--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
WLA DX GB-Z80/Z80/6502/65C02/6510/65816/HUC6280/SPC-700 Macro Assembler
Package
Written by 1998-2003 Ville Helin
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1..... Introduction
2..... Assembler Directives
3..... Assembler Syntax
3.1.. Case Sensitivity
3.2.. Comments
3.3.. Labels
3.4.. Number Types
3.5.. Strings
3.6.. Mnemonics
3.7.. Brackets?
4..... Error Messages
5..... Supported ROM/RAM/Cartridge Types (WLA-GB)
5.1.. ROM Size
5.2.. RAM Size
5.3.. Cartridge Type
6..... Bugs
7..... Files
7.1.. 'examples'
7.2.. 'examples/gb-z80/lib'
8..... Temporary Files
9..... Compiling
9.1.. Compiling Object Files
9.2.. Compiling Library Files
10.... Linking
11.... Arithmetics
12.... Disassembling
13.... Binary to DB Conversion
14.... Things you should know about coding for...
14.1. Z80
14.2. 6502
14.3. 65C02
14.4. 6510
14.5. 65816
14.6. HUC6280
14.7. SPC-700
14.8. Pocket Voice (GB-Z80)
14.9. GB-Z80
15.... WLA Flags
16.... Extra compile time definitions
17.... Good things to know about WLA
18.... Author
19.... Thanks
20.... Future
21.... Support
22.... Legal Note
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.... Introduction
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I wrote this because I had never written an assembler before and I really
needed a macro assembler which could compile the GB-Z80 code I wrote. ;)
Gaelan Griffin needed real Z80 support for his SMS projects so I thought
I could write WLA to be a little more open and nowadays it supports all
the Z80 systems you can think of. You'll just have to define the memorymap
of the destination machine for your project. After fixing some bugs I thought
I could add support for 6502 systems so all NES-people would get their
share of WLA as well. After finishing that few people said they'd like 65816
support (they had SNES developing in mind) so I added support for that. And
then I thought I should write a 6510 version of WLA as well...
Almost all rules that apply to Z80 compiling apply also to 6502, 65C02, 6510,
65816, HUC6280 and SPC-700.
This is my ideal GB-Z80 macro assembler (not in final form, not yet). ;)
Tastes differ. Thus WLA! Notice that WLA was initially made for Game Boy
developers so the GB-Z80 version and the rest differ a little.
Currently WLA can also be used as a patch tool. Just include the original
ROM image into the project with .BACKGROUND and insert e.g., OVERWRITE
.SECTIONs
to patch the desired areas. Output the data into a new ROM image and there
you have it. 100% readable (asm coded) patches are reality!
Note that you can directly compile only object and library files. You must
use WLALINK to link these (or only one, if you must) into a ROM/program file.
About the names... WLA DX means all the tools covered in this documentation.
So WLA DX includes WLA GB-Z80/Z80/6502/65C02/6510/65816/HUC6280/SPC-700
macro assembler (what a horribly long name), WLAB, WLAD and WLALINK
GB-Z80/Z80/6502/65C02/6510/65816/HUC6280/SPC-700 linker. I use plain WLA to
refer
to the macro assembler.
WLA DX's homepage: http://www.iki.fi/~vhelin/wla.html
And if you happen to write something cool using WLA DX, please let me know,
I want to see it!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.... Assembler Directives
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here's the order in which the data is placed into the output:
1. Data and group 3 directives outside sections.
2. Group 2 directives.
3. Data and group 3 directives inside sections.
4. Group 1 directives.
Here are the supported directives (with examples) in WLA:
[ALL] - All, GB-Z80, Z80, 6502, 65C02, 6510, 65816, HUC6280 and SPC-700
versions apply.
[GB ] - Only the GB-Z80 version applies.
[GB8] - Only the GB-Z80 and 65816 versions apply.
[Z80] - Only the Z80 version applies.
[658] - Only the 65816 version applies.
[SPC] - Only the SPC-700 version applies.
[65x] - Only the 6502, 65C02, 6510, 65816 and HUC6280 versions apply.
[!GB] - Only the Z80, 6502, 65C02, 6510, 65816, HUC6280 and SPC-700
versions apply.
Group 1:
[GB ] .COMPUTEGBCHECKSUM
[Z80] .COMPUTESMSCHECKSUM
[658] .COMPUTESNESCHECKSUM
[Z80] .SDSCTAG 1.0, "DUNGEON MAN", "A wild dungeon exploration game", "Ville
Helin"
[Z80] .SMSTAG
Group 2:
[GB ] .CARTRIDGETYPE 1
[GB ] .COMPUTEGBCOMPLEMENTCHECK
[ALL] .EMPTYFILL $C9
[658] .ENDEMUVECTOR
[658] .ENDNATIVEVECTOR
[658] .ENDSNES
[ALL] .EXPORT work_x
[658] .FASTROM
[658] .HIROM
[GB ] .LICENSEECODENEW "1A"
[GB ] .LICENSEECODEOLD $1A
[658] .LOROM
[GB8] .NAME "NAME OF THE ROM"
[ALL] .OUTNAME "other.o"
[GB ] .RAMSIZE 0
[GB ] .ROMDMG
[GB ] .ROMGBC
[GB ] .ROMSGB
[658] .SLOWROM
[658] .SMC
[658] .SNESEMUVECTOR
[658] .SNESHEADER
[658] .SNESNATIVEVECTOR
Group 3:
[65x] .16BIT
[658] .24BIT
[65x] .8BIT
[658] .ACCU 8
[ALL] .ASC "HELLO WORLD!"
[ALL] .ASM
[ALL] .BACKGROUND "parallax.gb"
[ALL] .BANK 0 SLOT 1
[658] .BASE $80
[ALL] .BYT 100, $30, %1000, "HELLO WORLD!"
[ALL] .ROMBANKSIZE $4000
[ALL] .DB 100, $30, %1000, "HELLO WORLD!"
[ALL] .DBCOS 0.2, 10, 3.2, 120, 1.3
[ALL] .DBRND 20, 0, 10
[ALL] .DBSIN 0.2, 10, 3.2, 120, 1.3
[ALL] .DEFINE IF $FF0F
[ALL] .DEF IF $FF0F
[ALL] .DS 256, $10
[ALL] .DSB 256, $10
[ALL] .DSTRUCT waterdrop INSTANCEOF water DATA "tingle", 40, 120
[ALL] .DSW 128, 20
[ALL] .DW 16000, 10, 255
[ALL] .DWCOS 0.2, 10, 3.2, 1024, 1.3
[ALL] .DWRND 20, 0, 10
[ALL] .DWSIN 0.2, 10, 3.2, 1024, 1.3
[ALL] .ELSE
[ALL] .ENDASM
[ALL] .ENDE
[ALL] .ENDIF
[ALL] .ENDM
[ALL] .ENDME
[ALL] .ENDR
[ALL] .ENDRO
[ALL] .ENDS
[ALL] .ENDST
[ALL] .ENUM $C000
[ALL] .EQU IF $FF0F
[ALL] .FAIL
[ALL] .FCLOSE FP_DATABIN
[ALL] .FOPEN "data.bin" FP_DATABIN
[ALL] .FREAD FP_DATABIN DATA
[ALL] .FSIZE FP_DATABIN SIZE
[ALL] .IF DEBUG == 2
[ALL] .IFDEF IF
[ALL] .IFDEFM \2
[ALL] .IFEQ DEBUG 2
[ALL] .IFEXISTS "main.s"
[ALL] .IFGR DEBUG 2
[ALL] .IFGREQ DEBUG 1
[ALL] .IFLE DEBUG 2
[ALL] .IFLEEQ DEBUG 1
[ALL] .IFNDEF IF
[ALL] .IFNDEFM \2
[ALL] .IFNEQ DEBUG 2
[ALL] .INCBIN "sorority.bin"
[ALL] .INCDIR "/usr/programming/gb/include/"
[ALL] .INCLUDE "cgb_hardware.i"
[658] .INDEX 8
[ALL] .INPUT NAME
[ALL] .MACRO TEST
[ALL] .MEMORYMAP
[ALL] .ORG $150
[ALL] .ORGA $150
[ALL] .PRINTT "Here we are...\n"
[ALL] .PRINTV DEC DEBUG+1
[ALL] .RAMSECTION "Vars" BANK 0 SLOT 1
[ALL] .REDEFINE IF $F
[ALL] .REDEF IF $F
[ALL] .REPEAT 6
[ALL] .REPT 6
[ALL] .ROMBANKMAP
[ALL] .ROMBANKS 2
[ALL] .SEED 123
[ALL] .SECTION "Init" FORCE
[ALL] .SLOT 1
[ALL] .STRUCT enemy_object
[ALL] .UNBACKGROUND $1000 $1FFF
[ALL] .UNDEFINE DEBUG
[ALL] .UNDEF DEBUG
[ALL] .WORD 16000, 10, 255
Descriptions:
-----
.8BIT
-----
There are a few mnemonics that look identical, but take different sized
arguments. Here's a list of such 6502 mnemonics:
ADC, AND, ASL, BIT, CMP, CPX, CPY, DEC, EOR, INC, LDA, LDX, LDY, ORA, ROL,
SBC, STA, STX and STY.
