Re: [stella] compiler?

Subject: Re: [stella] compiler?
From: "B. Watson" <atari@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Fri, 7 Sep 2001 10:09:27 -0400 (EDT)
On Fri, 7 Sep 2001, Ben Larson wrote:

> Yea, I realize that functionality would be really
> limited.  The reason I want to do it, though, is just
> to see if it's possible to abstract any of the
> hardware restrictions of the system itself.
> 
> What I was thinking would be cool was more of a 'test
> compiler' at first - one that maybe would let the user
> declare an arbitrary number of 8x8 'sprites' and
> nothing else - ok maybe a symmetrical background too. 
> The fact that you can really only have two of these
> 'sprites' (player objects) on a line would be
> completely abstracted from the user.  Of course, in a
> finished program, it would be painfully obvious (due
> to the flicker) what happens when you do put, say, 8
> sprites on a line at once. :)  But the point is that
> the higher-level language would abstract that from the
> user.  That, I think, would be a milestone in-and-of
> itself.

I don't think it's going to work... that being said, if you want to go ahead
and prove me wrong, you might consider using C macros/functions as your test
language, using CC65 to compile it all (www.cc65.org)... CC65 is a (mostly)
ANSI-compliant C compiler (and assembler backend) for 6502-series CPUs. You
could write a graphics library for the 2600...

I think that this would be a *major* undertaking, and not worth the trouble,
but if you can make it work, I'd be glad to admit I was wrong

Brian

---

If a trainstation is the place where trains stop, what is a workstation?



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