Re: Language/Compiler for 8/16 bit processor?

mago@legba.sunmexico.Sun.COM (Gerardo Horvilleur) writes:


>Where can I find information on languages designed for simple 8 bits
>processors? Simple 8 bits processors (like the 6502) have few registers
>and a non-orthogonal instruction set. I remember seeing ads a few years
>ago (10 years ago :) for languages that were designed so it would be easy
>to generate efficient code for these kind of processors.


    Most 8-bit high-level languages opted for a P-Code approach. For
example, Apple's UCSD Pascal system for the Apple II used the UCSD P-Code
system, and so did Apple's Fortran system. Byteworks Inc. also had P-Code
based HLL's for the 8-bit Apple IIs.


>What I want to do is design a language that can be efficiently translated
>to 65816 assembly language. The 65816 is a 16 bit version of the 6502.


    The best 65816 language I've seen is Forth. It's not high level enough
to make me want to use it for the majority of my 65816 projects, but it is
extremely efficient on that platform.


    I am involved in a group that is porting the lcc C compiler to the
65816. As the editor mentioned, most of the work is quite straightforward;
however, we decided to modify the front end to be able to generate dags
that refer to 16-bit entities, so most of the time has gone there.
--
  Jawaid Bazyar
  Procyon, Inc., P.O Box 620334, Littleton, CO 80162-0334 (303) 781-3273
  bazyar@cs.uiuc.edu
--

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