prog8/docs/source/programming.rst

.. _programstructure:

====================
Programming in Prog8
====================

This chapter describes a high level overview of the elements that make up a program.
Details about the syntax can be found in the :ref:`syntaxreference` chapter.


Elements of a program
---------------------

Program
	Consists of one or more *modules*.

Module
	A file on disk with the ``.p8`` suffix. It contains *directives* and *code blocks*.
	Whitespace and indentation in the source code are arbitrary and can be tabs or spaces or both.
	You can also add *comments* to the source code.
	One moudule file can *import* others, and also import *library modules*.

Comments
	Everything after a semicolon ``;`` is a comment and is ignored by the compiler.
	If the whole line is just a comment, it will be copied into the resulting assembly source code.
	This makes it easier to understand and relate the generated code. Examples::

		A = 42    ; set the initial value to 42
		; next is the code that...

Directive
	These are special instructions for the compiler, to change how it processes the code
	and what kind of program it creates. A directive is on its own line in the file, and
	starts with ``%``, optionally followed by some arguments.

Code block
	A block of actual program code. It defines a *scope* (also known as 'namespace') and
	can contain Prog8 *code*, *variable declarations* and *subroutines*.
	More details about this below: :ref:`blocks`.

Variable declarations
	The data that the code works on is stored in variables ('named values that can change').
	The compiler allocates the required memory for them.
	There is *no dynamic memory allocation*. The storage size of all variables
	is fixed and is determined at compile time.
	Variable declarations tend to appear at the top of the code block that uses them.
	They define the name and type of the variable, and its initial value.
	Prog8 supports a small list of data types, including special 'memory mapped' types
	that don't allocate storage but instead point to a fixed location in the address space.

Code
	These are the instructions that make up the program's logic. There are different kinds of instructions
	('statements' is a better name):

	- value assignment
	- looping  (for, while, repeat, unconditional jumps)
	- conditional execution (if - then - else, and conditional jumps)
	- subroutine calls
	- label definition

Subroutine
    Defines a piece of code that can be called by its name from different locations in your code.
    It accepts parameters and can return result values.
    It can define its own variables, and it is even possible to define subroutines nested inside other subroutines.
    Their contents is scoped accordingly.

Label
    This is a named position in your code where you can jump to from another place.
    You can jump to it with a jump statement elsewhere. It is also possible to use a
    subroutine call to a label (but without parameters and return value).
    Labels can only be defined in a block or in another subroutine, so you can't define a label
    inside a loop statement block for instance.

Scope
	Also known as 'namespace', this is a named box around the symbols defined in it.
	This prevents name collisions (or 'namespace pollution'), because the name of the scope
	is needed as prefix to be able to access the symbols in it.
	Anything *inside* the scope can refer to symbols in the same scope without using a prefix.
	There are three scopes in Prog8:

	- global (no prefix)
	- code block
	- subroutine

	Modules are *not* a scope! Everything defined in a module is merged into the global scope.


.. _blocks:

Blocks, Scopes, and accessing Symbols
-------------------------------------

Blocks are the separate pieces of code and data of your program. They are combined
into a single output program.  No code or data can occur outside a block. Here's an example::

	~ main $c000 {
		; this is code inside the block...
	}


The name of a block must be unique in your entire program.
Also be careful when importing other modules; blocks in your own code cannot have
the same name as a block defined in an imported module or library.

If you omit both the name and address, the entire block is *ignored* by the compiler (and a warning is displayed).
This is a way to quickly "comment out" a piece of code that is unfinshed or may contain errors that you
want to work on later, because the contents of the ignored block are not fully parsed either.

The address can be used to place a block at a specific location in memory.
Usually it is omitted, and the compiler will automatically choose the location (usually immediately after
the previous block in memory).
The address must be >= ``$0200`` (because ``$00``--``$ff`` is the ZP and ``$100``--``$200`` is the cpu stack).

.. sidebar::
    Scoped access to symbols / "dotted names"

    Every symbol is 'public' and can be accessed from elsewhere given its full "dotted name".
    So, accessing a variable ``counter`` defined in subroutine ``worker`` in block ``main``,
    can be done from anywhere by using ``main.worker.counter``.

A block is also a *scope* in your program so the symbols in the block don't clash with
symbols of the same name defined elsewhere in the same file or in another file.
You can refer to the symbols in a particular block by using a *dotted name*: ``blockname.symbolname``.
Labels inside a subroutine are appended again to that; ``blockname.subroutinename.label``.
A symbol name that's not a dotted name is searched for in the current scope, if it's not found there,
one scope higher, and so on until it is found.



