6502/vasm/doc/syntax_madmac.texi

This chapter describes the madmac syntax module, which is compatible
to the MadMac assembler syntax, written by Landon Dyer for Atari and
improved later to support Jaguar and JRISC.
It is mainly intended for Atari's 6502, 68000 and Jaguar systems.

@section Legal

    This module is written in 2015 by Frank Wille and
    is covered by the vasm copyright without modifications.

@section General Syntax

A statement may contain up to four fields which are identified by order
of appearance and terminating characters. The general form is:
@example
label:    operator    operand(s)    ; comment
@end example

Labels must not start at the first column, as they are identified by the
mandatory terminating colon (@code{:}) character. A double colon (@code{::})
automatically makes the label externally visible.

Labels preceded by '@code{.}' have local scope and are only valid between
two global labels.

Equate directives, starting in the operator field, have a symbol without
terminating colon in the first field, left of the operator.
The equals-character (@code{=}) can be used as an alias for @code{equ}.
A double-equals (@code{==}) automatically makes the symbol externally
visible.
@example
symbol    equate    expression    ; comment
@end example

Identifiers, like symbols or labels, may start with any upper- or lower-case
character, a dot (@code{.}), question-mark (@code{?}) or underscore
(@code{_}). The remaining characters may be any alphanumeric character,
a dollar-sign (@code{$}), question-mark (@code{?}) or underscore (@code{_}).

The operands are separated from the operator by whitespace. Multiple
operands are separated by comma (@code{,}).

Comments are introduced by the comment character @code{;}. The asterisk
(@code{*}) can be used at the first column to start a comment.
The rest of the line will be ignored.

In expressions, numbers starting with @code{$} are hexadecimal (e.g.
@code{$fb2c}). @code{%} introduces binary numbers (e.g. @code{%1100101}).
Numbers starting with @code{@@} are assumed to be octal numbers, e.g.
@code{@@237}.
All other numbers starting with a digit are decimal, e.g. @code{1239}.

NOTE: Unlike the original Madmac assembler all expressions are evaluated
following the usual mathematical operator priorities.

C-like escape characters are supported in strings.


@section Directives

The following directives are supported by this syntax module (if the
CPU- and output-module allow it). Note that all directives, besides the
equals-character, may be optionally preceded by a dot (@code{.}).

@table @code
@item <symbol> = <expression>
      Equivalent to @code{<symbol> equ <expression>}.

@item <symbol> == <expression>
      Equivalent to @code{<symbol> equ <expression>}, but declare <symbol>
      as externally visible.

@item assert <expresion>[,<expression>...]
      Assert that all conditions are true (non-zero), otherwise issue a
      warning.

@item bss
      The following data (space definitions) are going into the BSS section.
      The BSS section cannot contain any initialized data.

@item data
      The following data are going into the data section, which usually
      contains pre-initialized data and no executable code.

@item dc <exp1>[,<exp2>...]
      Equivalent to @code{dc.w}.

@item dc.b <exp1>[,<exp2>,"<string1>",'<string2>'...]
      Assign the integer or string constant operands into successive
      bytes of memory in the current section. Any combination of integer
      and character string constant operands is permitted.

@item dc.i <exp1>[,<exp2>...]
      Assign the values of the operands into successive 32-bit words
      of memory in the current section. In contrast to @code{dc.l} the
      high and low half-words will be swapped as with the Jaguar-RISC
      @code{movei} instruction.

@item dc.l <exp1>[,<exp2>...]
      Assign the values of the operands into successive 32-bit words
      of memory in the current section.

@item dc.w <exp1>[,<exp2>...]
      Assign the values of the operands into successive 16-bit words
      of memory in the current section.

@item dcb
      Equivalent to @code{dcb.w}.

@item dcb.b <exp>[,<fill>]
      Insert <exp> zero or <fill> bytes into the current section.

@item dcb.l <exp>[,<fill>]
      Insert <exp> zero or <fill> 32-bit words into the current section.

@item dcb.w <exp>[,<fill>]
      Insert <exp> zero or <fill> 16-bit words into the current section.

@item dphrase
      Align the program counter to the next integral double phrase
      boundary (16 bytes).

@item ds <exp>
      Equivalent to @code{dcb.w <exp>,0}.

@item ds.b <exp>
      Equivalent to @code{dcb.b <exp>,0}.

@item ds.l <exp>
      Equivalent to @code{dcb.l <exp>,0}.

@item ds.w <exp>
      Equivalent to @code{dcb.w <exp>,0}.

@item else
      Else-part of a conditional-assembly block. Refer to '@code{if}'.

@item end
      End the assembly of the current file. Parsing of an include file is 
      terminated here and assembling of the parent source commences. It
      also works to break the current conditional block, repetition or macro.

@item endif
      Ends a block of conditional assembly.

@item endm
      Ends a macro definition.

@item endr
      Ends a repetition block.

@item <symbol> equ <expression>
      Define a new program symbol with the name <symbol> and assign to it
      the value of <expression>. Defining <symbol> twice will cause
      an error.

@item even
      Align the program counter to an even value, by inserting a zero-byte
      when it is odd.

