Truper Posted March 9, 2020 Share Posted March 9, 2020 Is anybody on this forum successfully using the SPECTRA2 gaming library that comes with Win994a emulator? I have successfully created cartridges for both example1.a99 and example2.a99. I get option 2 HELLO WORLD on the TI menu when the cartridge is loaded but when I select option 2 the programs do not run as expected. I get a cleared blue screen with no text for about a second then I’m returned to the TI Logo screen (screen with color bars top and bottom). Programs compile successfully in the assembler with no errors. Win994a does not seem to have a debugger so I can’t debug the program to see what’s happening. I searched this forum and did not find anyone else having an issue. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Lee Stewart Posted March 9, 2020 Share Posted March 9, 2020 7 hours ago, Truper said: Programs compile successfully in the assembler with no errors. Win994a does not seem to have a debugger so I can’t debug the program to see what’s happening. What version of the Asm994a Assembler are you using? It should be v3.010. ...lee 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Truper Posted March 9, 2020 Author Share Posted March 9, 2020 That is the version that I am using. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Lee Stewart Posted March 9, 2020 Share Posted March 9, 2020 8 hours ago, Truper said: Is anybody on this forum successfully using the SPECTRA2 gaming library that comes with Win994a emulator? I was unaware that SPECTRA2 was distributed with Win994A. Is that not a library (being) developed by @retroclouds rather than Corry Burr (developer of Win994A)? ...lee Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Truper Posted March 9, 2020 Author Share Posted March 9, 2020 SPECTRA2 is not distributed with Win994a. I downloaded both separately. If I said that earlier then I was confused. The assembler is part of the Win994a install. The SPECTRA2 documentation states "The source code of SPECTRA2 is compatible with Burrsofts‟ Asm994A Assembler V3.008." Maybe I have to downgrade to V3.008? That wouldn't make sense being that it is a minor upgrade to V3.010. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Lee Stewart Posted March 9, 2020 Share Posted March 9, 2020 (edited) 4 hours ago, Truper said: Maybe I have to downgrade to V3.008? That wouldn't make sense being that it is a minor upgrade to V3.010. Agreed—to the upgrade. You definitely want v3.010! Though not many fixes in v3.010, I remember that one had to do with erroneous conditional branching. Another had to do with the X instruction, which I use a few times in fbForth 2.0. Another problem with Asm994a is that you must avoid using labels that equate to conditional logic words (see below). I spent a lot of time tracking down those errors because they often did not result in error messages. It turns out that the reason for this is the undocumented conditional assembly implemented in Asm994a. I may have missed some words, but those I found by looking through the Assembler’s executable in a hex editor were IFLT, IFLE, IFGT, IFGE, IFEQ, IFNE, IF, ELSE and ENDIF. A sufficient fix was to prepend the relevant labels with ‘_’. ...lee Edited March 9, 2020 by Lee Stewart Clarification 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Truper Posted March 9, 2020 Author Share Posted March 9, 2020 5 hours ago, Lee Stewart said: I may have missed some words, but those I found by looking through the Assembler’s executable in a hex editor were IFLT, IFLE, IFGT, IFGE, IFEQ, IFNE, IF, ELSE and ENDIF. A sufficient fix was to prepend the relevant labels with ‘_’. Hmm, so are you referring to the WinAsm99_x64.exe file? If so, I only find those terms in what looks like text blocks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+retroclouds Posted March 9, 2020 Share Posted March 9, 2020 7 hours ago, Truper said: SPECTRA2 is not distributed with Win994a. I downloaded both separately. If I said that earlier then I was confused. The assembler is part of the Win994a install. The SPECTRA2 documentation states "The source code of SPECTRA2 is compatible with Burrsofts‟ Asm994A Assembler V3.008." Maybe I have to downgrade to V3.008? That wouldn't make sense being that it is a minor upgrade to V3.010. Hi, I was the one who created the SPECTRA2 library. Basically it was developed in parallel with Pitfall! Back at the time the assembler I used was Burrsofts Asm994a, because there wasn't much else really. Asm994a did a great job. That being said, in the meantime I switched to xas99 http://endlos99.github.io/xdt99 which is the preferred assembler to use in 2020 if you ask me (one feature I for example really appreciate are long labels). Also it's open source and there's active development. It has been a long time since SPECTRA2 was initially released (10 years to be exactly). I now have a new SPECTRA2 version (unfortunately without documentation yet) and that's the reason I didn't release it. But it is being used for developing TiVi (a text editor). Anyway, to the issue you are experiencing. It won't be until the weekend, but if you like I can take a look at what is happening if you send me your source code. Also if you want to do testing with a debugger I'd suggest you take a look at the classic99 emulator and the js99er emulator. During development I really never used win994a as emulator, only its assembler. Cheers retroclouds 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Lee Stewart Posted March 9, 2020 Share Posted March 9, 2020 58 minutes ago, Truper said: Hmm, so are you referring to