**The special "ZP" ZeroPage block**

Blocks named "ZP" are treated a bit differently: they refer to the ZeroPage.
The contents of every block with that name (this one may occur multiple times) are merged into one.
Its start address is always set to ``$04``, because ``$00 - $01`` are used by the hardware
and ``$02 - $03`` are reserved as general purpose scratch registers.


Program Start and Entry Point
-----------------------------

Your program must have a single entry point where code execution begins.
The compiler expects a ``start`` subroutine in the ``main`` block for this,
taking no parameters and having no return value.

.. sidebar::
    60hz IRQ entry point

    When running the generated code on the StackVm virtual machine,
    it will use the ``irq`` subroutine in the ``irq`` block for the
    60hz irq routine. This is optional.

As any subroutine, it has to end with a ``return`` statement (or a ``goto`` call)::

	~ main {
	    sub start ()  {
	        ; program entrypoint code here
	        return
	    }
	}


The ``main`` module is always relocated to the start of your programs
address space, and the ``start`` subroutine (the entrypoint) will be on the
first address. This will also be the address that the BASIC loader program (if generated)
calls with the SYS statement.





Variables and values
--------------------

Variables are named values that can change during the execution of the program.
When declaring a numeric variable it is possible to specify the initial value, if you don't want it to be zero.
For other data types it is required to specify that initial value it should get.
Values will usually be part of an expression or assignment statement::

	12345			; integer number
	$aa43			; hex integer number
	%100101			; binary integer number
	"Hi, I am a string"	; text string
	'a'             ; petscii value (byte) for the letter a
	-33.456e52		; floating point number

	byte  counter  = 42	; variable of size 8 bits, with initial value 42


Array and Matrix (2-dimensional array) types are also supported.
Arrays can be made of bytes, words and floats. Matrixes can oly be made of bytes::

    byte[4]  array = [1, 2, 3, 4]     ; initialize the array
    byte[99] array = 255              ; initialize array with all 255's [255, 255, 255, 255, ...]
    byte[100] array = 100 to 199      ; initialize array with [100, 101, ..., 198, 199]
    byte[2,3] matrix = 1              ; a matrix of 2*3=6 bytes all with value 1
    byte[2,3] matrix = [1,2,3,4,5,6]  ; a 2*3 matrix with value |(1,2)  (3,4)  (5,6)|

    value = array[3]            ; the fourth value in the array (index is 0-based)
    value = matrix[4,2]         ; the byte at the 5th column and 3rd row in the matrix
    char = string[4]            ; the fifth character (=byte) in the string


Note that the various keywords for the data type and variable type (``byte``, ``word``, ``const``, etc.)
cannot be used as *identifiers* elsewhere. You can't make a variable, block or subroutine with the name ``byte``
for instance.

.. todo::
    There must be a way to tell the compiler which variables you require to be in Zeropage:
    ``zeropage`` modifier keyword on vardecl perhaps?

    option to omit the array size on the vardecl if an initialization array value is given?


Variables that represent CPU hardware registers
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

The following variables are reserved
and map directly (read/write) to a CPU hardware register: ``A``, ``X``, ``Y``, ``AX``, ``AY``, ``XY``  (the 2-letter ones
are a pseudo 16-bit 'register' by pairing two 8-bit registers).


Special types: const and memory-mapped
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

When using ``const``, the value of the 'variable' can no longer be changed.
You'll have to specify the initial value expression. This value is then used
by the compiler everywhere you refer to the constant (and no storage is allocated
for the constant itself).

When using ``memory``, the variable will point to specific location in memory,
rather than being newly allocated. The initial value (mandatory) must be a valid
memory address.  Reading the variable will read the given data type from the
address you specified, and setting the varible will directly modify that memory location(s)::

	const  byte  max_age = 2000 - 1974      ; max_age will be the constant value 26
	memory word  SCREENCOLORS = $d020       ; a 16-bit word at the addres $d020-$d021


.. note::
    Directly accessing random memory locations is not yet supported without the
    intermediate step of declaring a memory-mapped variable for the memory location.
    The advantages of this however, is that it's clearer what the memory location
    stands for, and the compiler also knows the data type.


Integers
^^^^^^^^

Integers are 8 or 16 bit numbers and can be written in normal decimal notation,
in hexadecimal and in binary notation.
A single character in single quotes such as ``'a'`` is translated into a byte integer,
which is the Petscii value for that character.

