that reference addresses outside the scope of the file.
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Constants are never applied automatically.</p>
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<p>The value is a number in decimal, hexadecimal (with a leading '$'), or
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binary (with a leading '%'). The numeric base will be recorded and used when
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formatting the symbol in generated output, so use whichever form is most
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appropriate. Values are unsigned 24-bit numbers.</p>
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<p>The comment is optional. If present, it will be saved and used as the
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end-of-line comment on the .EQ directive if the symbol is used.</p>
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<h3>Creating a Project-Specific Symbol File</h3>
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<p>To create a platform symbol file for your project, just create a new
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text file, named with a ".sym65" extension. (If your text editor of choice
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doesn't like that, you can put a ".txt" on the end while you're editing.)
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Make sure you create it in the same directory where your project file
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(the file that ends with ".dis65") lives. Add a *SYNOPSIS, then add
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the desired symbols.</p>
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<p>Finally, add it to your project. Select Edit > Project Properties,
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switch to the Symbol Files tab, click Add Symbol Files, and select your
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symbol file. It should appear in the list with a "PROJ:" prefix.</p>
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<p>If an example helps, the A2-Amper-fdraw project in the Examples
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directory has a project-local symbol file, called "fdraw-exports".
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(Amper-fdraw provides an Applesoft BASIC interface to a machine-language
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library.)</p>
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<p>NOTE: in the current version of SourceGen, changes to .sym65 files are
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not detected automatically. Closing and re-opening the project
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(File > Close, then click on the first recent-file link) will reload
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them.</p>
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<h2><a name="extension-scripts">Extension Scripts</a></h2>
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<p>Extension scripts, also called "plugins", are C# programs with access to
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the full .NET Standard 2.0 APIs. They're compiled at run time by SourceGen
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and executed in a sandbox with security restrictions.</p>
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<p>SourceGen defines an interface that plugins must implement, and an
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interface that plugins can use to interact with SourceGen. See
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Interfaces.cs in the PluginCommon directory. <b>Bear in mind that this
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feature is still evolving, and the interfaces may change significantly
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in the near future.</b></p>
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<p>The current interfaces can be used to identify inline data that follows
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JSR/JSL instructions, and to format operands. The latter can be useful for
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replacing immediate load operands with symbolic constants.</p>
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<p>Scripts may be loaded from the RuntimeData directory, or from the directory
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where the project file lives. Attempts to load them from other locations
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will fail.</p>
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<h4>Development</h4>
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<p>The easiest way to develop extension scripts is inside the 6502bench
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solution in Visual Studio. This way you have the interfaces available
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for IntelliSense completion, and get all the usual syntax and compile
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checking in the editor. (This is why there's a RuntimeData project for
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Visual Studio.)</p>
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<p>If you have the solution configured for debug builds, SourceGen will set
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the IncludeDebugInformation flag to true when compiling scripts. This
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causes a .PDB file to be created.</p>
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<p>Some commonly useful functions are defined in the PluginCommon.Util class,
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which is available to plugins. These call into the CommonUtil library,
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which is shared with SourceGen.</p>
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<p>While plugins can use CommonUtil directly, they should avoid doing so. The
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APIs there are not guaranteed to be stable, so plugins that rely on them
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may break in a subsequent release of SourceGen.</p>
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<h4>PluginDll Directory</h4>
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<p>Extension scripts are compiled into .DLLs, and saved in the PluginDll
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directory, which lives next to the application executable and RuntimeData.
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If the extension script is the same age or older than the DLL, SourceGen
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will continue to use the existing DLL.</p>
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<p>The DLLs names are a combination of the script filename and script location.