For example:
LSR 11 ; $46 $0B
LSR $A000 ; $4E $00 $A0
The first one could also be
LSR 11 ; $4E $0B $00
.8BIT is here to help WLA to decide to choose which one of the opcodes it
selects. When you give .8BIT (default) no 8bit address/value is expanded
to 16bits.
By default WLA uses the smallest possible size. This is true also when WLA
finds a computation it can't solve right away. WLA assumes the result will
be inside the smallest possible bounds, which depends on the type of the
mnemonic.
You can also use the fixed argument size versions of such mnemonics by
giving the size with the operand (i.e., operand hinting). Here are few
examples:
LSR 11.B ; $46 $0B
LSR 11.W ; $46 $0B $00
In WLA-65816 .ACCU/.INDEX/SEP/REP override .8BIT/.16BIT/.24BIT when considering
the immediate values, so be careful. Still, operand hints override all of
these, so use them to be sure.
This is not a compulsory directive.
------
.16BIT
------
Analogous to .8BIT. .16BIT forces all addresses and immediate values to
be expanded into 16bit range, when possible, that is.
LSR 11 ; $46 $0B
that would be the case, normally, but after .16BIT it becomes
LSR 11 ; $4E $0B $00
This is not a compulsory directive.
------
.24BIT
------
Analogous to .8BIT and .16BIT. .24BIT forces all addresses to
be expanded into 24bit range, when possible, that is.
AND $11 ; $25 $11
that would be the case, normally, but after .24BIT it becomes
AND $11 ; $2F $11 $00 $00
If it is not possible to expand the address into .24BIT range,
then WLA tries to expand it into 16bit range.
This is not a compulsory directive.
-------
.ACCU 8
-------
Forces WLA to override the accumulator size given with SEP/REP. .ACCU
doesn't produce any code, it only affects the way WLA interprets the
immediate values (8 for 8 bit operands, 16 for 16 bit operands) for opcodes
dealing with the accumulator.
So after giving .ACCU 8
AND #6
will produce $29 $06, and after giving .ACCU 16
AND #6
will yield $29 $00 $06.
Note that SEP/REP again will in turn reset the accumulator/index register
size.
This is not a compulsory directive.
--------
.INDEX 8
--------
Forces WLA to override the index (X/Y) register size given with SEP/REP.
.INDEX doesn't produce any code, it only affects the way WLA interprets the
immediate values (8 for 8 bit operands, 16 for 16 bit operands) for opcodes
dealing with the index registers.
So after giving .INDEX 8
CPX #10
will produce $E0 $A0, and after giving .INDEX 16
CPX #10
will yield $E0 $00 $A0.
Note that SEP/REP again will in turn reset the accumulator/index register
size.
This is not a compulsory directive.
----
.ASM
----
Tells WLA to start assembling. Use .ASM to continue the work which has been
disabled with .ENDASM. .ASM and .ENDASM can be used to mask away big blocks
of code. This is analogous to the ANSI C -comments (/*...*/), but .ASM and
.ENDASM can be nested, unlike the ANSI C -counterpart.
This is not a compulsory directive.
-------
.ENDASM
-------
Tells WLA to stop assembling. Use .ASM to continue the work.
This is not a compulsory directive.
----------------
.DBRND 20, 0, 10
----------------
Defines bytes, just like .DSB does, only this time they are filled with
(pseudo) random numbers. We use stdlib's rand() to generate the random
numbers. If you want to seed the random number generator, use .SEED.
The first parameter (20 in the example) defines the amount of numbers
we want to generate. The next two tell the range of the random numbers,
i.e. min and max.
Here's how it works:
.DBRND A, B, C
for (i = 0; i < A; i++)
output_data((rand() % (C-B+1)) + B);
This is not a compulsory directive.
----------------
.DWRND 20, 0, 10
----------------
Analogous to .DBRND (but defines words).
This is not a compulsory directive.
-----------------------------
.DBCOS 0.2, 10, 3.2, 120, 1.3
-----------------------------
Defines bytes just like .DSB does, only this time they are filled with
cosine data. .DBCOS takes five arguments.
The first argument is the starting angle. Angle value ranges from 0 to
359.999..., but you can supply WLA with values that are out of the range -
WLA fixes them ok. The value can be integer or float.
The second one descibes the amount of additional angles. The example
will define 11 angles.
The third one is the adder value which is added to the angle value when
next angle is calculated. The value can be integer or float.
The fourth and fifth ones can be seen from the pseudo code below, which
also describes how .DBCOS works. The values can be integer or float.
Remember that cos (and sin) here returns values ranging from -1 to 1.
.DBCOS A, B, C, D, E
for (B++; B > 0; B--) {
output_data((D * cos(A)) + E)
A = keep_in_range(A + C)
}
This is not a compulsory directive.
-----------------------------
.DBSIN 0.2, 10, 3.2, 120, 1.3
-----------------------------
Analogous to .DBCOS, but does sin() instead of cos().
This is not a compulsory directive.
------------------------------
.DWCOS 0.2, 10, 3.2, 1024, 1.3
------------------------------
Analogous to .DBCOS (but defines words).
This is not a compulsory directive.
------------------------------
.DWSIN 0.2, 10, 3.2, 1024, 1.3
------------------------------
Analogous to .DBCOS (but defines words and does sin() instead of cos()).
This is not a compulsory directive.
-----------------------
.NAME "NAME OF THE ROM"
-----------------------
If .NAME is used with WLA-GB then the 16 bytes ranging from $0134
to $0143 are filled with the provided string. WLA-65816 fills
the 21 bytes from $FFC0 to $FFD4 in HiROM- and from $7FC0 to $7FD4
in LoROM-mode with the name string (SNES ROM title).
If the string is shorter than 16/21 bytes the remaining space is
filled with $00.
This is not a compulsory directive.
-----------
.ROMBANKS 2
-----------
Indicates the size of the ROM in rombanks. This value is converted to a
standard GB ROM size indicator value found at $148 in a GB ROM, and there
this one is put into.
This is a compulsory directive unless .ROMBANKMAP is defined.
You can redefine .ROMBANKS as many times as you wish as long as
the old and the new ROM bank maps match as much as possible. This
way you can enlarge the size of the project on the fly.
----------
.RAMSIZE 0
----------
Indicates the size of the RAM. This is a standard GB RAM size indicator value
found at $149 in a GB ROM, and there this one is put to also.
This is not a compulsory directive.
--------------
.EMPTYFILL $C9
--------------
This byte is used in filling the unused areas of the ROM file. EMPTYFILL
defaults to $00.
This is not a compulsory directive.
----------------
.CARTRIDGETYPE 1
----------------
Indicates the type of the cartridge (mapper and so on). This is a standard
GB cartridge type indicator value found at $147 in a GB ROM, and there this
one is put to also.
This is not a compulsory directive.
--------------------
.LICENSEECODEOLD $1A
--------------------
This is a standard old licensee code found at $14B in a GB ROM, and there this
one is put to also. .LICENSEECODEOLD cannot be defined with .LICENSEECODENEW.
This is not a compulsory directive.
---------------------
.LICENSEECODENEW "1A"
---------------------
This is a standard new licensee code found at $144 and $145 in a GB ROM, and
there this one is put to also. .LICENSEECODENEW cannot be defined with
.LICENSEECODEOLD. $33 is inserted into $14B, as well.
This is not a compulsory directive.
------------------
.COMPUTEGBCHECKSUM
------------------
When this directive is used WLA computes the ROM checksum found at $14E and
$14F in a GB ROM. Note that this directive can only be used with wla-gb.
Note that you can also write .COMPUTECHECKSUM (the old name for this
directive), but it's not recommended.
This is not a compulsory directive.
-------------------
.COMPUTESMSCHECKSUM
-------------------
When this directive is used WLA computes the ROM checksum found at $7FFA and
$7FFB in a SMS/GG ROM. Note that this directive can only be used with wla-z80.