.. todo::
    Right now only unsinged integers are supported (0-255 for byte types, 0-65535 for word types)
    @todo maybe signed integers (-128..127  and -32768..32767) will be added later


Strings
^^^^^^^

Strings are a sequence of characters enclosed in ``"`` quotes. The length is limited to 255 characters.
They're stored and treated much the same as a byte array,
but they have some special properties because they are considered to be *text*.
Strings in your source code files will be encoded (translated from ASCII/UTF-8) into either CBM PETSCII or C-64 screencodes.
PETSCII is the default choice. If you need screencodes (also called 'poke' codes) instead,
you have to use the ``str_s`` variants of the string type identifier.
If you assign a string literal of length 1 to a non-string variable, it is treated as a *byte* value instead
with has the PETSCII value of that single character.

.. caution::
    It's probably best that you don't change strings after they're created.
    This is because if your program exits and is restarted (without loading it again),
    it will then operate on the changed strings instead of the original ones.
    The same is true for arrays and matrixes by the way.


Floating point numbers
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Floats are stored in the 5-byte 'MFLPT' format that is used on CBM machines,
and also most float operations are specific to the Commodore-64.
This is because routines in the C-64 BASIC and KERNAL ROMs are used for that.
So floating point operations will only work if the C-64 BASIC ROM (and KERNAL ROM)
are banked in (and your code imports the ``c64lib.p8``)

The largest 5-byte MFLPT float that can be stored is: **1.7014118345e+38**   (negative: **-1.7014118345e+38**)


Initial values across multiple runs of the program
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

.. todo::
    The initial values of your variables will be restored automatically when the program is (re)started,
    *except for string variables, arrays and matrices*. It is assumed these are left unchanged by the program.
    If you do modify them in-place, you should take care yourself that they work as
    expected when the program is restarted.



Indirect addressing and address-of
----------------------------------

The ``#`` operator is used to take the address of the symbol following it.
It can be used for example to work with the *address* of a memory mapped variable rather than
the value it holds.  You could take the address of a string as well, but that is redundant:
the compiler already treats those as a value that you manipulate via its address.
For most other types this prefix is not supported and will result in a compilation error.
The resulting value is simply a 16 bit word. Example::

	AX = #somevar


.. todo::
    This is not yet implemented.
    Indirect addressing, Indirect addressing in jumps (jmp/jsr indirect)


Loops
-----

The *for*-loop is used to let a variable (or register) iterate over a range of values. Iteration is done in steps of 1, but you can change this.
The loop variable must be declared as byte or word earlier. Floating point iteration is not supported,
if you want to loop over a floating-point array, use a loop with an integer index variable instead.

The *while*-loop is used to repeat a piece of code while a certain condition is still true.
The *repeat--until* loop is used to repeat a piece of code until a certain condition is true.

You can also create loops by using the ``goto`` statement, but this should usually be avoided.

.. attention::
    The value of the loop variable or register after executing the loop *is undefined*. Don't use it immediately
    after the loop without first assigning a new value to it!
    (this is an optimization issue to avoid having to deal with mostly useless post-loop logic to adjust the loop variable's value)


Conditional Execution
---------------------

Conditional execution means that the flow of execution changes based on certiain conditions,
rather than having fixed gotos or subroutine calls::

	if A>4 goto overflow

	if X==3  Y = 4
	if X==3  Y = 4 else  A = 2

	if X==5 {
		Y = 99
	} else {
		A = 3
	}


Conditional jumps (``if condition goto label``) are compiled using 6502's branching instructions (such as ``bne`` and ``bcc``) so
the rather strict limit on how *far* it can jump applies. The compiler itself can't figure this
out unfortunately, so it is entirely possible to create code that cannot be assembled successfully.
You'll have to restructure your gotos in the code (place target labels closer to the branch)
if you run into this type of assembler error.

There is a special form of the if-statement that immediately translates into one of the 6502's branching instructions.
This allows you to write a conditional jump or block execution directly acting on the current values of the CPU's status register bits.
The eight branching instructions of the CPU each have an if-equivalent (and there are some easier to understand aliases):

====================== =====================
condition              meaning
====================== =====================
``if_cs``              if carry status is set
``if_cc``              if carry status is clear
``if_vs``              if overflow status is set
``if_vc``              if overflow status is clear
``if_eq`` / ``if_z``   if result is equal to zero
``if_ne`` / ``if_nz``  if result is not equal to zero
``if_pl`` / ``if_pos`` if result is 'plus' (>= zero)
``if_mi`` / ``if_neg`` if result is 'minus' (< zero)
====================== =====================

So ``if_cc goto target`` will directly translate into the single CPU instruction ``BCC target``.

