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Also, remove zasm/test7 because it changes too much all time time (whenever zasm changes) and isn't precise enough. Too much noise, not worth it.
147 lines
6.3 KiB
Markdown
147 lines
6.3 KiB
Markdown
# z80 assembler
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This is probably the most critical part of the Collapse OS project. If this app
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can be brought to completion, it pretty much makes the project a success because
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it ensures self-reproduction.
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## Running on a "modern" machine
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To be able to develop zasm efficiently, [libz80][libz80] is used to run zasm
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on a modern machine. The code lives in `emul` and ran be built with `make`,
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provided that you have a copy libz80 living in `emul/libz80`.
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The resulting `zasm` binary takes asm code in stdin and spits binary in stdout.
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## Literals
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There are decimal, hexadecimal and binary literals. A "straight" number is
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parsed as a decimal. Hexadecimal literals must be prefixed with `0x` (`0xf4`).
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Binary must be prefixed with `0b` (`0b01100110`).
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Decimals and hexadecimal are "flexible". Whether they're written in a byte or
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a word, you don't need to prefix them with zeroes. Watch out for overflow,
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however.
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Binary literals are also "flexible" (`0b110` is fine), but can't go over a byte.
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There is also the char literal (`'X'`), that is, two qutes with a character in
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the middle. The value of that character is interpreted as-is, without any
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encoding involved. That is, whatever binary code is written in between those
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two quotes, it's what is evaluated. Only a single byte at once can be evaluated
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thus. There is no escaping. `'''` results in `0x27`. You can't express a newline
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this way, it's going to mess with the parser.
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Then comes our last literal, the string literal. It's a chain of characters
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surrounded by double quotes. Example: `"foo"`. This literal can only be used
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in the `.db` directive and is equivalent to each character being single-quoted
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and separated by commas (`'f', 'o', 'o'`). No null char is inserted in the
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resulting value (unlike what C does).
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## Labels
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Lines starting with a name followed `:` are labeled. When that happens, the
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name of that label is associated with the binary offset of the following
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instruction.
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For example, a label placed at the beginning of the file is associated with
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offset 0. If placed right after a first instruction that is 2 bytes wide, then
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the label is going to be bound to 2.
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Those labels can then be referenced wherever a constant is expeced. They can
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also be referenced where a relative reference is expected (`jr` and `djnz`).
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Labels can be forward-referenced, that is, you can reference a label that is
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defined later in the source file or in an included source file.
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Labels starting with a dot (`.`) are local labels: they belong only to the
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namespace of the current "global label" (any label that isn't local). Local
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namespace is wiped whenever a global label is encountered.
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Local labels allows reuse of common mnemonics and make the assembler use less
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memory.
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Global labels are all evaluated during the first pass, which makes possible to
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forward-reference them. Local labels are evaluated during the second pass, but
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we can still forward-reference them through a "first-pass-redux" hack.
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Labels can be alone on their line, but can also be "inlined", that is, directly
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followed by an instruction.
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## Constants
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The `.equ` directive declares a constant. That constant's argument is an
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expression that is evaluated right at parse-time.
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Constants are evaluated during the second pass, which means that they can
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forward-reference labels.
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However, they *cannot* forward-reference other constants.
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## Expressions
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Wherever a constant is expected, an expression can be written. An expression
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is a bunch of literals or symbols assembled by operators. For now, only `+`, `-`
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and `*` operators are supported. No parenthesis yet.
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Expressions can't contain spaces.
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## The Program Counter
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The `$` is a special symbol that can be placed in any expression and evaluated
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as the current output offset. That is, it's the value that a label would have if
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it was placed there.
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## Includes
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The `#inc` directive is special. It takes a string literal as an argument and
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opens, in the currently active filesystem, the file with the specified name.
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It then proceeds to parse that file as if its content had been copy/pasted in
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the includer file, that is: global labels are kept and can be referenced
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elsewhere. Constants too. An exception is local labels: a local namespace always
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ends at the end of an included file.
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There an important limitation with includes: only one level of includes is
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allowed. An included file cannot have an `#inc` directive.
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## Directives
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**.db**: Write bytes specified by the directive directly in the resulting
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binary. Each byte is separated by a comma. Example: `.db 0x42, foo`
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**.dw**: Same as `.db`, but outputs words. Example: `.dw label1, label2`
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**.equ**: Binds a symbol named after the first parameter to the value of the
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expression written as the second parameter. Example:
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`.equ foo 0x42+'A'`
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**.fill**: Outputs the number of null bytes specified by its argument, an
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expression. Often used with `$` to fill our binary up to a certain
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offset. For example, if we want to place an instruction exactly at
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byte 0x38, we would preceed it with `.fill 0x38-$`.
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**.org**: Sets the Program Counter to the value of the argument, an expression.
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For example, a label being defined right after a `.org 0x400`, would
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have a value of `0x400`. Does not do any filling. You have to do that
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explicitly with `.fill`, if needed. Often used to assemble binaries
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designed to run at offsets other than zero (userland).
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**.out**: Outputs the value of the expression supplied as an argument to
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`ZASM_DEBUG_PORT`. The value is always interpreted as a word, so
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there's always two `out` instruction executed per directive. High byte
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is sent before low byte. Useful or debugging, quickly figuring our
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RAM constants, etc. The value is only outputted during the second
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pass.
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**#inc**: Takes a string literal as an argument. Open the file name specified
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in the argument in the currently active filesystem, parse that file
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and output its binary content as is the code has been in the includer
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file.
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**.bin**: Takes a string literal as an argument. Open the file name specified
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in the argument in the currently active filesystem and outputs its
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contents directly.
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[libz80]: https://github.com/ggambetta/libz80
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