Also note that the ROM size must be at least 32KB. Data beyond 256KB limit
is not taken into account when calculating the SMS checksum, which should
be the right way to do it.
This is not a compulsory directive.
--------------------
.COMPUTESNESCHECKSUM
--------------------
When this directive is used WLA computes the SNES ROM checksum and
inverse checksum found at $7FDC-$7FDF (LoROM) or $FFDC-$FFDF (HiROM).
Note that this directive can only be used with wla-65816. Also note
that the ROM size must be at least 32KB for LoROM images and 64KB for
HiROM images.
.LOROM or .HIROM must be issued before .COMPUTESNESCHECKSUM.
This is not a compulsory directive.
-------
.SMSTAG
-------
.SMSTAG forces WLA to write an ordinary SMS/GG ROM tag to the ROM file.
Currently only the string "TMR SEGA" and ROM checksum are written
(meaning that .SMSTAG also defines .COMPUTESMSCHECKSUM).
This is not a compulsory directive.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
.SDSCTAG 1.0, "DUNGEON MAN", "A wild dungeon exploration game", "Ville Helin"
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
.SDSCTAG adds SDSC tag to your SMS/GG ROM file. The ROM size must be at least
32KB just like with .COMPUTESMSCHECKSUM and .SMSTAG, as the data goes into
$7FE0-$7FEF of the ROM. For more information about this header take a look
at http://www.smspower.org/dev/sdsc/. Here's an explanation of the arguments:
.SDSCTAG {version number}, {program name}, {program release notes}, {program
author}
Note that program name, release notes and program author can also be pointers
to strings instead of being only strings (which WLA terminates with zero, and
places them into suitable locations inside the ROM file). So
.SDSCTAG 0.8, PRGNAME, PRGNOTES, PRGAUTHOR
...
PRGNAME: .DB "DUNGEON MAN", 0
PRGNOTES: .DB "A wild and totally crazy dungeon exploration game", 0
PRGAUTHOR:.DB "Ville Helin", 0
works also. All strings supplied explicitly to .SDSCTAG are placed somewhere
in .BANK 0 SLOT 0.
.SDSCTAG 1.0, "", "", ""
.SDSCTAG 1.0, 0, 0, 0
are also valid, here 0 and "" mean the user doesn't want to use any descriptive
strings. Version number can also be given as an integer, but then the minor
version number defaults to zero.
.SDSCTAG also defines .SMSTAG (as it's part of the SDSC ROM tag specification).
This is not a compulsory directive.
-------------------------
.COMPUTEGBCOMPLEMENTCHECK
-------------------------
When this directive is used WLA computes the ROM complement check found at
$14D in a GB ROM.
Note that you can still use .COMPUTECOMPLEMENTCHECK (the old name for this
directive), but it's not recommended.
This is not a compulsory directive.
--------------------------------------
.INCDIR "/usr/programming/gb/include/"
--------------------------------------
Changes the current include root directory. Use this to specify main
directory for the following .INCLUDE and .INCBIN directives.
If you want to change to the current working directory (WLA also defaults
to this), use
.INCDIR ""
This is not a compulsory directive.
-------------------------
.INCLUDE "cgb_hardware.i"
-------------------------
Includes the specified file to the source file. If the file's not found
in the .INCDIR directory, WLA tries to find it in the current working
directory.
This is not a compulsory directive.
----------------------
.INCBIN "sorority.bin"
----------------------
Includes the specified data file into the source file. .INCBIN caches
all files into memory, so you can .INCBIN any data file millions of
times, but it is loaded from hard drive only once.
You can optionally use SWAP after the file name, e.g.,
.INCBIN "kitten.bin" SWAP
.INCBIN data is divided into blocks of two bytes, and inside every block
the bytes are exchanged (like "SWAP r" does to nibbles). This requires that
the size of the file is even.
You can also force WLA to skip n bytes from the beginning of the file
by writing for example:
.INCBIN "kitten.bin" SKIP 4
Four bytes are skipped from the beginning of kitten.bin and the rest
is incbinned.
It is also possible to incbin only n bytes from a file:
.INCBIN "kitten.bin" READ 10
Will read ten bytes from the beginning of kitten.bin.
You can also force WLA to create a definition holding the size
of the file:
.INCBIN "kitten.bin" FSIZE size_of_kitten
And you can combine all these four commands:
.INCBIN "kitten.bin" SKIP 10 READ 8 SWAP FSIZE size_of_kitten
This example shows how to incbin eight bytes (swapped) after skipping
10 bytes from the beginning of file "kitten.bin", and how to get the
size of the file into a definition label "size_of_kitten". Note that the
order of the extra commands is important.
If the file's not found in the .INCDIR directory, WLA tries to find it
in the current working directory.
This is not a compulsory directive.
-----------
.INPUT NAME
-----------
.INPUT is much like any Basic-language input: .INPUT asks the user
for a value or string. After .INPUT is the variable name used to store
the data.
.INPUT works like .REDEFINE, but the user gets to type in the data.
Here are few examples how to use input:
.PRINTT "The name of the ROM? "
.INPUT NAME
.NAME NAME
...
.PRINTT "Give the .DB amount.\n"
.INPUT S
.PRINTT "Give .DB data one at a time.\n"
.REPEAT S
.INPUT B
.DB B
.ENDR
...
This is not a compulsory directive.
-------------------------
.BACKGROUND "parallax.gb"
-------------------------
This chooses an existing ROM image (parallax.gb in this case) as a
background data for the project. You can overwrite the data with OVERWRITE
sections only, unless you first clear memory blocks with .UNBACKGROUND
after which there's room for other sections as well.
With .BACKGROUND defined you can leave away .ROMSIZE,.ROMTYPE and
.RAMTYPE. .BACKGROUND can be used only when compiling an object file.
.BACKGROUND is useful if you wish to patch an existing ROM image with
new code or data.
This is not a compulsory directive.
-------------------------
.UNBACKGROUND $1000 $1FFF
-------------------------
After issuing .BACKGROUND you might want to free some parts of the
backgrounded ROM image for e.g., FREE sections. With .UNBACKGROUND
you can define such regions. In the example a block starting at
$1000 and ending at $1FFF was released (both ends included). You can
issue .UNBACKGROUND as many times as you wish.
This is not a compulsory directive.
-----
.FAIL
-----
Terminates the compiling process.
This is not a compulsory directive.
------------------
.FCLOSE FP_DATABIN
------------------
Closes the filehandle FP_DATABIN.
This is not a compulsory directive.
----------------------------
.FOPEN "data.bin" FP_DATABIN
----------------------------
Opens the file "data.bin" for reading and associates the filehandle with
name "FP_DATABIN".
This is not a compulsory directive.
----------------------
.FREAD FP_DATABIN DATA
----------------------
Reads one byte from "FP_DATABIN" and creates a definition called "DATA"
to hold it. "DATA" is an ordinary definition label, so you can .UNDEFINE it.
Here's an example on how to use .FREAD:
.fopen "data.bin" fp
.fsize fp t
.repeat t
.fread fp d
.db d+26
.endr
.undefine t, d
This is not a compulsory directive.
----------------------
.FSIZE FP_DATABIN SIZE
----------------------
Creates a definition called "SIZE", which holds the size of the file
associated with the filehandle "FP_DATABIN". "SIZE" is an ordinary
definition label, so you can .UNDEFINE it.
This is not a compulsory directive.
-----------
.MACRO TEST
-----------
Begins a macro called 'TEST'.
You can use '\ ' inside a macro to e.g., separate a label from the other
macro 'TEST' occurrences. '\' is replaced with an integer number
indicating the amount of times the macro has been called previously so
it is unique to every macro call. '\' can also be used inside strings
inside a macro or just as a plain value. Look at the following examples
for more information.
Also, if you want to use macro arguments in e.g., calculation, you can
type '\X' where X is the number of the argument. Another way to refer
to the arguments is to use their names given in the definition of the
macro (see the examples for this).
Remember to use .ENDM to finish the macro definition. Note that you
cannot use .INCLUDE inside a macro. Note that WLA's macros are in fact
more like procedures than real macros, because WLA doesn't substitute
macro calls with macro data. Instead WLA jumps to the macro when it
encounters a macro call at compile time.
You can call macros from inside a macro. Note that the preprocessor
does not expand the macros. WLA traverses through the code according to
the macro calls, so macros really define a very simple programming
language.
Here are some examples:
.MACRO NOPMONSTER
.REPT 32 ; evil...
