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Re: Linker Configs and Screen Holes (Was: Re: Double Hi-Res Demo in cc65 available for Download)

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"Bill Buckels" <bbuckels@mts.net> wrote:
>since MS-DOS is almost dead, cool linker features may soon not have much 
>value outside DosBOX and other MS-DOS emulators.

I should add that the Aztec C65 native mode compiler version 3.2b that runs 
on the Apple II also provides for the same holes or protected regions as 
well as defining other linker characteristics, and other Aztec C65 
cross-compilers provide for this as well, for the Apple II, commodore 64, 
and atari. However these compiler libraries for other targets, especially 
the Atari are missing, or only opartially complete or too old to be useful. 
The Aztec C65 pcode also provides for holes (protected areas) in 
exceutables.

The CG65 compiler from the late Paul Santa-Maria with manuals sent to me 
before he passed provides for ROMable code for all 6502 processors which can 
be embedded to this day and has no problems running in DOSBox. So like the 
Z80 compilers some of this can still be used but is not as efficient as 
cc65.

cc65 can be adapted to any of these uses by reviewing the Aztec C65 
documentation and a limited amount of additional study. However, the 
detailed knowledge of how they did it is only available after spending years 
reading and working with it like I accidentally did.

I think Oliver Schmidt probably is the most knowledgeable if he and I were 
having a contest, but I think I have more time to work with what I have 
said.

My final word on the native mode Aztec C65 compiler is that it did not 
receive the bug fixes and additional features that the cross-compilers did. 
The versions that we have available are buggy in many subtle ways. They are 
relatively useless beyond a retro-experience. The code they produce is 
extremely stack intensive as well as being in a severely deprecated and 
non-Ansi C.

So as bad as it is by today's standard, and by cc65's standard, the MS-DOS 
AppleX C65 3.2b compiler and Paul's CG65 compiler are better than the native 
mode compiler that Mike (phoenyx) and other Apple II C65 programmers used. 
Manx discovered that the Apple II wasn't such a great C compiler market 
except for MS-DOS programmers like me, so flogged this on unsuspecting Apple 
II users in the same old version until the company disappeared. All source 
was long ago discarded. There is no future for C65 especially on the native 
Apple II, and for the other the only way forward is to consider how the 
features that are missing from cc65 may be added.

I should also note that Michael Mahon's description of how an assembly 
language programmer organizes segments can be done as easily in cc65 since 
beneath cc65 is an assembler. But my idea here is to provide a higher and 
re-usable level that suits Oliver, which shall be a longer task, but more C 
like in the end.

Bill


 The mindset

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Re: Linker Configs and Screen Holes (Was: Re: Double Hi-Res Demo in cc65 available for Download) "Bill Buckels" <bbuckels@mts.net> - 2014-05-23 21:45 -0500
  Re: Linker Configs and Screen Holes (Was: Re: Double Hi-Res Demo in cc65 available for Download) Michael J. Mahon <mjmahon@aol.com> - 2014-05-23 22:20 -0500
    Re: Linker Configs and Screen Holes (Was: Re: Double Hi-Res Demo in cc65 available for Download) "Bill Buckels" <bbuckels@mts.net> - 2014-05-23 23:03 -0500
      Re: Linker Configs and Screen Holes (Was: Re: Double Hi-Res Demo in cc65 available for Download) David Schmidt <schmidtd@my-deja.com> - 2014-05-24 00:18 -0400
        Re: Linker Configs and Screen Holes (Was: Re: Double Hi-Res Demo in cc65 available for Download) "Bill Buckels" <bbuckels@mts.net> - 2014-05-24 08:49 -0500
      Re: Linker Configs and Screen Holes (Was: Re: Double Hi-Res Demo in cc65 available for Download) "Bill Buckels" <bbuckels@mts.net> - 2014-05-24 10:58 -0500
      Re: Linker Configs and Screen Holes (Was: Re: Double Hi-Res Demo in cc65 available for Download) Michael J. Mahon <mjmahon@aol.com> - 2014-05-24 11:04 -0500
        Re: Linker Configs and Screen Holes (Was: Re: Double Hi-Res Demo in cc65 available for Download) "Bill Buckels" <bbuckels@mts.net> - 2014-05-24 14:28 -0500
          Re: Linker Configs and Screen Holes (Was: Re: Double Hi-Res Demo in cc65 available for Download) ol.sc@web.de (Oliver Schmidt) - 2014-05-30 21:20 +0000
            Re: Linker Configs and Screen Holes (Was: Re: Double Hi-Res Demo in cc65 available for Download) "Bill Buckels" <bbuckels@mts.net> - 2014-05-30 18:35 -0500

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