Re: Point me to the FAQ please...

[rubywand@swbell.net]

Jon Mines writes ...
> 
> I have recently started to get into some assembly for the 65816.  I'm
> looking for a FAQ for this newsgroup and related Apple IIgs things.
> 


     A few months ago, a Commodore 64/128 user was asking about the same 
thing. (Some C-64/128 vendor is producing a new 65C816 accelerator 
board.)  Evidently, the closest thing to a "65C816 group" is the 
programmer sub-group of comp.sys.apple2.

     Two good text resources are 65816/65802 Assembly Language Programing 
by Fischer (from Osborne McGraw-Hill) and a similar book by Eyes & 
Lichty. These books document 65C816 code, along with programming 
examples. French's book is a bit better organized; the Eyes & Lichty book 
has more Apple-specific examples.

     In any case, the main barrier to useful 65C816 programming on the 
IIgs is not assembly language. It is the IIgs collection of system 
firmware and add-on software called the "Toolbox".

     Since the GS Operating System employs toolbox calls, the programmer 
must have some facility with the Toolbox in order to write 'serious' GS 
applications whether or not he/she wishes to take advantage of Toolbox 
resources.

     On the one hand, the Toolbox is a large set of handy routines. On 
the other, it is 'something else to learn', a fairly extensive 'something 
else'. The Toolbox Reference volumes are a great help.

     A programmer can reduce problems of interfacing with GS hardware, 
firmware, and system software by using a assembly language system with a 
nice set of library routines and lots of documentation. Getting ORCA/M 
from ByteWorks is a good start.
  

Rubywand