Re: [stella] compiler?

Subject: Re: [stella] compiler?
From: "nj bloodline" <njbl00dline@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Fri, 27 Jul 2001 16:43:11 -0400
That's exactly what I am talking about! It could evolve into more..
eventually a full fledged piece of software.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Ben Larson" <wazzapfool@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <stella@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, September 06, 2001 4:00 PM
Subject: Re: [stella] compiler?


> OK I did some more thinking about this at work. :)  I
> started thinking that the whole text-based console
> kernel might not be as easy as I thought.  For one,
> I'm pretty sure it would have to involve some trickery
> with the player graphics to get any decent text
> resolution...inputting numbers would be kinda
> difficult to do too with a joystick. :)
>
> Maybe something more useful would be a compiler that
> would support 'real' graphics, but just support a
> fairly simple display kernel (at first anyway) - i.e.
> two player sprites that can be positioned anywhere
> on-screen, a ball that can be positioned anywhere, and
> a symmetrical playfield.  Then everyone could make
> their own Combat clone in a high(er) level language!
> ;)
>
> Ben
>
> P.S. Sorry if I'm offending any assembly-language
> purists with all this talk of high-level languages :)
>
> --- Ben Larson <wazzapfool@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > Has anyone ever considered making a compiler that
> > generates Atari 2600 code?  I know it sounds like a
> > pretty farfetched idea, but I was thinking maybe
> > something scaled down at first.  Obviously creating
> > a
> > compiler that would be able to abstract all the
> > nasty
> > details of making a really graphically-intense game
> > (like Pitfall for instance) would be
> > near-impossible.
> > That's not what I had in mind.  What I had in mind
> > was
> > something that would just let you do console
> > text-based stuff a la old DOS text-based programs,
> > or
> > that 2600 game 'Dark Mage'.
> >
> > I already have a simple C-esque scripting language I
> > wrote with some other guy for a class in college,
> > which I was thinking might be a starting point.  The
> > implementation was done in C++ and is completely
> > object-oriented (the implementation, not the
> > language
> > we wrote).  Right now it's interpreted, but it would
> > be easy (knock on wood) to convert it into a
> > compiler
> > because of the object oriented structure.  All that
> > would need to be done would be to write a new
> > 'virtual
> > machine' class (one of the 3 C++ classes that
> > comprises it) which would take the
> > pseudo-instructions
> > given to it from the parser and generate 6502
> > assembly
> > language code instead.
> >
> > Anyway the language itself is kinda cool - supports
> > integer variables and arrays, string constants, as
> > well as 'for' and 'while' loops, procedures,
> > (pseduo)
> > local variables, arbitrarily complex conditional
> > statements, order-of-operations, etc.  I (or someone
> > else) would just need to come up with a 'console
> > kernel' to retrive text information from RAM and
> > display the characters on-screen, and I think the
> > whole thing might be pretty feasable.  Obviously the
> > limited processing power of the 2600 might be a
> > problem, but I suppose if all of a given program's
> > calculations couldn't be done in one screen blank,
> > then it could just be spread over multiple screen
> > blanks...maybe.  The compiler would likely have to
> > count cycles when generating the code, and always
> > assume worst-case scenario in order to determine
> > whether code would fit into 1 screen blank.  If not,
> > it could generate the appropriate subroutine calls
> > to
> > draw the screen, and then go on generating code.
> >
> > Anyway just a thought, I don't know if anyone would
> > be
> > interested in such a thing, since its usefulness,
> > like
> > I said, would probably be limited to fairly static
> > (text-based) stuff.
> >
> > Ben
> >
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