SixtyPical ========== _Version 0.15. Work-in-progress, everything is subject to change._ **SixtyPical** is a 6502-like programming language with advanced static analysis. "6502-like" means that it has similar restrictions as programming in 6502 assembly (e.g. the programmer must choose the registers that values will be stored in) and is concomitantly easy for a compiler to translate it to 6502 machine language code. "Advanced static analysis" includes _abstract interpretation_, where we go through the program step by step, tracking not just the changes that happen during a _specific_ execution of the program, but _sets_ of changes that could _possibly_ happen in any run of the program. This lets us determine that certain things can never happen, which we can then formulate as safety checks. In practice, this means it catches things like * you forgot to clear carry before adding something to the accumulator * a subroutine that you call trashes a register you thought was preserved * you tried to read or write a byte beyond the end of a byte array * you tried to write the address of something that was not a routine, to a jump vector and suchlike. It also provides some convenient operations based on machine-language programming idioms, such as * copying values from one register to another (via a third register when there are no underlying instructions that directly support it); this includes 16-bit values, which are copied in two steps * explicit tail calls * indirect subroutine calls The reference implementation can analyze and compile SixtyPical programs to 6502 machine code. Quick Start ----------- If you have the [VICE][] emulator installed, from this directory, you can run ./loadngo.sh c64 eg/c64/hearts.60p and it will compile the [hearts.60p source code](eg/c64/hearts.60p) and automatically start it in the `x64` emulator, and you should see: ![Screenshot of result of running hearts.60p](https://raw.github.com/catseye/SixtyPical/master/images/hearts.png) You can try the `loadngo.sh` script on other sources in the `eg` directory tree, which contains more extensive examples, including an entire game(-like program); see [eg/README.md](eg/README.md) for a listing. Documentation ------------- * [Design Goals](doc/Design%20Goals.md) * [SixtyPical specification](doc/SixtyPical.md) * [SixtyPical revision history](HISTORY.md) * [Literate test suite for SixtyPical syntax](tests/SixtyPical%20Syntax.md) * [Literate test suite for SixtyPical analysis](tests/SixtyPical%20Analysis.md) * [Literate test suite for SixtyPical compilation](tests/SixtyPical%20Compilation.md) * [6502 Opcodes used/not used in SixtyPical](doc/6502%20Opcodes.md) TODO ---- ### Save registers on stack This preserves them, so that, semantically, they can be used later even though they are trashed inside the block. ### Re-order routines and optimize tail-calls to fallthroughs Not because it saves 3 bytes, but because it's a neat trick. Doing it optimally is probably NP-complete. But doing it adequately is probably not that hard. > Every routine is falled through to by zero or more routines. > Don't consider the main routine. > For each routine α that is finally-falled through to by a set of routines R(α), > pick a movable routine β from R, move β in front of α, remove the `jmp` at the end of β and > mark β as unmovable. > Note this only works if β finally-falls through. If there are multiple tail > positions, we can't eliminate all the `jmp`s. > Note that if β finally-falls through to α it can't finally-fall through to anything > else, so the sets R(α) should be disjoint for every α. (Right?) ### And at some point... * `low` and `high` address operators - to turn `word` type into `byte`. * Tests, and implementation, ensuring a routine can be assigned to a vector of "wider" type * Related: can we simply view a (small) part of a buffer as a byte table? If not, why not? * Related: add constant to buffer to get new buffer. (Or to table, but... well, maybe.) * Check that the buffer being read or written to through pointer, appears in appropriate inputs or outputs set. (Associate each pointer with the buffer it points into.) * `static` pointers -- currently not possible because pointers must be zero-page, thus `@`, thus uninitialized. * Question the value of the "consistent initialization" principle for `if` statement analysis. * `interrupt` routines -- to indicate that "the supervisor" has stored values on the stack, so we can trash them. * Add absolute addressing in shl/shr, absolute-indexed for add, sub, etc. * Automatic tail-call optimization (could be tricky, w/constraints?) * Possibly `ld x, [ptr] + y`, possibly `st x, [ptr] + y`. * Maybe even `copy [ptra] + y, [ptrb] + y`, which can be compiled to indirect LDA then indirect STA! * Optimize `ld a, z` and `st a, z` to zero-page operations if address of z < 256. [VICE]: http://vice-emu.sourceforge.net/