NOP
.ENDR
.ENDM
.MACRO LOAD_ABCD
LD A, \1
LD B, \2
LD C, \3
LD D, \4
NOPMONSTER
LD HL, 1<<\1
.INCBIN \5
.ENDM
.MACRO QUEEN
QUEEN\:
LD A, \1
LD B, \1
CALL QUEEN\
.DB "\", 0 ; will translate into a zero terminated string
; holding the amount of macro QUEEN calls.
.DB "\\", 0 ; will translate into a string containing
; \.
.DB \ ; will translate into a number indicating
; the amount of macro QUEEN calls.
.ENDM
.MACRO LOAD_ABCD_2 ARGS ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR, FIVE
LD A, ONE
LD B, TWO
LD C, THREE
LD D, FOUR
NOPMONSTER
LD HL, 1<<ONE
.INCBIN FIVE
.ENDM
And here's how they can be used:
NOPMONSTER
LOAD_ABCD $10, $20, $30, XYZ, "merman.bin"
QUEEN 123
LOAD_ABCD_2 $10, $20, $30, XYZ, "merman.bin"
Note that you must separate the arguments with commas.
If you want to give names to the macro's arguments you can do that
by listing them in order after supplying ARGS after the macro's name.
Every time a macro is called a definition NARGS is created. It shows
only inside the macro and holds the amount of arguments the macro
was called with. So don't have your own definition called NARGS.
Here's an example:
.MACRO LUPIN
.IF NARGS != 1
.FAIL
.ENDIF
.PRINTT "Totsan! Ogenki ka?\n"
.ENDM
This is not a compulsory directive.
-----
.ENDM
-----
Ends the macro.
This is not a compulsory directive, but when .MACRO is used this one is
required to terminate it.
--------
.FASTROM
--------
Sets the ROM memory speed bit in $FFD5 (.HIROM) or $7FD5 (.LOROM) to
indicate that the SNES ROM chips are 120ns chips.
This is not a compulsory directive.
--------
.SLOWROM
--------
Clears the ROM memory speed bit in $FFD5 (.HIROM) or $7FD5 (.LOROM) to
indicate that the SNES ROM chips are 200ns chips.
This is not a compulsory directive.
----
.SMC
----
Forces WLALINK to compute a proper SMC header for the ROM file.
SMC header is a chunk of 512 bytes. WLALINK touches only its first three
bytes, and sets the rest to zeroes. Here's what will be inside the first
three bytes:
0 - low byte of 8KB page count.
1 - high byte of 8KB page count.
2 - bit 7 - 0
bit 6 - 0
bit 5 - 0~lorom, 1~hirom
bit 4 - 0~lorom, 1~hirom
bit 3+2 - sram size - 00~256Kb, 01~64Kb, 10~16Kb, 11~0Kb
bit 1 - 0
bit 0 - 0
This is not a compulsory directive.
------
.HIROM
------
With this directive you can define the SNES ROM mode to be HiROM.
Issuing .HIROM will override the user's ROM bank map when
WLALINK computes 24bit addresses and bank references. If no
.HIROM or .LOROM are given then WLALINK obeys the banking
defined in .ROMBANKMAP.
.HIROM also sets the ROM mode bit in $FFD5.
This is not a compulsory directive.
------
.LOROM
------
With this directive you can define the SNES ROM mode to be LoROM.
Issuing .LOROM will override the user's ROM bank map when
WLALINK computes 24bit addresses and bank references. If no
.HIROM or .LOROM are given then WLALINK obeys the banking
defined in .ROMBANKMAP.
WLA defaults to .LOROM.
This is not a compulsory directive.
---------
.BASE $80
---------
Defines the base value for the 65816 CPU bank number (used only in 24bit
addresses). Here are few examples of how to use .BASE (both examples assume
the label resides in the first ROM bank):
.BASE $00
JSL label ; if label address is $1234, this will assemble into
; JSL $001234
.BASE $80
JSL label ; again, label is $1234, but this time the result will be
; JSL $801234
.BASE defaults to $00.
Use .LOROM or .HIROM to define the ROM mode. Note that the address
of the label will also contribute to the 65816 CPU bank number (CPU
bank number == .BASE + CPU ROM bank of the label).
This is not a compulsory directive.
--------------
.BANK 0 SLOT 1
--------------
Defines the ROM bank and the slot it is inserted into in the memory. You
can also type the following:
.BANK 0
This tells WLA to move into BANK 0 which will be put into the DEFAULTSLOT
of .MEMORYMAP.
This is a compulsory directive.
-------
.SLOT 1
-------
Changes the currently active memory slot. This directive is meant to be
used with SUPERFREE sections, where only the slot number is constant
when placing the sections.
This is not a compulsory directive.
------------------
.ROMBANKSIZE $4000
------------------
Defines the ROM bank size. Old syntax is ".BANKSIZE x".
This is a compulsory directive unless .ROMBANKMAP is defined.
---------
.ORG $150
---------
Defines the starting address. The value supplied here is relative to the
ROM bank given with .BANK.
This is a compulsory directive.
----------
.ORGA $150
----------
Defines the starting address. The value supplied here is absolute and used
directly in address computations. WLA computes the right position in
ROM file. By using .ORGA you can instantly see from the source file where the
following code is located in the 16bit memory.
Here's an example:
.MEMORYMAP
SLOTSIZE $4000
DEFAULTSLOT 0
SLOT 0 $0000
SLOT 1 $4000
.ENDME
.ROMBANKMAP
BANKSTOTAL 2
BANKSIZE $4000
BANKS 2
.ENDRO
.BANK 0 SLOT 1
.ORGA $4000
MAIN: JP MAIN
Here "MAIN" is at $0000 in the ROM file, but the address for "MAIN"
is $4000.
This is a compulsory directive.
------------
.DS 256, $10
------------
.DS is an alias for .DSB.
This is not a compulsory directive.
-------------
.DSB 256, $10
-------------
Defines 256 bytes of $10.
This is not a compulsory directive.
----------------------------------------------------------
.DSTRUCT waterdrop INSTANCEOF water DATA "tingle", 40, 120
----------------------------------------------------------
Defines an instance of struct water, called waterdrop, and fills
it with the given data. Before calling .DSTRUCT we must have defined
the structure, and in this example it could be like:
.STRUCT water
name ds 8
age db
weight dw
.ENDST
Note that the keywords INSTANCEOF and DATA are optional, so
.DSTRUCT waterdrop, water, "tingle", 40, 120
also works. Also note that WLA fills the missing bytes with the data
defined with .EMPTYFILL, or $00 if no .EMPTYFILL has been issued.
In this example you would also get the following labels:
waterdrop
waterdrop.name
waterdrop.age
waterdrop.weight
This is not a compulsory directive.
------------
.DSW 128, 20
------------
Defines 128 words (two bytes) of 20.
This is not a compulsory directive.
-----------------------------------
.DB 100, $30, %1000, "HELLO WORLD!"
-----------------------------------
Defines bytes.
This is not a compulsory directive.
------------------------------------
.BYT 100, $30, %1000, "HELLO WORLD!"
------------------------------------
.BYT is an alias for .DB.
This is not a compulsory directive.
-------------------
.ASC "HELLO WORLD!"
-------------------
.ASC is an alias for .DB.
This is not a compulsory directive.
------------------
.DW 16000, 10, 255
------------------
Defines words (two bytes each). .DW takes only numbers and
characters as input, not strings.
This is not a compulsory directive.
--------------------
.WORD 16000, 10, 255
--------------------
.WORD is an alias for .DW.
This is not a compulsory directive.
----------------
.DEFINE IF $FF0F
----------------
Assigns a number or a string to a definition label.
By default all defines are local to the file where they are
presented. If you want to make the definition visible to all the
files in the project, use .EXPORT.
Here are some examples:
.DEFINE X 1000
.DEFINE FILE "level01.bin"
.DEFINE TXT1 "hello and welcome", 1, "to a new world...", 0
.DEFINE BYTES 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
.DEFINE COMPUTATION X+1
All definitions with multiple values are marked as data strings,
and .DB is about the only place where you can later on use them.
.DEFINE BYTES 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
.DB 0, BYTES, 6
is the same as
.DB 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Note that you must do your definition before you use it, otherwise
WLA will use the final value of the definition. Here's an example
of this:
.DEFINE AAA 10
.DB AAA ; will be 10.
.REDEFINE AAA 11
but
.DB AAA ; will be 11.
.DEFINE AAA 10
.REDEFINE AAA 11
You can also create definitions on the command line. Here's an
example of this:
wla-gb -vl -DMOON -DNAME=john -DPRICE=100 -DADDRESS=$100 math.s
MOON's value will be 0, NAME is a string definition with value "john",
PRICE's value will be 100, and ADDRESS's value will be $100.