@item exitm
      Exit the current macro (proceed to @code{endm}) at this point and
      continue assembling the parent context.
      Note that this directive also resets the level of conditional
      assembly to a state before the macro was invoked (which means that
      it works as a 'break' command on all new @code{if} directives).

@item extern <symbol>[,<symbol>...]
      Declare the given symbols as externally defined. Internally there is
      no difference to @code{globl}, as both declare the symbols, no
      matter if defined or not, as externally visible.

@item globl <symbol>[,<symbol>...]
      Declare the given symbols as externally visible in the object file
      for the linker. Note that you can have the same effect by using
      a double-colon (@code{::}) on labels or a double-equal (@code{==})
      on equate-symbols.

@item if <expression>
      Start of block of conditional assembly. If <expression> is true, the
      block between '@code{if}' and the matching '@code{endif}' or
      '@code{else}' will be assembled. When false, ignore all lines until
      and '@code{else}' or '@code{endif}' directive is encountered.
      It is possible to leave such a block early from within an include
      file (with @code{end}) or a macro (with @code{endm}).

@item iif <expression>, <statement>
      A single-line conditional assembly. The <statement> will be parsed
      when <expression> evaluates to true (non-zero).
      <statement> may be a normal source line, including labels, operators
      and operands.

@item incbin "<file>"
      Inserts the binary contents of <file> into the object code at
      this position. The file will be searched first in the current
      directory, then in all paths defined by @option{-I} in the order
      of occurence.

@item include "<file>"
      Include source text of <file> at this position. The include file
      will be searched first in the current directory, then in all
      paths defined by @option{-I} in the order of occurence.

@item list
      The following lines will appear in the listing file, if it was
      requested.

@item long
      Align the program counter to the next integral longword boundary
      (4 bytes), by inserting as many zero-bytes as needed.

@item macro <name> [<argname>[,<argname>...]]
      Defines a macro which can be referenced by <name> (case-sensitive).
      The macro definition is terminated by an @code{endm} directive
      and may be exited by @code{exitm}.
      When calling a macro you may pass up to 64 arguments, separated by
      comma. The first ten arguments are referenced within the macro
      context as @code{\1} to @code{\9} and @code{\0} for the tenth.
      Optionally you can specify a list of argument names, which are
      referenced with a leading backslash character (@code{\}) within the macro.
      The special code @code{\~} inserts a unique id, useful for
      defining labels. @code{\#} is replaced by the number of arguments.
      @code{\!} writes the the size-qualifier (M68k) including the dot.
      @code{\?argname} expands to @code{1} when the named argument is
      specified and non-empty, otherwise it expands to @code{0}.
      It is also allowed to enclose argument names in curly braces, which
      is useful in situations where the argument name is followed by
      another valid identifier character.

@item macundef <name>[,<name>...]
      Undefine one or more already defined macros, making them unknown for
      the following source to assemble.

@item nlist
      The following lines will not be visible in a listing file.

@item nolist
      The following lines will not be visible in a listing file.

@item org <expression>
      Sets the base address for the subsequent code and switch into
      absolute mode. Such a block is terminated by any section directive
      or by @code{.68000} (Jaguar only).

@item phrase
      Align the program counter to the next integral phrase
      boundary (8 bytes).

@item print <expression>[,<expression>...]
      Prints strings and formatted expressions to the assembler's console.
      <expression> is either a string in quotes or an expression, which
      is optionally preceded by special format flags:

      Several flags can be used to format the output of expressions.
      The default is a 16-bit signed decimal.
      @table @code
      @item /x
        hexadecimal
      @item /d
        signed decimal
      @item /u
        unsigned decimal
      @item /w
        16-bit word
      @item /l
        32-bit longword
      @end table
      For example:
@example
        .print  "Value: ", /d/l xyz
@end example

@item qphrase
      Align the program counter to the next integral quad phrase
      boundary (32 bytes).

@item rept <expression>
      The block between @code{rept} and @code{endr} will be repeated
      <expression> times, which has to be positive.

@item <symbol> set <expression>
      Create a new symbol with the name <symbol> and assign
      the value of <expression>. If <symbol> is already assigned, it will
      contain a new value from now on.

@item text
      The following code and data is going into the text section, which
      usually is the first program section, containing the executable code.

@end table


@section Known Problems

    Some known problems of this module at the moment:

@itemize @minus

@item Not all Madmac, smac and extended Jaguar-Madmac directives are
supported.

@item Expressions are not evaluated left-to-right, but mathematically
correct.

@item Square-brackets (@code{[]}) are currently not supported to
prioritize terms, as an alternative for parentheses.

@item Functions (@code{^^func}) are currently not supported.

@end itemize


@section Error Messages

This module has the following error messages:

@itemize @minus
@item 1001: malformed immediate-if
@item 1003: cannot export local symbol
@item 1004: no space before operands
@item 1005: too many closing parentheses
@item 1006: missing closing parentheses
@item 1007: missing operand
@item 1008: garbage at end of line
@item 1009: unknown print format flag '%c'
@item 1010: invalid data operand
@item 1011: print format corrupted
@item 1012: identifier expected
@item 1014: unexpected "%s" without "%s"
@end itemize