MAC/65

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MAC/65
Developer: Optimized Systems Software
Latest Release: 4.20 / 1994
Release date: 1982
Platform: Atari 400/800/XL/XE
Genre: Assembler
Media: floppy disk, cartridge
License: Copyright © 1994 Fine Tooned Engineering

MAC/65 was an assembler produced by Optimized Systems Software for the Atari 8-bit family of microcomputers. It was a direct descendant of OSS's EASMD. Much like the Atari Assembler Editor cartridge, MAC/65 combined a line editor, assembler, and debugger into a single package. MAC/65 was notable for being significantly faster than the assemblers produced by Atari. It was used to write numerous commercial games and program listings for magazines such as ANALOG Computing.

MAC/65 was written by Stephen D. Lawrow and was first released on disk in 1982. A cartridge version came later.

Contents

[edit] Features

MAC/65 featured two-pass compiling, with a third-pass for macros. Object code was generated in memory only when explicitly declared, unlike the Atari Assembler Editor cartridge. Source was either MAC/65 token format or text files. Editing source required line numbers otherwise MAC/65 would treat lines as commands. MAC/65 also did syntax checking in EDIT mode. MAC/65 converted all strings to uppercase unless they were embedded with double quotes.

Much like Atari BASIC, source code in MAC/65 was tokenized as it was entered. This resulted in smaller data sizes (important when both the source and object code were in memory) and shorter assembly times.

Unlike the Atari Assembler Editor, MAC/65 provided true macro processing and conditional assembly.

The cartridge version added 65C02 op-code support as well as Dunion's Debugging Tool (DDT) by Jim Dunion, of APX fame. Dunion later wrote EXDDT (EXtended DDT) for ANTIC Software.

[edit] Example Code

The following is example code for Hello World! written in MAC/65:

10 ; HELLO.ASM
20 ;
30 ; THIS SIMPLE MAC/65 DEMO WILL
40 ; PRINT THE "HELLO WORLD"
50 ; MESSAGE TO THE SCREEN
60 ;
0100 ; === CIO EQUATES ===
0110     *=  $0340   ;START OF IOCB
0120 IOCB
0130 ;
0140 ICHID *= *+1    ;DEVICE HANDLER
0150 ICDNO *= *+1    ;DEVICE NUMBER
0160 ICCOM *= *+1    ;I/O COMMAND
0170 ICSTA *= *+1    ;I/O STATUS
0180 ICBAL *= *+1    ;LSB BUFFER ADDR
0190 ICBAH *= *+1    ;MSB BUFFER ADDR
0200 ICPTL *= *+1    ;LSB PUT ROUTINE
0210 ICPTH *= *+1    ;MSB PUT ROUTINE
0220 ICBLL *= *+1    ;LSB BUFFER LEN
0230 ICBLH *= *+1    ;MSB BUFFER LEN
0240 ICAX1 *= *+1    ;AUX BYTE 1
0250 ICAX2 *= *+1    ;AUX BYTE 1
0260 ;
0270 GETREC = 5
0280 PUTREC = 9
0290 ;
0300 CIOV =  $E456
0310 ;
0320 RUNAD = $02E0   ;RUN ADDRESS
0330 ;
0340 ; === SETUP FOR CIO ===
0350 ;
0360     *= $0600
0370 START LDX #0    ;IOCB 0
0380     LDA #PUTREC ;WANT OUTPUT
0390     STA ICCOM,X ;ISSUE CMD
0400     LDA #MSG&255 ;LOW BYTE OF MSG
0410     STA ICBAL,X ; INTO ICBAL
0420     LDA #MSG/256 ;HIGH BYTE
0430     STA ICBAH,X ; INTO ICBAH
0440     LDA #0      ;LENGTH OF MSG
0450     STA ICBLH,X ; HIGH BYTE
0460     LDA #$FF    ;255 CHAR LENGTH
0470     STA ICBLL,X ; LOW BYTE
0480 ;
0490 ; === CALL CIO TO PRINT ===
0500 ;
0510     JSR CIOV    ;CALL CIO
0520     RTS         ;EXIT
0530 ;
0540 ; === OUR MESSAGE ===
0550 ;
0560 MSG .BYTE "HELLO WORLD!",$9B
0570 ;
0580 ; === INIT RUN ADDRESS ===
0590     *=  RUNAD
0600     .WORD START

[edit] Bugs

There is a bug in the MAC/65 cartridge which gives an error on a JSR or JMP to a zero page address. A temporary fix would be to use macros in the source code. As examples, try these:

  1000  .MACRO @JSR
  1010  .BYTE $20
  1020  .WORD %1
  1030  .ENDM

  1040  .MACRO @JMP
  1050  .BYTE $4C
  1060  .WORD %1
  1070  .ENDM

To invoke the macro, type @JSR (or @JMP) in place of the JSR or JMP instruction, and the proper hex code will be generated.

[edit] Add-ons

[edit] MAC/65 Toolkit

This was a disk filled with source code and examples for use with the MAC/65 assembler. Available on disk, required 40K of memory.

[edit] DDT

Dunion's Debugging Tool (DDT) was built into the cartridge version of MAC/65. Based on the original Atari Program Exchange software, DDT provided monitoring of program code while keeping as much of the display screen intact. The version that was supplied with MAC/65 was a condensed version of the APX original.

[edit] Trivia

  • According to Matthew J. Ratcliff of ANALOG Computing, MAC/65 was used by C64 programmers to assemble C64 projects on Atari computers.
  • According to Stephen D. Lawrow, MAC/65 was used to compile not only itself, but BASIC XL and BASIC XE.

[edit] Aftermath

MAC/65 along with other OSS products became part of ICD's catalog of Atari products in January 1988. In 1994, Fine Tooned Engineering obtained the rights to ICD's 8-bit products, including MAC/65.

[edit] References

  • A reference manual for MAC/65 by OSS, Rev. 1.2. 1983
  • Atari Home Computer System - Technical Reference Notes. Atari, Inc. C016555 REV A.
  • Andrews, Mark (1984). Atari Roots: A Guide to Atari Assembly Language. DATAMOST, Inc. ISBN 0-88190-171-7. [1]
  • Chasin, Mark (1984). Assembly Language Programming for the Atari Computers. Byte Books, McGraw-Hill Paperbacks. ISBN 0-07-010679-7. [2]
  • Chadwick, Ian (1985). Mapping the Atari Revised Edition. COMPUTE! Publications, Inc. ISBN 0-87455-004-1. [3]
  • Leventhal, Lance A. (1986). 6502 Assembly Language Programming 2nd Edition. Osborne/McGraw-Hill. ISBN 0-07-881216-X.
  • Leventhal, Lance A. (1982). 6502 Assembly Language Subroutines. Osborne/McGraw-Hill. ISBN 0-931988-59-4.
  • Mansfield, Richard (1983). Machine Language for Beginners. COMPUTE! Publications, Inc. ISBN 0-942386-11-6. [4]
  • Mansfield, Richard (1984). The Second Book of Machine Language. COMPUTE! Publications, Inc. ISBN 0-942386-53-1. [5]
  • Zaks, Rodnay (1983). Programming the 6502 (Fourth Edition). Sybex, Inc. ISBN 0-89588-135-7.
  • Zaks, Rodnay (1982). Advanced 6502 Programming. Sybex, Inc. ISBN 0-89588-089-X.
  • OSS Newsletter - Spring 1984
  • OSS Newsletter - October 1984

[edit] External links