[Coco] Expert C programmer wanted

[John R. Hogerhuis]

On Mon, 2005-02-07 at 00:57 -0600, Roger Taylor wrote:
> We *are* still talking about a 6809 C compiler, right?  There's tons of 
> them already on the web that just need to be tweaked a bit by one or more 
> friendly CoCo hobbyists.  I like the idea of an open source project, if the 
> project will stay active.  I'll donate what I can to the project.  I'm not 
> unknowledged in compiler theory and assembler theory.  ;)


Tons of 6809 capable compilers? I'm coming up empty with google.

There seem to be one or two commercial compilers for embedded systems
work. And of the ones I found, they don't seem to be in the current
lineups, probably because the processor isn't produced any longer.

The only partially done one is gcc, and as I understand it James isn't
convinced that it is the best way to go.

The only other one is sdcc and I don't think there's a 6809ish back end
yet. But this compiler is open source and built for the express purpose
of targeting 8-bit micros. So that's why I think it is the best bet at
present.

It's possible that we could disassemble the Microware C compiler, but I
don't think that's ideal. sdcc is an ongoing project, so there's the
possibility of support in the form of mailing lists. 


Outside the box:

I suppose it would be possible to run Microware C in an emulator and
suck the RMA code output of there. Not ideal, but that's the hack job
approach. Just make MESS+NitrOS-9 command line scriptable, and you've
got a command line C compiler. You avoid writing a compiler, and you
make MESS scriptable which would be a nice reusable feature for other
projects. Basically the things you would need to implement would be:

a) Getting strings from MESS command line to the OS-9 command line
b) Transferring files in and out of MESS and onto the OS-9 disk, or onto
a virtual RS-DOS disk which through commands you copy from RS-DOS to the
OS-9 disk so that the C compiler can see the file.


Alternatively you could just go to Forth, a high language for which the
6809 is particularly suited. You can't do better than a one-instruction
NEXT

JMP [,Y++]

http://www.zetetics.com/bj/papers/moving2.htm

CamelForth is a modern, ANS compatible Forth available free on the web.
It was presented in "The Computer Journal" some time back.

-- John.