Andrew Davie wrote:
> The Stella Programmer's Guide dates from 1979, and clearly lists names for
a
> majority of the registers. By the above rules, those names should take
> absolute priority over all others in use. We will all understand them,
and
> we should all use them. Registers which are not defined in that document,
> or where that document is ambiguous or in error, will have been defined in
> various forms by various programmers over the years. Certainly we should
> NOT create new names for them - but should search for earlier use, and
> especially for names which have become 'standard' due to their use by
nearly
> everyone.
Basically I agree with this. But the registers were named by hardware guys,
not programmers. And besides, back then many assemblers could only
recognize symbols with 5 characters. These days we can make them
essentially as long as we want. Maybe it would be nice to name the
registers in such a way that the functionality of a program becomes more
self-evident.
> I was given a lot of help by the people on this list. In return, I will
be
> delighted to help others where I can. But, and here's the rub, I expect
to
> have certain standards in place (..."by which people are able to
communicate
> and understand each other without having first to learn the
> terminology..."). If somebody submits code and asks for help - and that
> code does NOT adhere to our commonly used and/or agreed standards - then I
> am much much less likely to help.
Yeah, this is the rub. People who've been around longer are used to the old
way and are resistant to change. Personally I'm constantly annoyed at how
the names of the classic games have changed from 8.3 names which I knew and
could remember to something that is much too long to type. So there's
something to be said for not changing things.
> Perhaps we should form a [stella] list sanctioned "official" vcs.h
register
> naming committee. I do not believe embedding VCS.H inside your source is
a
> good way to go - it presupposes a single source file, which is not always
> the case. If we had a standard [stella] VCS.H then I would use it - even
if
> some of the names weren't the ones I was used to.
Oh, what was that movie with Mel Gibson in it? Not the Australian ones --
Braveheart.
Freedom!!!! But if there is going to be a committee, I'd like to be on it.
It sounds like a lot of fun. I like committees. Lots of talk, and not too
much action. And there's always a troublemaker. Always. ;-)
John
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