Note that
.DEFINE AAA = 10 ; the same as ".DEFINE AAA 10".
works as well.
This is not a compulsory directive.
-------------
.DEF IF $FF0F
-------------
.DEF is an alias for .DEFINE.
This is not a compulsory directive.
-------------
.EQU IF $FF0F
-------------
.EQU is an alias for .DEFINE.
This is not a compulsory directive.
----------------
.REDEFINE IF $0F
----------------
Assigns a new value or a string to an old definition. If the
definition doesn't exist, .REDEFINE performs .DEFINE's work.
When used with .REPT REDEFINE helps creating tables:
.DEFINE CNT 0
.REPT 256
.DB CNT
.REDEFINE CNT CNT+1
.ENDR
This is not a compulsory directive.
-------------
.REDEF IF $0F
-------------
.REDEF is an alias for .REDEFINE.
This is not a compulsory directive.
--------------
.IF DEBUG == 2
--------------
If the condition is fulfilled the following piece of code is
acknowledged until .ENDIF/.ELSE occurs in the text, otherwise
it is skipped. Operands must be immediate values or strings.
The following operators are supported:
< - less than
<= - less or equal to
> - greater than
>= - greater or equal to
== - equals to
!= - doesn't equal to
All IF (yes, including .IFDEF, .IFNDEF, etc) directives can be
nested.
This is not a compulsory directive.
---------
.IFDEF IF
---------
If "IF" is defined, then the following piece of code is acknowledged
until .ENDIF/.ELSE occurs in the text, otherwise it is skipped.
This is not a compulsory directive.
------------------
.IFEXISTS "main.s"
------------------
If "main.s" file can be found, then the following piece of code is
acknowledged until .ENDIF/.LESE occurs in the text, otherwise it is
skipped.
By writing the following few lines you can include a file if it exists
without breaking the compiling loop if it doesn't exist.
.IFEXISTS FILE
.INCLUDE FILE
.ENDIF
This is not a compulsory directive.
---------------
.UNDEFINE DEBUG
---------------
Removes the supplied definition label from system. If there is no
such label as given no error is displayed as the result would be the
same.
You can undefine as many definitions as you wish with one .UNDEFINE:
.UNDEFINE NUMBER, NAME, ADDRESS, COUNTRY
.UNDEFINE NAME, AGE
This is not a compulsory directive.
------------
.UNDEF DEBUG
------------
.UNDEF is an alias for .UNDEFINE.
This is not a compulsory directive.
----------
.IFNDEF IF
----------
If "IF" is not defined, then the following piece of code is acknowledged
until .ENDIF/.ELSE occurs in the text, otherwise it is skipped.
This is not a compulsory directive.
----------
.IFDEFM \2
----------
If the specified argument is defined (argument number two, in the example),
then the following piece of code is acknowledged until .ENDIF/.ELSE occurs
in the macro, otherwise it is skipped.
This is not a compulsory directive. .IFDEFM works only inside a macro.
-----------
.IFNDEFM \2
-----------
If the specified argument is not defined, then the following piece of
code is acknowledged until .ENDIF/.ELSE occurs in the macro, otherwise
it is skipped.
This is not a compulsory directive. .IFNDEFM works only inside a macro.
-------------
.IFEQ DEBUG 2
-------------
If the value of DEBUG equals to 2, then the following piece of code is
acknowledged until .ENDIF/.ELSE occurs in the text, otherwise it is skipped.
Both arguments can be computations, defines or immediate values.
This is not a compulsory directive.
--------------
.IFNEQ DEBUG 2
--------------
If the value of DEBUG doesn't equal to 2, then the following piece of
code is acknowledged until .ENDIF/.ELSE occurs in the text, otherwise it is
skipped. Both arguments can be computations, defines or immediate
values.
This is not a compulsory directive.
-------------
.IFLE DEBUG 2
-------------
If the value of DEBUG is less than 2, then the following piece of code is
acknowledged until .ENDIF/.ELSE occurs in the text, otherwise it is skipped.
Both arguments can be computations, defines or immediate values.
This is not a compulsory directive.
---------------
.IFLEEQ DEBUG 2
---------------
If the value of DEBUG is less or equal to 2, then the following piece of code
is
acknowledged until .ENDIF/.ELSE occurs in the text, otherwise it is skipped.
Both arguments can be computations, defines or immediate values.
This is not a compulsory directive.
-------------
.IFGR DEBUG 2
-------------
If the value of DEBUG is greater than 2, then the following piece of code is
acknowledged until .ENDIF/.ELSE occurs in the text, otherwise it is skipped.
Both arguments can be computations, defines or immediate values.
This is not a compulsory directive.
---------------
.IFGREQ DEBUG 2
---------------
If the value of DEBUG is greater or equal to 2, then the following piece of code
is
acknowledged until .ENDIF/.ELSE occurs in the text, otherwise it is skipped.
Both arguments can be computations, defines or immediate values.
This is not a compulsory directive.
-----
.ELSE
-----
If the previous .IFxxx failed then the following text until
.ENDIF is acknowledged.
This is not a compulsory directive.
------
.ENDIF
------
This terminates any .IFxxx directive.
This is not a compulsory directive, but if you use any .IFxxx then
you need also to apply this.
---------
.REPEAT 6
---------
Repeats the text enclosed between ".REPEAT x" and ".ENDR" x times (6 in
this example). You can use .REPEATs inside .REPEATs. 'x' must be >= 0.
This is not a compulsory directive.
-------
.REPT 6
-------
.REPT is an alias for .REPEAT.
This is not a compulsory directive.
-----
.ENDR
-----
Ends the repetition.
This is not a compulsory directive, but when .REPEAT is used this one is
required to terminate it.
-----------
.ENUM $C000
-----------
Starts enumeration from $C000. Very useful for defining variables.
To start a descending enumeration, put "DESC" after the starting
address. WLA defaults to "ASC" (ascending enumeration).
You can also add "EXPORT" after these if you want to export all
the generated definitions automatically.
Here's an example of .ENUM:
...
.STRUCT mon ; check out the documentation on
name ds 2 ; .STRUCT
age db
.ENDST
.ENUM $A000
_scroll_x DB ; db - define byte (byt and byte work also)
_scroll_y DB
player_x: DW ; dw - define word (word works also)
player_y: DW
map_01: DS 16 ; ds - define size (bytes)
map_02 DSB 16 ; dsb - define size (bytes)
map_03 DSW 8 ; dsw - define size (words)
monster INSTANCEOF mon 3 ; three instances of structure mon
dragon INSTANCEOF mon ; one mon
.ENDE
...
Previous example transforms into following definitions:
.DEFINE _scroll_x $A000
.DEFINE _scroll_y $A001
.DEFINE player_x $A002
.DEFINE player_y $A004
.DEFINE map_01 $A006
.DEFINE map_02 $A016
.DEFINE map_03 $A026
.DEFINE monster $A036
.DEFINE monster.name $A036
.DEFINE monster.age $A038
.DEFINE monster.1 $A036
.DEFINE monster.1.name $A036
.DEFINE monster.1.age $A038
.DEFINE monster.2 $A039
.DEFINE monster.2.name $A039
.DEFINE monster.2.age $A03B
.DEFINE monster.3 $A03C
.DEFINE monster.3.name $A03C
.DEFINE monster.3.age $A03E
.DEFINE dragon $A03F
.DEFINE dragon.name $A03F
.DEFINE dragon.age $A041
DB, DW, DS, DSB, DSW and INSTANCEOF can also be in lowercase. You
can also use a dotted version of the symbols, but it doesn't advance
the memory address. Here's an exmple:
.ENUM $C000 DESC EXPORT
bigapple_h db
bigapple_l db
bigapple: .dw
.ENDE
And this is what is generated:
.DEFINE bigapple_h $BFFF
.DEFINE bigapple_l $BFFE
.DEFINE bigapple $BFFE
.EXPORT bigapple, bigapple_l, bigapple_h
This way you can generate a 16bit variable address along with pointers
to its parts.
If you want more flexible variable positioning, take a look at
.RAMSECTIONs.
This is not a compulsory directive.
-----
.ENDE
-----
Ends the enumeration.
This is not a compulsory directive, but when .ENUM is used this one is
required to terminate it.
