Yo guys & girls,
good news and bad news:
the bad news: Compass 2.0 is still not finished despite past 2 months of
programming. It is difficult to say when the non-beta version will be
released, but it will be worth waiting for.
One of my favourite new things is the clockcycle-indication: when
entering mnemonics, the clockcycles needed for that instruction are
displayed. (you can choose between Z80/R800 and add the extra waitstate
if you like) Of course you can also select a block and calculate the
total amount of cycles.
The assembly process will also be much faster since the code is already
assembled as much as possible when you are editing. Exact timing results
are not known yet, but I've already measured 2 seconds for Pass1 of a
source of 8000 lines without labels. (7MHz MSX2) Who will need a
cross-assembler ? ;-)
The new ASMformat was also designed to support new instructionsets, so
probably Z380 will be supported in the final version. But I have noticed
a problem: Z380 supports 16bit relative jumps, so if there is in the
source something like this: JR label, how can one decide whether to use
the normal 8bit JR or the 16bit JR, if you take in consideration that
the value of label can be dependent on your choice?! (and also: what is
the use of 16bit relative addressing: it takes 3 bytes, then you can
better use a normal JP; maybe 'relocatable code'..)
A possible easy solution could be using a new mnemonic like JRR (like
the new CALR)...
The good news: the new IDEFDISK 3.1 program is completely finished; the
TurboR bootproblem with the new type of bootsector was fixed. Now you
can add/kill variable-sized partitions like you wish, even FAT16
partitions. Works great with the newest IDE bios 2.01 and Okei's FAT16
driver. I will take the programs with me to Bussum, but probably it will
also be available at Sunrise.
Due to circumstances, CTNG will not have a booth on the fair in Bussum,
but some of us will come as visitor.
Greetings,
Jon
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