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The compiled name for "MyPlatform/MyScript.cs" in the RuntimeData directory
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will be "RT_MyPlatform_MyScript.dll". For a project-specific script, it
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would look like "PROJ_MyProject_MyScript.dll".</p>
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<p>The PluginCommon and CommonUtil DLLs will be copied into the directory, so
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that code in the sandbox has access to them.</p>
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<h4>Sandboxing</h4>
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<p>Extension scripts are executed in an App Domain sandbox. App domains are
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a .NET feature that creates a partition inside the virtual machine, isolating
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code. It still runs in the same address space, on the same threads, so the
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isolation is only effective for "partially trusted" code that has been
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declared safe by the bytecode verifier.</p>
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<p>SourceGen disallows most actions, notably file access. An exception is
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made for reading files from the directory where the plugin DLLs live, but
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scripts are otherwise unable to read or write from the filesystem. (A
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future version of SourceGen may provide an API that allows limited access
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to data files.)</p>
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<p>App domain security is not absolute. I don't really expect SourceGen to
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be used as a malware vector, so there's no value in forcing scripts to
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execute in an isolated server process, or to jump through the other hoops
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required to really lock things down. I do believe there's value in
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defining the API in such a way that we *could* implement full security if
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circumstances change, so I'm using app domains as a way to keep everybody
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honest.</p>
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2018-09-28 17:05:11 +00:00
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<h2><a name="multi-bin">Working With Multiple Binaries</a></h2>
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2018-09-28 17:05:11 +00:00
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<p>Sometimes a program is split into multiple files on disk. They
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may be all loaded at once, or some may be loaded into the same place
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at different times. In such situations it's not uncommon for one
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file to provide a set of interfaces that other files use. It's
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useful to have symbols for these interfaces be available to all
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projects.</p>
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<p>There are two ways to do this: (1) define a common platform symbol
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file with the relevant addresses, and keep it up to date as you work;
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or (2) declare the labels as global and exported, and import them
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as project symbols into the other projects.</p>
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<p>Support for this is currently somewhat weak, requiring a manual
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symbol-import step in every interested project. This step must be
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repeated whenever the labels are updated.</p>
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<p>A different but related problem is typified by arcade ROM sets,
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where files are split apart because each file must be burned into a
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separate PROM. All files are expected to be present in memory at
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once, so there's no reason to treat them as separate projects. Currently,
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the best way to deal with this is to concatenate the files into a single
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file, and operate on that.</p>
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<h2><a name="overlap">Overlapping Address Spaces</a></h2>
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<p>Some programs use memory overlays, where multiple parts of the
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code run in the same address in RAM. Others use bank switching to access
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parts of the program that reside in separate physical RAM, but appear at
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the same address.</p>
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<p>SourceGen allows you to set the same address on multiple parts of
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a file. Branches to a given address are resolved against the current
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segment first. For example, consider this:</p>
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<pre>
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.ORG $1000
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JMP L1100
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.ORG $1100
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L1100 BIT L1100
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L1103 LDA #$11
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BRA L1103
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.ORG $1100
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L1100_0 BIT L1100_0
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L1103_0 LDA #$22
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JMP L1103_0
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</pre>
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<p>Both sections start at $1100, and have branches to $1103. The branch
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in the first section resolves to the label in the first version of
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that address chunk, while the branch in the second section resolves to
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the label in the second chunk. When branches originate outside the current
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address chunk, the first chunk that includes that address is used, as
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it is with the <code>JMP $1000</code> at the start of the file.</p>
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<h2><a name="debug">Debug Menu Options</a></h2>
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<p>The DEBUG menu is hidden by default in release builds, but can be
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exposed by checking the "enable DEBUG menu" box in the application
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settings. These features are used for debugging SourceGen. They will
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not help you debug 6502 projects.</p>
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<p>Features:</p>
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<ul>
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<li>Re-analyze (F5). Causes a full re-analysis. Useful if you think
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the display is out of sync.</li>
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<li>Show Undo/Redo History. Opens a floating window that lets you
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watch the contents of the undo buffer while you work.</li>
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<li>Show Analyzer Output. Opens a floating window with a text log from
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the most recent analysis pass. The exact contents will vary depending
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on how the verbosity level is configured internally. Debug messages
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from extension scripts appear here.</li>
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<li>Show Analysis Timers. Opens a floating window with a dump of
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timer results from the most recent analysis pass. Times for individual
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stages are noted, as are times for groups of functions. This
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provides a crude sense of where time is being spent.</li>
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<li>Extension Script Info. Shows a bit about the currently-loaded
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extension scripts.</li>
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<li>Toggle OwnerDraw. The code list and Notes windows use a ListView
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control whose contents are drawn by the application. This menu item
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toggles the OwnerDraw flag on and off. Useful for comparing the
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owner-drawn output to the system-drawn output.</li>
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<li>Toggle Comment Rulers. Adds a string of digits above every
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multi-line comment (long comment, note). Useful for confirming that
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the width limitation is being obeyed. These are added exactly
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as shown, without comment delimiters, into generated assembly output,
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which doesn't work out well if you run the assembler.</li>
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<li>Use Keep-Alive Hack. If set, a "ping" is sent to the extension
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script sandbox every 60 seconds. This seems to be required to avoid
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an infrequently-encountered Windows bug. (See code for notes and
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stackoverflow.com links.)</li>
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<li>Source Generation Tests. Opens the regression test harness. See
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the README.md in the SGTestData directory for more information. If
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the regression tests weren't included in the SourceGen distribution,
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this will have nothing to do.</li>
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</ul>
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</div>
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<div id=footer>
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<p><a href="index.html">Back to index</a></p>
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</div>
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</body>
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<!-- Copyright 2018 faddenSoft -->
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