[fpc-pascal]m68k port for Palm OS

[md]

Dear Matt and other concerned:

I will be interested to see how your work progresses on the Palm pilot
port.

I know you are focusing on the PALM stuff, but keep in the back of your
mind
that the Intel ARM processors and the new Transmeta processors are
coming
and they will need to be attended to as well.  

Since someone did a 68K port, that person would have the most experience
at isolating those things in the compiler and RTL that would allow the
port to proceed
to any target processor, whether on PALM or other processor. (ARM and
TRANSMETA)

In any case, 

The focus should be at documenting those areas that require the
processor specific stuff
and then creating the cross compiler. 

Mark Diener
md at realmwireless.com



Matt Emson wrote:
> 
> Right,
> 
> About a year ago (well september '99) I started asking questions about a Palm
> OS port for FPC. A few people made some noise, but no one had any time to do
> anything, including myself!! I'm a consultant now, and I spend a lot of time
> away, and have a Laptop, so I'm now brimming with enthusiasm (and evenings)
> to begin the port!!
> 
> What I've done so far :
> 
> 1. bought a book on 68k assembler (must read it sometime ;)
> 2. d/l the source for the Amiga port, and after a lot of hair tearing, got FPC1.02
> to compile it (mainly due to poor documentation concerning the conditional defines
> required - I hope ;) (GDB;M68K;DBX, I believe OTTOMH)
> 3. taken a good look at Pila (Palm Assembler) with a view to using this as the
> Assembler.
> 4. looked ant what RTL there was on the M68K port page.. started again from
> scratch, borrowing the units that a guy called Swartjes (sorry, can't remember
> first name) did for a Macintosh Pascal Compiler (Think Pascal 4.X)
> 
> I'm currently looking at the SysTrrap mechanism, as this will in effect deliver
> the 'RTL' through calls to the Palm OS API.
> 
> I plan to get Palm OS 2.0 compatibility first (I own PalmPilot Pro), then move
> to 3.0. I'm not planning to move past 3.1 till there's a major change, as this
> is as high as I own (Visor).
> 
> Anyone who wants to help is welcome, but this is at a very early stage.. I have
> nothing that even vaguly compiles yet.
> 
> I don't have access to d/l the latest version of the RTL, but if sombody (Florian/etc)
> could email me a copy of the Palm specific stuff, that would be a great time
> saver.
> 
> Further more - how is the new compiler backend going? Is it ready for a 68K
> port? Has anyone got any plans to do this?
> 
> And while I'm at it - is anyone else working on a PalmOS port?? DOn't want to
> double up work!!
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Matt
> 
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