Re: 65C816 Cross Development Tools

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

Supertimer <supertimer@aol.com> wrote:

> lowry@htc.honeywell.com (Dave Lowry) wrote:
> 
> >Could someone point me to some 65C816 cross development tools?
> >Preferably Macintosh hosted, but PC would be OK.
> 
> http://www.hypermall.com/byteworks Byte Works sells MPW
> Orca C, which generates 65C816 object code on a Mac.

While it may be possible to use Orca/C for general purpose (non-IIgs)
65816 development, I'd hesitate to recommend it for this task.

The main problems with using Orca/C for non-IIgs 65816 development:

1. It generates executable files in IIgs object module format.  This
would have to be turned into a binary image for anything else.  (I
assume there is a MakeBinGS utility available under Orca/C for MPW; if
not, you would need a IIgs or at least a IIgs emulator to run MakeBin.)

2. Many of the library modules/functions are heavily dependent on GS/OS,
and some are dependent on parts of the toolbox (the Memory Manager is a
major example that comes to mind).  I think the low-level libraries
(e.g. long integer arithmetic) are self contained, so it is mainly the
standard I/O library that would cause problems.

This would mean writing another set of libraries for the target
environment, which is not a trivial task.

3. Assumptions about the IIgs environment may be inappropriate on
another 65816 system.  For example, an embedded system may require the
use of the Direct Page register to point to an I/O space, while Orca/C
uses it as a frame pointer.  I don't think this is a biggie.

There are bound to be other problems, but those are the main ones I can
think of at present.

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