Ecosyste.ms: Awesome

An open API service indexing awesome lists of open source software.

Awesome Lists | Featured Topics | Projects

https://github.com/lbphacker/tptasm

Universal assembler for TPT computers
https://github.com/lbphacker/tptasm

Last synced: about 2 months ago
JSON representation

Universal assembler for TPT computers

Awesome Lists containing this project

README

        

# TPTASM

## What?

A universal assembler for TPT computers that aims to be as architecture-agnostic
as possible and to support all computers ever made in TPT. If you're aware of
one that I've missed, open an issue.

Computers currently supported (in alphabetical order):

- [A728D280](https://powdertoy.co.uk/Browse/View.html?ID=2460726) and
[A728D28A](https://powdertoy.co.uk/Browse/View.html?ID=2460726) by Sam_Hayzen
- [B29K1QS60](https://powdertoy.co.uk/Browse/View.html?ID=2435570) by unnick
- [I8M7D28S](https://powdertoy.co.uk/Browse/View.html?ID=2473628) by Sam_Hayzen
- [MAPS](https://powdertoy.co.uk/Browse/View.html?ID=975033) by drakide
- [MICRO21](https://powdertoy.co.uk/Browse/View.html?ID=1599945) by RockerM4NHUN
- [PTP7](https://powdertoy.co.uk/Browse/View.html?ID=2458644) by unnick
- [R216K2A](https://powdertoy.co.uk/Browse/View.html?ID=2303519),
[R216K4A](https://powdertoy.co.uk/Browse/View.html?ID=2305835) and
[R216K8B](https://powdertoy.co.uk/Browse/View.html?ID=2342633) by LBPHacker
- Generic R3 (unreleased, under development) by LBPHacker
- Armatoste (unreleased, under development) by DanielUbTb

## Why?

Because I finally made an assembler with nice enough features that it probably
makes sense to not make another one but just support all future (and past)
computers with this one instead.

## How?

[Click here](#tldr) for steps to take if you have no idea what's going on and
just want to finally program a computer.

You can run the assembler from TPT or really in any environment that's
compatible with Lua 5.1. Running it from TPT has the benefit of actually
allowing you to program computers.

The assembler takes both positional and named arguments. A positional string
argument of the format `key=value` (`^([^=]+)=(.+)$`, to be precise) becomes
a named argument, its name is set to `key` and its value to `value`, both
strings. The remaining positional arguments become the final positional
arguments.

All positional arguments have equivalent named counterparts.

| position | name | type | description |
| -------- | ------ | ------------------------ | ---------------------------- |
| 1 | source | string | path to source to assemble |
| 2 | target | integer, string or table | identifier of the target CPU |
| 3 | log | string or handle | path to redirect log to |
| 4 | model | string | model number |
| | silent | any | don't log anything |
| | anchor | string | spawn anchor for specified model |
| | anchor\_dx | integer | X component of anchor direction vector |
| | anchor\_dy | integer | Y component of anchor direction vector |
| | anchor\_prop | string | name of property for anchor to use |
| | anchor\_id | integer | CPU identifier to encode in the anchor |
| | detect | any | list recognisable CPUs with model and ID |
| | export\_labels | string | path to export labels to |
| | allow\_model\_mismatch | any | throw only warnings instead of errors |

There's also a way to pass arguments by simply passing a table as the first
argument. In this case its integer-keyed pairs will become the positional
arguments (the ones that adhere to Lua's definition of arrays anyway) and
all other pairs become named arguments. Don't worry, the examples below will
make all this clear.

### Notes on arguments

- `target` may be a string, in which case the opcodes are dumped into the file
this string refers to, in little endian encoding (refer to the corresponding
architecture module for number of bytes in such an opcode; generally it will
be the opcode width passed to `opcode.make` multiplied by 4)
- `target` may be a table, in which case the opcodes are copied into it and
no flashing attempts occur (useful when you're using TPTASM outside TPT)
- if `target` is not specified, the assembler looks for the first CPU that
matches the model name passed (or any CPU if it wasn't passed); if the anchor
particle of a CPU happens to be directly under your TPT cursor, it's selected
as the target
- `log` may also be an object with a `:write` method (e.g. a file object), in
which case output is redirected to that object by means of calling `:write`
(`:close` is never called and doesn't have to be present)
- `silent` and `allow_model_mismatch` are checked for truthiness by Lua's
definitions, so they're considered true if they're not `false` or `nil`
(likewise, useful when you're using TPTASM outside TPT)
- `(anchor_dx, anchor_dy)` defaults to the vector `(1, 0)`, as anchors are
generally horizontal and are read from the left to the right
- `anchor_prop` defaults to `"ctype"`, as anchors tend to be lines of FILT,
which can be easily located visually if they contain ASCII data