.. note::
    For now, the symbols used or declared in the statement block(s) are shared with
    the same scope the if statement itself is in.
    Maybe in the future this will be a separate nested scope, but for now, that is
    only possible when defining a subroutine.


Assignments
-----------

Assignment statements assign a single value to a target variable or memory location.
Augmented assignments (such as ``A += X``) are also available, but these are just shorthands
for normal assignments (``A = A + X``).

Only register variables and variables of type byte, word and float can be assigned a new value.
It's not possible to set a new value to string or array variables etc, because they get allocated
a fixed amount of memory which will not change.

.. attention::
    **Data type conversion (in assignments):**
    When assigning a value with a 'smaller' datatype to a register or variable with a 'larger' datatype,
    the value will be automatically converted to the target datatype:  byte --> word --> float.
    So assigning a byte to a word variable, or a word to a floating point variable, is fine.
    The reverse is *not* true: it is *not* possible to assign a value of a 'larger' datatype to
    a variable of a smaller datatype without an explicit conversion. Otherwise you'll get an error telling you
    that there is a loss of precision. You can use builtin functions such as ``round`` and ``lsb`` to convert
    to a smaller datatype, or revert to integer arithmetic.

Expressions
-----------

In most places where a number or other value is expected, you can use just the number, or a constant expression.
If possible, the expression is parsed and evaluated by the compiler itself at compile time, and the (constant) resulting value is used in its place.
Expressions that cannot be compile-time evaluated will result in code that calculates them at runtime.
Expressions can contain procedure and function calls.
There are various built-in functions such as sin(), cos(), min(), max() that can be used in expressions (see :ref:`builtinfunctions`).
You can also reference idendifiers defined elsewhere in your code.

.. attention::
    **Data type conversion (during calculations) and floating point handling:**

    BYTE values used in arithmetic expressions (calculations) will be automatically converted into WORD values
    if the calculation needs that to store the resulting value. Once a WORD value is used, all other results will be WORDs as well
    (there's no automatic conversion of WORD into BYTE).

    When a floating point value is used in a calculation, the result will be a floating point, and byte or word values
    will be automatically converted into floats in this case. The compiler will issue a warning though when this happens, because floating
    point calculations are very slow and possibly unintended!

    Calculations with integers will not result in floating point values;
    if you divide two integer values (say: ``32500 / 99``) the result will be the integer floor
    division (328) rather than the floating point result (328.2828282828283). If you need the full precision,
    you'll have to write ``flt(32500) / 99`` (or if they're constants, simply ``32500.0 / 99``), to make sure the
    first operand is a floating point value.


Arithmetic and Logical expressions
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Arithmetic expressions are expressions that calculate a numeric result (integer or floating point).
Many common arithmetic operators can be used and follow the regular precedence rules.
Logical expressions are expressions that calculate a boolean result: true or false
(which in reality are just a 1 or 0 integer value).

You can use parentheses to group parts of an expresion to change the precedence.
Usually the normal precedence rules apply (``*`` goes before ``+`` etc.) but subexpressions
within parentheses will be evaluated first. So ``(4 + 8) * 2`` is 24 and not 20,
and ``(true or false) and false`` is false instead of true.


Subroutines
-----------

Defining a subroutine
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Subroutines are parts of the code that can be repeatedly invoked using a subroutine call from elsewhere.
Their definition, using the ``sub`` statement, includes the specification of the required input- and output parameters.
Subroutines can be defined in a Block, but also nested inside another subroutine. Everything is scoped accordingly.

.. todo::
    re-introduce register based params and return values.
    For now, only register based parameters are supported (A, X, Y and paired registers AX, AY and XY,
    and various flags of the status register P: Pc (carry), Pz (zero), Pn (negative), Pv (overflow).
    For subroutine return values, it is the same (registers, status flags).


Calling a subroutine
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

The arguments in parentheses after the function name, should match the parameters in the subroutine definition.
The output variables must occur in the correct sequence of return values as specified
in the subroutine's definiton. It is possible to not store the return values but the compiler
will issue a warning then telling you the result values of a subroutine call are discarded.

