Re: Apple IIe / ProDOS /

[dempson@actrix.gen.nz (David Empson)]

Paul Guertin <pg@sff.net> wrote:

> dempson@actrix.gen.nz (David Empson) wrote:
> 
> > For the technically minded: Big Mac, Merlin, Merlin Pro and Merlin 8 all
> > make use of the Sweet-16 interpreted instruction set to assemble your
> > program.
> 
> Really? The editor has some Sweet-16 code in it, but I thought
> the assembler was pure 6502.

Maybe I'm misremembering.  I know that Merlin 8 (and earlier versions)
use Sweet-16 internally, but it has been a long time since I
disassembled any parts of them and I don't recall exactly which areas
made use of it.

After a review of the manual (for Merlin 16+), I see that the claimed
"five times" speed increase for Merlin 16 over Merlin 8 was actually for
the linker.  The Merlin 16 assembler is supposed to be twice as fast as
Merlin 8.

It seems a little dubious to claim a 2x speed improvement if the
assembler just switched from pure 6502 code to 16-bit mode on the
65802/65816.

-- 
David Empson
dempson@actrix.gen.nz
Snail mail: P O Box 27-103, Wellington, New Zealand