History of SixtyPical

0.21-2023.0309

• Python 3 is the default interpreter for sixtypical.
• Test appliance added for testing under Python 2.7.
• dcc6502 test adapter made runnable under both Python 2 and Python 3.

0.21

• A source file can be included in another source file by means of the include directive.
• A routine can be declared preserved, which prevents a compiler from omitting it from the final executable, even if it determines it is not called by any other routine.
• The reference implementation constructs a callgraph and determines the set of routines which are not reachable (directly or indirectly) from main, with an eye to omitting them from the final executable.
• Added --prune-unreachable-routines option, which causes the compiler to in fact omit routines determined to be unreachable as described above.
• Added --include-path option, which configures the list of directories that are searched when a source file is included with the include directive.
• Code generation now performs modest peephole optimization at the end of each routine. This results in better code generation for constructs in tail position, notably tail optimization of calls, but also for gotos and if blocks at the end of a routine.
• Began collecting architecture-specific and portable include-files for a nascent "standard library".

0.20

• A point ... into block no longer initializes the pointer by default. A subequent reset instruction must be used to initialize the pointer. The pointer may be reset to any valid offset within the table (not only 0) and it may be reset multiple times inside the block.
• Local locations need no longer be static. If they are not static, they are considered uninitialized until assigned, and they can be declared with an explicit fixed address.
• Along with goto, call and with interrupts off are now forbidden inside a with interrupts off block.
• More tests to assure that using call inside a point into block or inside a for block does not cause trouble, particularly when the routine being called also uses the variable named in that block.
• Fixed a bug where two local statics could be declared with the same name.
• Split analysis context support off from analyzer, and symbol table support from parse, and it their own modules.
• Split the SixtyPical Analysis tests across three files, and placed test appliances for sixtypical in own file.

0.19

• A table may be defined with more than 256 entries, even though the conventional index syntax can only refer to the first 256 entries.
• A pointer may point inside values of type byte table, allowing access to entries beyond the 256th.
• buffer types have been eliminated from the language, as the above two improvements allow byte tables to do everything buffers previously did.
• When accessing a table with an index, a constant offset can also be given.
• Accessing a table through a pointer must be done in the context of a point ... into block. This allows the analyzer to check which table is being accessed.
• Refactored compiler internals so that type information is stored in a single symbol table shared by all phases.
• Refactored internal data structures that represent references and types to be immutable namedtuples.
• Added --dump-exit-contexts option to sixtypical.
• Added a new --run-on=<emu> option to sixtypical, which replaces the old loadngo.sh script.

0.18

• The "consistent initialization" check inside if blocks has been dropped. If a location is initialized inside one block but not the other, it is treated as uninitialized afterwards.
• Syntactically, goto may only appear at the end of a block. It need no longer be the final instruction in a routine, as long as the type context is consistent at every exit.
• When the range of a location is known, inc and dec on it will usually shift the known instead of invalidating it.
• cmp instruction can now perform a 16-bit unsigned comparison of word memory locations and word literals (at the cost of trashing the a register.)
• add (resp. sub) now support adding (resp. subtracting) a byte location or a byte literal from a byte location.
• Fixed pathological memory use in the lexical scanner - should be much less inefficient now when parsing large source files.
• Reorganized the examples in eg/rudiments/ to make them officially platform-agnostic and to state the expected output.

0.17

• save X, Y, Z { } now allowed as a shortcut for nested saves.
• If the name in a location expression isn't found in the symbol table, a forward reference will always be generated; and forward references in all operations will be resolved after parsing.
• As a consequence, trying to call or goto a non-routine-typed symbol is now an analysis error, not a syntax error.
• Deprecated routine foo ... syntax has been removed.
• Split TODO off into own file.
• sixtypical no longer writes the compiled binary to standard output. The --output command-line argument should be given to get a compiled binary; otherwise only analysis is run.
• Internal cleanups, including a hierarchy of Outputters.
• All tests pass when sixtypical is run under Python 3.5.2.

0.16

• Added save block, which allows the named locations to be modified arbitrarily inside the block, and automatically restored at the end.
• More thorough tests and justifications written for the case of assigning a routine to a vector with a "wider" type.
• Support for copy [ptra]+y, [ptrb]+y to indirect LDA indirect STA.
• Support for shl foo and shr foo where foo is a byte storage.
• Support for I a, btable + x where I is add, sub, cmp, and, or, or xor
• Support for I btable + x where I is shl, shr, inc, dec
• or a, z, and a, z, and eor a, z compile to zero-page operations if the address of z < 256.
• Removed --prelude in favour of specifying both format and prelude with a single option, --output-format. Documentation for same.

0.15

• Symbolic constants can be defined with the const keyword, and can be used in most places where literal values can be used.
• Added nop opcode, which compiles to NOP (mainly for timing.)
• Accessing zero-page with ld and st generates zero-page opcodes.
• A byte or word table can be initialized with a list of constants.
• Branching and repeating on the n flag is now supported.
• The --optimize-fallthru option causes the routines of the program to be re-ordered to maximize the number of cases where a goto'ed routine can be simply "falled through" to instead of JMPed to.
• --dump-fallthru-info option outputs the information from the fallthru analysis phase, in JSON format, to stdout.
• Even without fallthru optimization, RTS is no longer emitted after the JMP from compiling a final goto.
• Specifying multiple SixtyPical source files will produce a single compiled result from their combination.
• Rudimentary support for Atari 2600 prelude in a 4K cartridge image, and an example program in eg/atari2600 directory.