--------------------
.STRUCT enemy_object
--------------------
Begins the definition of a structure. These structures can be placed
inside RAMSECTIONs and ENUMs. Here's an example:
.STRUCT enemy_object
id dw ; the insides of a .STRUCT are 1:1 like in .ENUM
x db ; except that no structs inside structs are
y db ; allowed.
data ds 10
info dsb 16
stats dsw 4
.ENDST
This also creates a definition "_sizeof_[struct name]", in our example
this would be "_sizeof_enemy_object", and the value of this definition
is the size of the object, in bytes (2+1+1+10+16+4*2 = 38 in the example).
You'll get the following definitions as well:
enemy_object.id (== 0)
enemy_object.x (== 2)
enemy_object.y (== 3)
enemy_object.data (== 4)
enemy_object.info (== 14)
enemy_object.stats (== 30)
After defining a .STRUCT you can create an instance of it in a .RAMSECTION /
.ENUM by typing
<instance name> INSTANCEOF <struct name> [optional, the number of structures]
Here's an example:
.RAMSECTION "enemies" BANK 4 SLOT 4
enemies INSTANCEOF enemy_object 4
enemyman INSTANCEOF enemy_object
enemyboss INSTANCEOF enemy_object
.ENDS
This will create labels like "enemies", "enemies.id", "enemies.x", "enemies.y"
and so on. Label "enemies" is followed by four "enemy_object" structures,
and only the first one is labeled. After there four come "enemyman" and
"enemyboss" instances.
Take a look at the documentation on .RAMSECTION & .ENUM, they have more
examples of how you can use .STRUCTs.
A WORD OF WARNING: Don't use labels b, B, w and W inside a struct as e.g.,
WLA sees enemy.b as a byte sized reference to enemy. All other labels should
be safe.
lda enemy1.b ; load a byte from zeropage address enemy1 or from the address
; of enemy1.b??? i can't tell you, and WLA can't tell you...
This is not a compulsory directive.
------
.ENDST
------
Ends the structure definition.
This is not a compulsory directive, but when .STRUCT is used this one is
required to terminate it.
----------
.MEMORYMAP
----------
Begins the memory map definition. Using .MEMORYMAP you must first
describe the target system's memory architecture to WLA before it
can start to compile the code. .MEMORYMAP gives you the freedom to
use WLA Z80/6502/65C02/6510/65816/HUC6280/SPC-700 to compile data
for numerous different real Z80/6502/65C02/6510/65816/HUC6280/SPC-700
based systems.
Examples:
.MEMORYMAP
SLOTSIZE $4000
DEFAULTSLOT 2
SLOT 0 $0000
SLOT 1 $4000
.ENDME
.MEMORYMAP
DEFAULTSLOT 1
SLOTSIZE $6000
SLOT 0 $0000
SLOTSIZE $2000
SLOT 1 $6000
SLOT 2 $8000
.ENDME
Here's a real life example from Adam Klotblixt. It should be interesting
for all the ZX81 coders:
...
.MEMORYMAP
DEFAULTSLOT 1
SLOTSIZE $2000
SLOT 0 $0000
SLOTSIZE $6000
SLOT 1 $2000
.ENDME
.ROMBANKMAP
BANKSTOTAL 2
BANKSIZE $2000
BANKS 1
BANKSIZE $6000
BANKS 1
.ENDRO
.BANK 1 SLOT 1
.ORGA $2000
...
SLOTSIZE defines the size of the following slots. You can redefine it
as many times as you wish, like in the second example.
DEFAULTSLOT describes the default slot for banks which aren't explicitly
inserted anywhere. Check .BANK definition for more information.
SLOT defines a slot and its starting address. SLOT numbering starts at
0 and ends to 255 so you have 256 slots at your disposal.
This is a compulsory directive, and make sure all the object files share
the same .MEMORYMAP or you can't link them together.
------
.ENDME
------
Ends the memorymap.
This is not a compulsory directive, but when .MEMORYMAP is used this one
is required to terminate it.
-----------
.ROMBANKMAP
-----------
Begins the ROM bank map definition. You can use this directive to
describe the project's ROM banks. Use .ROMBANKMAP when not all the
ROM banks are of equal size. Note that you can use .ROMBANKSIZE and
.ROMBANKS instead of .ROMBANKMAP, but that's only when the ROM banks
are equal in size. Some systems based on a real Z80 chip,
6502/65C02/6510/65816/HUC6280/SPC-700 CPUs and Pocket Voice cartridges
for Game Boy require the usage of this directive.
Examples:
.ROMBANKMAP
BANKSTOTAL 16
BANKSIZE $4000
BANKS 16
.ENDRO
.ROMBANKMAP
BANKSTOTAL 510
BANKSIZE $6000
BANKS 1
BANKSIZE $2000
BANKS 509
.ENDRO
The first one describes an ordinary ROM image of 16 equal sized
banks. The second one defines a 4MB Pocket Voice ROM image.
In the PV ROM image the first bank is $6000 bytes and the remaining
509 banks are smaller ones, $2000 bytes each.
BANKSTOTAL tells the total amount of ROM banks. It must be
defined prior to anything else.
BANKSIZE tells the size of the following ROM banks. You can
supply WLA with BANKSIZE as many times as you wish.
BANKS tells the amount of banks that follow and that are of
the size BANKSIZE which has been previously defined.
This is not a compulsory directive when .ROMBANKSIZE and
.ROMBANKS are defined.
You can redefine .ROMBANKMAP as many times as you wish as long as
the old and the new ROM bank maps match as much as possible. This
way you can enlarge the size of the project on the fly.
------
.ENDRO
------
Ends the rom bank map.
This is not a compulsory directive, but when .ROMBANKMAP is used this
one is required to terminate it.
---------
.SEED 123
---------
Seeds the random number generator.
This is not a compulsory directive. The random number generator is
initially seeded with the output of time(), which is, according to
the manual, "the time since the Epoch (00:00:00 UTC, January 1, 1970),
measured in seconds". So if you don't .SEED the random number generator
yourself with a constant value, .DBRND and .DWRND give you different
values every time you run WLA.
---------------------
.SECTION "Init" FORCE
---------------------
Section is a continuous area of data which is placed into the output
file according to the section type and .BANK and .ORG directive
values.
The example begins a section called "Init". Before a section can be
declared, .BANK and .ORG must be used unless WLA is in library file
output mode. Library file's sections must all be FREE ones. .BANK tells
the bank number where this section will be later relocated into. .ORG
tells the offset for the relocation from the beginning of .BANK.
You can supply the preferred section size (bytes) inside the section
name string. Here's an example:
.SECTION "Init_100" FREE
will create a section ("Init") with size of 100 bytes, unless the actual
data overflows from the section, in which case the section size is
enlarged to contain all the data. Note that the syntax for explicit
section size defining is: "NAME_X", where "NAME" is the name of the
section and "X" is the size (decimal or hexadecimal value).
You can also give the size of the section the following way:
.SECTION "Init" SIZE 100 FREE
It's possible to force WLALINK to align the FREE, SEMIFREE and SUPERFREE
sections by giving the alignment as follows:
.SECTION "Init" SIZE 100 ALIGN 4 FREE
And if you want that WLA returns the ORG to what it was before issuing
the section, put RETURNORG at the end of the parameter list:
.SECTION "Init" SIZE 100 ALIGN 4 FREE RETURNORG
By default WLA advances the ORG, so, for example, if your ORG was $0 before
a section of 16 bytes, then the ORG will be 16 after the section.
Note also that if your section name begins with double underlines (e.g.,
"__UNIQUE_SECTION!!!") the section will be unique in the sense that
when WLALINK recieves files containing sections which share the same
name, WLALINK will save only the first of them for further processing,
all others are deleted from memory with corresponding labels, references
and calculations.
If a section name begins with an exclamation mark ('!') it tells
WLALINK to not to drop it, even if you use WLALINK's ability to discard
all unreferenced sections and there are no references to the section.
FORCE after the name of the section tells WLA that the section _must_ be
inserted so it starts at .ORG. FORCE can be replaced with FREE which
means that the section can be inserted somewhere in the defined bank,
where there is room. You can also use OVERWRITE to insert the section
into the memory regardless of data collisions. Using OVERWRITE you can
easily patch an existing ROM image just by .BACKGROUND'ing the ROM image and
inserting OVERWRITE sections into it. SEMIFREE sections are also
possible and they behave much like FREE sections. The only difference
is that they are positioned somewhere in the bank starting from .ORG.
SUPERFREE sections are also available, and they will be positioned into
the first suitable place inside the first suitable bank (candidates
for these suitable banks have the same size with the slot of the section,
no other banks are considered). You can also leave away the type
specifier as the default type for the section is FREE.
You can name the sections as you wish, but there is one special name.