### Inside TPT

```lua
tptasm = loadfile("main.lua") -- load tptasm into memory as a function
-- (this assumes you saved it in the same directory TPT is in)
tptasm("/path/to/source.asm") -- assemble source
tptasm("/path/to/source.asm", 0xDEAD) -- specify target CPU
tptasm("/path/to/source.asm", nil, "log.log") -- specify file to log output to
tptasm("/path/to/source.asm", nil, nil, "R3") -- specify model name
```

#### Complete example

Assuming this repository has been cloned to `~/Development/tptasm`, navigate to
[save id:1599945](https://powdertoy.co.uk/Browse/View.html?ID=1599945) and
execute this:

```lua
loadfile("~/Development/tptasm/src/main.lua")("~/Development/tptasm/examples/micro21/demo.asm")
```

### Somewhere else

```sh
# currently quite pointless to do but possible nonetheless
$ ./main.lua /path/to/source.asm model=R3
```

```lua
-- let's say this is not TPT's console
tptasm = loadfile("main.lua")
opcodes = {}
tptasm({ source = "/path/to/source.asm", target = opcodes, model = "R3" })
print(opcodes[0x1337]:dump())
```

### Exporting labels

The file referred to by `export_labels` will look something like this
(see [examples/micro21/demo.asm](examples/micro21/demo.asm)):

```
start 0x0
start.jump_table 0x6
demo_addition 0x2C
demo_odds 0x33
demo_odds.get_number 0x34
demo_odds.get_number.done 0x3A
demo_odds.count_odds 0x3B
...
```

That is, it'll have one fully qualified label and the corresponding address
in hexadecimal per line, separated by one space character.

### TL;DR

1. find the green button on this page which looks like it might let you
download something; clicking it gives you a popup with an option somewhere
to download a ZIP
1. download said ZIP and extract it somewhere, then find the src folder inside
and rename it to tptasm
1. open the settings menu in TPT, scroll down and click Open Data Folder;
move the tptasm folder from earlier to the one that TPT just opened
1. have the code you want to assemble saved to a file (say, `code.asm`) and
move said file, once again, to the folder TPT just opened
1. open the save in TPT with the computer you want to program
1. if there are multiple computers in the save, find the one and only QRTZ
particle in the computer you want to program (possibly with the Find mode,
`Ctrl+F`) and move your cursor over it (use a `1x1` brush)
1. open the console (with `~` or the `[C]` button on the right side of the
window) and execute the following:

```lua
loadfile("tptasm/main.lua")("code.asm")
```

1. if `[tptasm] done` is the only thing you see, your code assembled
and you're done!
1. if `[tptasm] done` is not the only thing you see, you may want to save the
log to a file for inspection; you can do this by executing this instead:

```lua
loadfile("tptasm/main.lua")("code.asm", nil, "log.log")
```

... which will create a file named log.log in the folder TPT opened; open
this file in a text editor to see why your code didn't assemble
1. if the file shows something like "this is an error, tell LBPHacker", then
tell me!

## Then?

Things I still want to do but don't know when I'll have the time:

- [ ] support Harvard architecture computers more, as currently there is no
way to address their memory through labels, only preprocessor macros
(`%define`, `%eval`, etc.)
- [ ] clean up and comment code as much as possible
- [ ] add support for more computers
- [ ] possibly replace postfix syntax in expression blocks (`{ }` blocks) with
infix syntax
- [ ] possibly add support to recognise expression blocks and implicitly
evaluate them at assemble time, thus eliminating the need to wrap them in
curly brackets
- [ ] check if this thing works on Windows at all and fix it if it doesn't

PRs are welcome, especially if they add support for computers. Yes, I do realise
my code is a huge mess. Good luck figuring it out.