From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Jody Bruchon Subject: Re: SDCC porting feasibility study, part 1: the assembler Date: Mon, 27 Feb 2012 10:46:17 -0500 Message-ID: <4F4BA549.10506@jodybruchon.com> References: <20120227100515.GE27951@vega.lgb.hu> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: QUOTED-PRINTABLE Return-path: In-Reply-To: <20120227100515.GE27951@vega.lgb.hu> Sender: linux-8086-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"; format="flowed" To: "ELKS (linux-8086)" On 02/27/12 05:05, G=E1bor L=E9n=E1rt wrote: > Re, > > On Sun, Feb 26, 2012 at 06:18:55PM -0600, Brad Normand wrote: >> I've started looking at SDCC to try and get an idea how easy it is t= o >> port this to target 8086. > > Maybe a bit off-topic, but: > > Hmm, I had a bad experience with SDCC with Z80 as target. Maybe I was > not so smart, but I couldn't make it emit RODATA like stuff, it just = generated > Z80 code (!) to store data, instead of just the data. I am contemplating writing a new toolchain from the ground up at this=20 point. I'm rapidly learning that open source C toolchains are in short=20 supply, and the ones that exist either (A) don't target 8086 at all, (B= )=20 are not documented well enough (or clearly enough) for a newcomer to ad= d=20 support, (C) output things in ways that are undesired, or (D) are so=20 complex that all ye who enter there abandon all hope, specifically=20 thinking of gcc. Particularly with smaller CPUs than 8086, it seems C=20 compilers are ill-suited. I am thinking of the 6502, of which many=20 systems exist with massive (for a 64K address space) amounts of=20 bank-switched RAM; its minimal amount of 8-bit registers and interestin= g=20 addressing modes make it hard to compile good code for from a language=20 like C. The 65816 being the 16-bit variant makes it highly desirable to= =20 port ELKS to (wouldn't it be nice to have ELKS working on the Apple IIg= s?) Maybe what we need to be doing is making a list of the features that we= =20 need a compiler to support, rather than taking each one in turn and=20 trying to jam the pegs in the holes? Jody Bruchon -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-8086" i= n the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html