the WinAsm99_x64.exe file? If so, I only find those terms in what looks like text blocks. Yes, but I think you misunderstand me. I meant that I changed my program labels that collided with those words, not the Assembler EXE file. That way I could keep the sense of my program labels: _IF MOV R0,R1 * ... _ELSE MOV R0,@SOMEWHERE Asm994a.exe allows labels longer tan 6 chartacters * ... I have only used Asm994a.exe as I did not realize there was a 64-bit version. That said, I agree with @retroclouds that it is much better to use a currently supported assembler: xas99 (see reference in @retroclouds’ post). ...lee Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Truper Posted March 9, 2020 Author Share Posted March 9, 2020 Thank you retroclouds and Lee. I don’t yet have any source code myself. I was just testing the example1.a99 and example2.a99 source code that was downloaded with SPECTRA2. I will check out xas99 and use Classic99 for my emulator and debugger. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GDMike Posted March 9, 2020 Share Posted March 9, 2020 Since we're talking assemblers, is there something that runs on real iron that's better, that the E/A assembler I'm using all the time? Just wondering Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Lee Stewart Posted March 9, 2020 Share Posted March 9, 2020 21 minutes ago, GDMike said: Since we're talking assemblers, is there something that runs on real iron that's better, that the E/A assembler I'm using all the time? Just wondering I believe the RAG Assembler is well regarded and it runs on real iron as far as I know. ...lee 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GDMike Posted March 9, 2020 Share Posted March 9, 2020 (edited) Yup that's the best I've found and I'm using that lately. Ty Edited March 9, 2020 by GDMike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mizapf Posted March 10, 2020 Share Posted March 10, 2020 12 hours ago, GDMike said: Since we're talking assemblers, is there something that runs on real iron that's better, that the E/A assembler I'm using all the time? Just wondering What is a "good" assembler? Supported operations, assembler directives, processing speed, stability? Other than a compiler, an assembler does not have many options to prove its "cleverness". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+TheBF Posted March 10, 2020 Share Posted March 10, 2020 1 hour ago, mizapf said: What is a "good" assembler? Supported operations, assembler directives, processing speed, stability? Other than a compiler, an assembler does not have many options to prove its "cleverness". I should think that as with most things in software speed would be important. I also like the ability to create macros. Of course my favourite feature in an assembler is that it be interactive for rapid testing. Now where could I find that? hmm... 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GDMike Posted March 10, 2020 Share Posted March 10, 2020 I mean RAG is nice and graphical, but I have run into problems with it accepting characters for filename entry. Just spell correctly and it works, but it gets weird sometimes, not all times, when you misspell and go back to correct.. Just spell correctly and no problem. Duh But I'm very very happy with it since it works 99.98 percent of the time. And it's still fast. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+9640News Posted March 10, 2020 Share Posted March 10, 2020 19 hours ago, GDMike said: Since we're talking assemblers, is there something that runs on real iron that's better, that the E/A assembler I'm using all the time? Just wondering For me, I use Paul Charlton's GenProg package, however for real hardware, it requires a Geneve or a Geneve emulator. GenASM and the Linker utility are the fastest and cleanest programs I have seen to date. If you have something you need to work in "modules", I would give it strong consideration. Myself, I have been using it to develop TIPI code for the 4A. If you either have a Geneve, or are interested in using MAME with the Geneve emulation, I will go into more detail and ask. Otherwise, I would assume you likely have no interest. Beery 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GDMike Posted March 10, 2020 Share Posted March 10, 2020 Maybe Eric can get a Geneve built Soon. That would be too cool Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+retroclouds Posted March 11, 2020 Share Posted March 11, 2020 23 hours ago, BeeryMiller said: For me, I use Paul Charlton's GenProg package, however for real hardware, it requires a Geneve or a Geneve emulator. GenASM and the Linker utility are the fastest and cleanest programs I have seen to date. If you have something you need to work in "modules", I would give it strong consideration. Myself, I have been using it to develop TIPI code for the 4A. If you either have a Geneve, or are interested in using MAME with the Geneve emulation, I will go into more detail and ask. Otherwise, I would assume you likely have no interest. Beery Perhaps we should make this is an own thread. Beery, is the GenASM source code available? Documentation? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+9640News Posted March 11, 2020 Share Posted March 11, 2020 7 minutes ago, retroclouds said: Perhaps we should make this is an own thread. Beery, is the GenASM source code available? Documentation? Source code is not available. Program and all documentation can be found at: http://9640news.ddns.net:8080/ Beery Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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