.. caution::
    Note that *recursive* subroutine calls are not supported at this time.
    If you do need a recursive algorithm, you'll have to hand code it in embedded assembly for now,
    or rewrite it into an iterative algorithm.


.. _builtinfunctions:

Built-in Functions
------------------


There's a set of predefined functions in the language. These are fixed and can't be redefined in user code.
You can use them in expressions and the compiler will evaluate them at compile-time if possible.


sin(x)
	Sine.

cos(x)
	Cosine.

abs(x)
	Absolute value.

acos(x)
	Arccosine.

asin(x)
	Arcsine.

tan(x)
	Tangent.

atan(x)
	Arctangent.

ln(x)
	Natural logarithm (base E).

log2(x)
    Base 2 logarithm.

log10(x)
	Base 10 logarithm.

sqrt(x)
	Square root.

round(x)
	Rounds the floating point to the closest integer.

floor (x)
	Rounds the floating point down to an integer towards minus infinity.

ceil(x)
	Rounds the floating point up to an integer towards positive infinity.

rad(x)
	Degrees to radians.

deg(x)
	Radians to degrees.

max(x)
	Maximum of the values in the non-scalar (array or matrix) value x

min(x)
	Minimum of the values in the non-scalar (array or matrix) value x

avg(x)
	Average of the values in the non-scalar (array or matrix) value x

sum(x)
	Sum of the values in the non-scalar (array or matrix) value x

len(x)
    Number of values in the array or matrix value x, or the number of characters in a string (excluding the size or 0-byte).
    Note: this can be different from the number of *bytes* in memory if the datatype isn't a byte.

lsb(x)
    Get the least significant byte of the word x.

msb(x)
    Get the most significant byte of the word x.

flt(x)
    Explicitly convert the number x to a floating point number.
    This is required if you want calculations to have floating point precision when the values aren't float already.

any(x)
	1 ('true') if any of the values in the non-scalar (array or matrix) value x is 'true' (not zero), else 0 ('false')

all(x)
	1 ('true') if all of the values in the non-scalar (array or matrix) value x are 'true' (not zero), else 0 ('false')

rnd()
    returns a pseudo-random byte from 0..255

rndw()
    returns a pseudo-random word from 0..65535

rndf()
    returns a pseudo-random float between 0.0 and 1.0

str2byte(s)
    converts string s into the numeric value that s represents (byte).

str2word(s)
    converts string s into the numeric value that s represents (word).

str2float(s)
    converts string s into the numeric value that s represents (float).

lsl(x)
    Shift the bits in x (byte or word) one position to the left.
    Bit 0 is set to 0 (and the highest bit is shifted into the status register's Carry flag)
    Modifies in-place, doesn't return a value (so can't be used in an expression).

lsr(x)
    Shift the bits in x (byte or word) one position to the right.
    The highest bit is set to 0 (and bit 0 is shifted into the status register's Carry flag)
    Modifies in-place, doesn't return a value (so can't be used in an expression).

rol(x)
    Rotate the bits in x (byte or word) one position to the left.
    This uses the CPU's rotate semantics: bit 0 will be set to the current value of the Carry flag,
    while the highest bit will become the new Carry flag value.
    (essentially, it is a 9-bit or 17-bit rotation)
    Modifies in-place, doesn't return a value (so can't be used in an expression).

rol2(x)
    Like _rol but now as 8-bit or 16-bit rotation.
    It uses some extra logic to not consider the carry flag as extra rotation bit.
    Modifies in-place, doesn't return a value (so can't be used in an expression).

ror(x)
    Rotate the bits in x (byte or word) one position to the right.
    This uses the CPU's rotate semantics: the highest bit will be set to the current value of the Carry flag,
    while bit 0 will become the new Carry flag value.
    (essentially, it is a 9-bit or 17-bit rotation)
    Modifies in-place, doesn't return a value (so can't be used in an expression).

ror2(x)
    Like _ror but now as 8-bit or 16-bit rotation.
    It uses some extra logic to not consider the carry flag as extra rotation bit.
    Modifies in-place, doesn't return a value (so can't be used in an expression).

set_carry()  /  clear_carry()
    Set (or clear) the CPU status register Carry flag. No result value.
    (translated into ``SEC`` or ``CLC`` cpu instruction)

set_irqd()  / clear_irqd()
    Set (or clear) the CPU status register Interrupt Disable flag. No result value.
    (translated into ``SEI`` or ``CLI`` cpu instruction)