Spin (programming language)

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Spin is a multitasking object oriented high level programming language created by Parallax, Inc. for their line of Propeller microcontrollers.

Spin code is written on "the propeller tool". A GUI oriented software development platform which is written for Windows XP. This compiler converts the Spin code into bytecodes that can be loaded, (with the same tool) into the main 32KB RAM, (and optionally into the serial boot FLASH EEPROM) of the Propeller chip. After booting the propeller a bytecode interpreter is copied from the built in ROM into the 2K RAM of the primary COG. And then this COG will start interpreting the bytecodes in the main 32KB RAM.

More than one copy of the bytecode interpreter can run in other COG's, so several Spin code threads can run simultaniously.

Within a the general Spin code program assembler code program(s) can be "inline" inserted. These assembler program(s) will then run on their own COG's.

Contents 1 Syntax 1.1 VAR 1.2 CON 1.3 PUB 1.4 OBJ 2 Keywords 3 sample code 4 External links

[edit] Syntax

The syntax of Spin can be broken down into blocks. The blocks are as following.

[edit] VAR

Holds global variables

[edit] CON

Holds program constants

[edit] PUB

Holds code for a sub-routine

[edit] OBJ

Contains code for objects

[edit] Keywords

reboot: causes the microcontroller to reboot

waitcnt: wait for an amount of clock cycles

COGINIT: starts a processor on a new task

[edit] sample code

This code sets a pin high (1)

PUB Start

DIRA[0]~~ 'sets pin 0 to input

OUTA[0]~~ 'sets pin 0 high

[edit] External links

• Propeller SPIN Interpreter ByteCode Format