0.14

• Added the so-called "open-faced for loop", which spans a loop variable over a finite range, the end of which is fixed.
• "Tail position" is now more correctly determined for the purposes of insisting that goto only appears in it.
• New --origin and --output-format options added to the compiler.
• Fixed bug when --prelude option was missing.
• Fixed bug when reporting line numbers of scanner-level syntax errors.
• Translated the small demo projects Ribos and "The PETulant Cursor" to SixtyPical, and added them to the eg/c64/ section of the repo.
• Added a eg/vic20 example directory, with one VIC-20 example program.

0.13

• It is a static analysis error if it cannot be proven that a read or write to a table falls within the defined size of that table.
• The reference analyzer's ability to prove this is currently fairly weak, but it does exist:
  • Loading a constant into a memory location means we know the range is exactly that one constant value.
  • ANDing a memory location with a value means the range of the memory location cannot exceed the range of the value.
  • Doing arithmetic on a memory location invalidates our knowledge of its range.
  • Copying a value from one memory location to another copies the known range as well.
• Cleaned up the internals of the reference implementation (incl. the AST) and re-organized the example programs in the eg subdirectory.
• Most errors produced by the reference implementation now include a line number.
• Compiler supports multiple preludes, specifically both Commodore 64 and Commodore VIC-20; the loadngo.sh script supports both architectures too.

0.12

• copy is now understood to trash a, thus it is not valid to use a in copy. To compensate, indirect addressing is supported in ld and st, for example, as ld a, [ptr] + y and st a, [ptr] + y.
• Implements the "union rule for trashes" when analyzing if blocks.
• Even if we goto another routine, we can't trash an output.
• static storage locations local to routines can now be defined within routines.
• Small grammar changes that obviate the need for:
  • the parentheses in type expressions like vector (routine ...) table[256]
  • the forward keyword in forward references in source of copy instruction
• Fixed bug where trash was not marking the location as being virtually altered.

0.11

• Each table has a specified size now (although, bounds checking is not performed.)
• Initialized byte table values need not have all 256 bytes initialized.
• Syntax for types has changed. routine (with constraints) is a type, while vector is now a type constructor (taking routines only) and table is also a type constructor. This permits a new vector table type.
• Added typedef, allowing the user to define type aliases for readability.
• Added define name routine {...} syntax; routine name {...} is now legacy.
• Ability to copy vectors and routines into vector tables, and vectors out of same.
• Removed the evaluator. The reference implementation only analyzes and compiles.
• Fixed bug where index register wasn't required to be initialized before table access.
• Fixed bug where trampolines for indirect calls weren't including a final RTS.

0.10

• Can call and goto routines that are defined further down in the source code.
• The forward modifier can also be used to indicate that the symbol being copied in a copy to a vector is a routine that is defined further down in the source.
• Initialized word memory locations.
• Can copy a literal word to a word table.
• Subtract word (constant or memory location) from word memory location.
• trash instruction explicitly indicates a value is no longer considered meaningful.
• copy []+y, a can indirectly read a byte value into the a register.
• Initialized byte table memory locations.
• Fixed bug which was preventing if branches to diverge in what they initialized, if it was already initialized when going into the if.
• Fixed a bug which was making it crash when trying to analyze repeat forever loops.

0.9

• Add word (constant or memory location) to word memory location.
• Add word to pointer (unchecked for now).
• Added word table type.
• Can copy from word storage location to word table and back.
• A vector can name itself in its inputs and outputs or trashes sets.
• Implementation: --debug shows some extra info during analysis.
• Fixed bug where copying literal word into word storage used wrong endianness.
• Fixed bug where every memory location was allocated 2 bytes of storage, regardless of type.
• Tests: use https://github.com/tcarmelveilleux/dcc6502 to disassemble code for comparison.

0.8

• Explicit word literals prefixed with word token.
• Can copy literals into user-defined destinations.
• Fixed bug where loop variable wasn't being checked at end of repeat loop.
• buffer and pointer types.
• copy ^ syntax to load the addr of a buffer into a pointer.
• copy []+y syntax to read and write values to and from memory through a pointer.

0.7

• User-defined byte locations can be given an initial value.
• word type locations which can be defined and copyed between.
• Can copy directly from one user-defined byte location to another.

0.6

• Added routine and vector types, and copy instruction.
• Both routines and vectors can declare inputs, outputs, and trashes, and these must be compatible to assign a routine or vector to a vector.
• Added goto (tail call) instruction, jumps to routine or through vector.
• call can call a subroutine indirectly, via a vector.
• Routine name is now shown in analysis error messages.

0.5

• Added byte table type locations and indexed addressing (+ x, + y).
• Integer literals may be given in hexadecimal.
• Line comments may be included in source code by prefixing them with //.

0.4

• Added repeat loops to the language, which can repeat until a flag is set (or not set), or which can repeat forever.
• if not inverts the sense of the test.
• Added explicitly-addressed memory locations.

0.3

• Added external routine declarations.
• Added ability to compile to 6502 machine code and output a PRG file.

0.2

A complete reboot of SixtyPical 0.1. The reference implementation was rewritten in Python. The language was much simplified. The aim was to get the analysis completely right before adding more sophisticated and useful features in future versions.

0.1

Initial inspired-but-messy version implemented in Haskell.