A section called "BANKHEADER" is placed in the front of the bank
where it is defined. These sections contain data that is not in the
memory map of the machine, so you can't refer to the data of a
BANKHEADER section, but you can write references to outside. So no
labels inside BANKHEADER sections. These special sections are useful
when writing e.g., MSX programs. Note that library files don't take
BANKHEADER sections.
Here's an example of a "BANKHEADER" section:
.BANK 0
.ORG 0
.SECTION "BANKHEADER"
.DW MAIN
.DW VBI
.ENDS
.SECTION "Program"
MAIN: CALL MONTY_ON_THE_RUN
VBI: PUSH HL
...
POP HL
RETI
.ENDS
Here's an example of an ordinary section:
.BANK 0
.ORG $150
.SECTION "Init" FREE
DI
LD SP, $FFFE
SUB A
LD ($FF00+R_IE), A
.ENDS
This tells WLA that a FREE section called "Init" must be located somewhere
in bank 0. If you replace FREE with SEMIFREE the section will be inserted
somewhere in the bank 0, but not in the $0-$14F area. If you replace FREE
with SUPERFREE the section will be inserted somewhere in the
Here's the order in which WLA writes the sections:
1. FORCE
2. SEMIFREE & FREE
3. SUPERFREE
4. OVERWRITE
Before the sections are inserted into the output file, they are sorted by
size, so that the biggest section gets processed first and the smallest
last.
You can also create a RAM section. For more information about them, please
read the .RAMSECTION directive explanation.
This is not a compulsory directive.
--------------------------------
.RAMSECTION "Vars" BANK 0 SLOT 1
--------------------------------
RAMSECTIONs accept only variable labels and variable sizes, and the
syntax to define these is identical to .ENUM (all the syntax rules that
apply to .ENUM apply also to .RAMSECTION). Additionally you can embed
structures (.STRUCT) into a RAMSECTION. Here's an example:
.RAMSECTION "Some of my variables" BANK 0 SLOT 1
vbi_counter: db
player_lives: db
.ENDS
RAMSECTIONs behave like FREE sections, but instead of filling any banks
RAM sections will occupy area inside slots. You can fill different slots
with different variable labels. It's recommend that you create separate
slots for holding variables (as ROM and RAM don't usually overlap).
Here's another example:
.MEMORYMAP
SLOTSIZE $4000
DEFAULTSLOT 0
SLOT 0 $0000 ; ROM slot 0.
SLOT 1 $4000 ; ROM slot 1.
SLOT 2 $A000 ; variable RAM is here!
.ENDME
.STRUCT game_object
x DB
y DB
.ENDST
.RAMSECTION "vars 1" BANK 1 SLOT 2
moomin DW
phantom DB
nyanko DB
enemy INSTANCEOF game_object
.ENDS
If no other RAM section is used, then this is what you will get:
.DEFINE moomin $A000
.DEFINE phantom $A002
.DEFINE nyanko $A003
.DEFINE enemy $A004
.DEFINE enemy.x $A004
.DEFINE enemy.y $A005
Note that the BANK value is only used when referring labels using
notation ":label". BANK in .RAMSECTION is optional so you can
leave it away if you think you don't need to know the bank number
for a label inside a RAM section.
This is not a compulsory directive.
-----
.ENDS
-----
Ends the section.
This is not a compulsory directive, but when .SECTION is used this one is
required to terminate it.
-------
.ROMGBC
-------
Inserts data into the specific ROM location to mark the ROM as a GBC ROM
($C0 -> $0143, so ROM name is max. 15 characters long).
This is not a compulsory directive.
-------
.ROMDMG
-------
Inserts data into the specific ROM location to mark the ROM as a DMG ROM
($00 -> $0146).
This is not a compulsory directive. .ROMDMG cannot be used with .ROMSGB.
-------
.ROMSGB
-------
Inserts data into the specific ROM location to mark the ROM as a SGB enhanced
ROM ($03 -> $0146).
This is not a compulsory directive. .ROMSGB cannot be used with .ROMDMG.
--------------
.EXPORT work_x
--------------
Exports the definition "work_x" to outside world. Exported definitions are
visible to all object files and libraries in the linking procedure. Note
that you can only export value definitions, not string definitions.
You can export as many definitions as you wish with one .EXPORT:
.EXPORT NUMBER, NAME, ADDRESS, COUNTRY
.EXPORT NAME, AGE
This is not a compulsory directive.
--------------------------
.PRINTT "Here we are...\n"
--------------------------
Prints the given text into stdout. Good for debugging stuff. PRINTT takes
only a string as argument, and the only supported formatting symbol is '\n'
(line feed).
This is not a compulsory directive.
-------------------
.PRINTV DEC DEBUG+1
-------------------
Prints the value of the supplied definition or computation into stdout.
Computation must be solvable at the time of printing (just like definitions
values). PRINTV takes two parameters. The first describes the type of the
print output. "DEC" means decimal, "HEX" means hexadecimal.
Use PRINTV with PRINTT as PRINTV doesn't print linefeeds, only the result.
Here's an example:
.PRINTT "Value of "DEBUG" = $"
.PRINTV HEX DEBUG
.PRINTT "\n"
This is not a compulsory directive.
------------------
.OUTNAME "other.o"
------------------
Changes the name of the output file. Here's and example:
wla-gb -o test.s
would normally output "test.o", but if you had written
.OUTNAME "new.o"
somewhere in the code WLA would write the output to new.o instead.
This is not a compulsory directive.
-----------
.SNESHEADER
-----------
This begins the SNES header definition, and automatically defines
.COMPUTESNESCHECKSUM. From here you may define any of the following:
ID "ABCD" - inserts a one to four letter string starting at $7FB2
(lorom) or $FFB2 (hirom).
NAME "Hello World!" - identical to a freestanding .NAME.
LOROM - identical to a freestanding .LOROM.
HIROM - identical to a freestanding .HIROM.
SLOWROM - identical to a freestanding .SLOWROM.
FASTROM - identical to a freestanding .FASTROM.
CARTRIDGETYPE $00 - Places the given 8-bit value in $7FD6 ($FFD6 in
HiROM). Some possible values I've come across but cannot guarantee the
accuracy of:
$00 ROM only
$01 ROM and RAM
$02 ROM and Save RAM
$03 ROM and DSP1 chip
$04 ROM, RAM and DSP1 chip
$05 ROM, Save RAM and DSP1 chip
$13 ROM and Super FX chip
ROMSIZE $09 - Places the given 8-bit value in $7FD7 ($FFD7 in HiROM).
Possible values include (but may not be limited to:)
$08 - 2 Megabits
$09 - 4 Megabits
$0A - 8 Megabits
$0B - 16 Megabits
$0C - 32 Megabits
SRAMSIZE $01 - Places the given 8-bit value into $7FD8 ($FFD8 in HiROM).
I believe these are the only possible values:
$00 - 0 kilobits
$01 - 16 kilobits
$02 - 32 kilobits
$03 - 64 kilobits
COUNTRY $00 - Places the given 8-bit value into $7FD9 ($FFD9 in HiROM).
$00 is Japan and $01 is the United States, and there several more for
other regions that I cannot recall off the top of my head.
LICENSEECODE $00 - Places the given 8-bit value into $7FDA ($FFDA in
HiROM.) You must find the legal values yourself as there are plenty of
them. ;)
VERSION $01 - Places the given 8-bit value into $7FDB ($FFDB in HiROM)
This is supposedly interpreted as version 1.byte, so a $01 here would be
version 1.01.
This is not a compulsory directive.
--------
.ENDSNES
--------
This ends the SNES header definition.
This is not a compulsory directive, but when .SNESHEADER is used this
one is required to terminate it.
-----------------
.SNESNATIVEVECTOR
-----------------
Begins definition of the native mode interrupt vector table.
.SNESNATIVEVECTOR
COP COPHandler
BRK BRKHandler
ABORT ABORTHandler
NMI VBlank
UNUSED $0000
IRQ IRQHandler
.ENDNATIVEVECTOR
These can be defined in any order, but they will be placed into
memory starting at $7FE4 ($FFE4 in HiROM) in the order listed above.
All the vectors default to $0000.
This is not a compulsory directive.
----------------
.ENDNATIVEVECTOR
----------------
Ends definition of the native mode interrupt vector table.
This is not a compulsory directive, but when .SNESNATIVEVECTOR
is used this one is required to terminate it.
--------------
.SNESEMUVECTOR
--------------
Begins definition of the emulation mode interrupt vector table.
