On Wed, 18 Jun 1997, Marat Fayzullin wrote:
> Another step would be to use Unix as the platform, and start from writing
> a set of tools and libraries making it possible to develop decent
> MSX-styled applications on it, in a way which allows to recompile them on
> any other system (given new libraries). This probably involves creating
> some libraries for tiled graphics (with a large collection of tiles from
> MSX games included) and a tool which would make it easy to write the game
> algorithms/main loops/etc.
>
That's exactly what I'm doing. I'm creating now a new C
cross-compiler which allows compilation on any architeture (you just need
to rewrite a small configuration file). I'm currently supporting Z80 and
8088 processors.
C is a very compact language, and all its I/O power comes from the
libraries included. I'm making a library to extract full potential from a
MSX machine. And to compile the same application on another machine (DOS,
UNIX or whataver), you just need to port the library to this machine. In
this way, new MSX software created with my compiler will not need
emulators to run on the PC, only a recompilation. Of course, the opposite
is also true, and in fact my main objective is to recompile GNU apps on
the MSX.
I'm in an early stage of the compiler, but you already can compile
simple apps with it. I've done a small PCX reader for SCREEN 8, for
example (it was distributed to the brazilian mailing list). Anyone who
wants to help in beta testing (or are just curious) can contact me for
further instructions. The first working version is planned to be released
on BSB'97 (July 19/20), the main brazilian MSX fair.
> BTW, I've already written some code which may be used in such a project.
> Take a look at the SndUnix/SndMSDOS library files at
>
> http://www.freeflight.com/fms/EMUL8/
>
> It will provide the programmers with a little and simple portable library
> for generating sound a la AY8910 (I am going to add an AY8910 emulation
> module to it too).
>
That's great, I will integrate it in my compiler, if you don't
mind.
Ricardo Bittencourt
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
