[fpc-devel] Adding a redcode assembler to Free Pascal Compiler

[Skybuck Flying]

Hello,

I kinda forget to mention something in my previous posting to this mailing 
list, but perhaps it should go into a seperate thread anyway:

As I mentioned in the previous posting with subject: "Adding a new assembler 
to Free Pascal Compiler"... I am interested in using free pascal compiler to 
create support for virtual machines and perhaps new hardware in the future.

As a learning exercise I would like to start with writing a little redcode 
assembler for Free Pascal Compiler to be able to compile Pascal Source Code 
to Redcode/PMARS95 instructions/assembler. (Redcode is the assembly 
code/language for PMARS95 which is the virtual machine).

I already have a virtual machine for the redcode assembly/instructions, 
there is also the open source pmars virtual machine which you can have a 
look at to see what I am writing about ;)

So I wonder what is involved in supporting a new platform... be it real 
hardware or virtual machines.

One thing which comes to mind is the RTL ?

Do new "targets" (as it's called ?) require their own RTL as well ? I did 
see a mention about a dummy RTL as a possibility (Not sure if that's needed 
but I would guess so ;)).

So it would be cool if free pascal compiler could compile pascal sources 
into redcode assembly, which can then be further compiled by the PMARS 
executable/assembler.

So I just need free pascal compiler to output redcode assembly... it 
probably doesn't have to link anything or assemble anything further, though 
a little bit of linking support for using multiple pascal sources would be 
cool as well... not sure how that would work at assembly level... maybe 
that's a good question too... would free pascal compiler simply perform some 
kind of linking/syntax checking for uses clausule based on assembly files 
(*.s) ? Or perhaps it does it via interface/header files ? (probably last 
one). So as long as all headers are present then assembly of those files 
don't matter and compiler knows what it's doing... So linking of assemblies 
only happens later by other tools (?). So for example: a call to a routine 
of some unit is outputted as a call to a label... and then the external 
assembler tool will hopefully know what to do with those labels ;) (User 
will probably have to supply multiple assembly files in such a case ;) that 
probably what make files are for ;))

Bye,
  Skybuck.