Re: [cc65] lcc port to the c64

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From: Todd Vierling (tv_at_pobox.com)
Date: 2000-11-30 07:35:26


On Thu, 16 Nov 2000, Ullrich von Bassewitz wrote:

: All in all it seems that gcc is too big as a compiler to be targeted to an 8
: bit machine. As far as I remember there has never been a port to 16 bit intel
: CPUs for this reason.

The reason there hasn't been a port to 16-bit intel CPUs has more to do with
the segmented memory model--and the lack of effort in the more important
_linker_ work properly with that memory model.

Gcc can be targeted to an 8-bit target quite easily; it's the guts of
implementation that is difficult, but only because it is tedious to flesh
out all the various RTL instructions for 16-bit and 32-bit quantities
(particularly to reduce code size with known constant values that fit into
smaller int sizes).  The compiler is so flexible that you could conceivably
have compiler options to provide several different machine modes; one to use
cc65 register and stack conventions, one to use a bunch of "virtual
registers", one to use a virtual stack, one to use completely vanilla 6502
everything, and so forth.

Context:  I actually started writing such a port many moons ago, but didn't
get very far because personal time shrunk to 0.  Who knows, I might try
again for 65xx (particularly 65816) as a hobby when I have more time.  This
would require, actually, using as65 and ld65....

-- 
-- Todd Vierling (tv_at_pobox.com)

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