.SNESEMUVECTOR
COP COPHandler
UNUSED $0000
ABORT BRKHandler
NMI VBlank
RESET Main
IRQBRK IRQBRKHandler
.ENDEMUVECTOR
These can be defined in any order, but they will be placed into
memory starting at $7FF4 ($FFF4 in HiROM) in the order listed
above. All the vectors default to $0000.
This is not a compulsory directive.
-------------
.ENDEMUVECTOR
-------------
Ends definition of the emulation mode interrupt vector table.
This is not a compulsory directive, but when .SNESEMUVECTOR
is used this one is required to terminate it.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.... Assembler Syntax
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.1. Case Sensitivity
WLA is case sensitive, so be careful.
3.2. Comments
Comments begin with ';' or '*' and end along with the line. ';' can be
used anywhere, but '*' can be placed only at the beginning of a new line.
Version 4.1 of WLA introduced ANSI-C -like commenting. This means you can
start a multiline comment with "/*" and end it with "*/".
Version 6.0 of WLA introduced .ASM and .ENDASM directives. These function
much like ANSI-C comments, but unlike the ANSI-C comments these can be
nested.
3.3. Labels
Labels are ordinary strings (which can also end to a ':'). Labels starting
with "_" are considered to be local labels and do not show outside sections
where they were defined, or outside object files, if they were not defined
inside a section.
Here are few examples of different labels:
VBI_IRQ:
VBI_IRQ2
_VBI_LOOP:
main:
Note that when you place ':' in front of the label string when referring to
it, you'll get the bank number of the label, instead of the label's address.
Here's an example:
LD A, :LOOP
.BANK 2 SLOT 0
LOOP:
Here "LD A, :LOOP" will be replaced with "LD A, 2" as the label LOOP is
inside the bank number two.
When you are referring to a label and you are adding something to its address
(or subtracting, any arithmetics apply) the result will always be bytes.
.org 20
DATA: .dw 100, 200, 300
ld a, DATA+1
^^^^^^ = r
So here the result r will be the address of DATA plus one, here 21. Some x86
assemblers would give here 22 as the result r as DATA points to an array
or machine words, but WLA isn't that smart (and some people including me
think this is the better solution).
You can also use -, --, ---, +, ++, +++, ... as un-named labels.
Labels consisting of '-' are meant for reverse jumps and labels consisting
of '+' are meant for forward jumps. You can reuse un-named labels as much
as you wish inside your source code. Here's an example of this:
dec e
beq ++ ; jump -> ?
dec e
beq + ; jump -> %
ld d, 14
--- ld a, 10 ; !
-- ld b, c ; #
- dec b ; *
jp nz, - ; jump -> *
dec c
jp nz, -- ; jump -> #
dec d
jp nz, --- ; jump -> !
ld a, 20
- dec a ; $
jp nz, - ; jump -> $
+ halt ; %
++ nop ; ?
Note that "__" (that's two underline characters) serves also as a un-named
label. You can refer to this label from both directions. Use "_b" when
you are jumping backwards and "_f" when you are jumping forwards label "__".
Example:
dec e
jp z, _f ; jump -> *
dec e
__ ldi a, (hl) ; *
dec e
jp nz, _b ; jump -> *
CAVEAT! CAVEAT! CAVEAT!
The following code doesn't work as it would if WLA would determine the
distance lexically (but in practice it's WLALINK that does all the
calculations and sees only the preprocessed output of WLA):
.macro dummy
- dec a ; #
jp nz, - ; jump -> #
.endm
...
- nop ; *
dummy
dec e
jp nz, - ; i'd like to jump to *, but i'll end up jumping
; to # as it's closest to me in the output WLA produces
; for WLALINK (so it's better to use \ with labels inside
; a macro).
3.4. Number Types
1000 - decimal
$100 - hexadecimal
100h - hexadecimal
%100 - binary
'x' - character
Remember that if you use the suffix 'h' to give a hexadecimal value,
and the value begins with an alphabet, you must place a zero in front of it
so WLA knows it's not a label (e.g., "0ah" instead of "ah").
3.5. Strings
Strings begin with and end to '"'. Note that no 0 is inserted to indicate
the termination of the string like in e.g., ANSI C. You'll have to do it
yourself. You can place quotation marks inside strings the way C
preprocessors accept them.
Here are some examples of strings:
"Hello world!"
"He said: "Please, kiss me honey.""
3.6. Mnemonics
You can give the operand size with the operand itself (and this is
highly recommended) in WLA 6502/65C02/6510/HUC6280/65816:
and #20.b
and #20.w
bit loop.b
bit loop.w
Additionally there is an extra mnemonic in the GB-Z80 version of WLA
called "DEBUG" which will translate to $ED. This one is not used in
real GB-Z80, but my Game Boy emulator, Wzonka-Lad, will invert the
Amiga's power light mode when $ED is executed.
Don't use DEBUG if you are going to use your code elsewhere!
3.7. Brackets?
Brackets are also supported in the GB-Z80/Z80/6502/65C02/HUC6280/6510 syntax.
So you can write
LDI (HL), A
or
LDI [HL], A
Yes, you could write
LDI [HL), A
but I don't recommend that. ;)
Note that brackets have special meaning when dealing with a 65816/SPC-700
system so you can't use
AND [$65]
instead of
AND ($65)
as they mean different things.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4.... Error Messages
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There are quite a few of them in WLA, but most of them are not as informative
as I would like them to be. This will be fixed in the future. Mean while, be
careful. ;)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5.... Supported ROM/RAM/Cartridge Types (WLA-GB)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5.1. ROM Size
GB-Z80 version of WLA supports the following ROM bank sizes. There's no such
limit in the Z80/6502/65C02/6510/65816/HUC6280/SPC-700 version of WLA. Supply
one of the following values to .ROMBANKS.
$0 - 256Kbit = 32KByte = 2 banks
$1 - 512Kbit = 64KByte = 4 banks
$2 - 1Mbit = 128KByte = 8 banks
$3 - 2Mbit = 256KByte = 16 banks
$4 - 4Mbit = 512KByte = 32 banks
$5 - 8Mbit = 1MByte = 64 banks
$6 - 16Mbit = 2MByte = 128 banks
$52 - 9Mbit = 1.1MByte = 72 banks
$53 - 10Mbit = 1.2MByte = 80 banks
$54 - 12Mbit = 1.5MByte = 96 banks
5.2. RAM Size
Supply one of the following hex values to .RAMSIZE in the GB-Z80 version
of WLA.
$0 - None
$1 - 16kbit = 2kByte = 1 bank
$2 - 64kbit = 8kByte = 1 bank
$3 - 256kbit = 32kByte = 4 banks
$4 - 1Mbit = 128kByte = 16 banks
5.3. Cartridge Type
It's up to the user to check that the cartridge type is valid and
can be used combined with the supplied ROM and RAM sizes. Give
one the the following values to .CARTRIDGETYPE in the GB-Z80 version of WLA.
$0 - ROM ONLY
$1 - ROM+MBC1
$2 - ROM+MBC1+RAM
$3 - ROM+MBC1+RAM+BATT
$5 - ROM+MBC2
$6 - ROM+MBC2+BATTERY
$8 - ROM+RAM
$9 - ROM+RAM+BATTERY
$B - ROM+MMM01
$C - ROM+MMM01+SRAM
$D - ROM+MMM01+SRAM+BATT
$F - ROM+MBC3+TIMER+BATT
$10 - ROM+MBC3+TIMER+RAM+BATT
$11 - ROM+MBC3
$12 - ROM+MBC3+RAM
$13 - ROM+MBC3+RAM+BATT
$19 - ROM+MBC5
$1A - ROM+MBC5+RAM
$1B - ROM+MBC5+RAM+BATT
$1C - ROM+MBC5+RUMBLE
$1D - ROM+MBC5+RUMBLE+SRAM
$1E - ROM+MBC5+RUMBLE+SRAM+BATT
$1F - Pocket Camera
$BE - Pocket Voice
$FD - Bandai TAMA5
$FE - Hudson HuC-3
$FF - Hudson HuC-1
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
6.... Bugs
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you find bugs, please let me know asap. Anything, small or big, send
me email! I won't eat you for reporting a bug. Probably your name just ends
up in the thanks-section of this documentation. ;)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7.... Files
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7.1. 'examples'
The main purpose of the files in the 'examples' directory is to teach people
few things about WLA. If you feel a little uncertain with the syntax check
out this place.
'examples' directory holds seven directories, 'gb-z80', 'z80', '6502', '65c02',
'6510', '65816' and 'spc-700'. 'include' directory under 'gb-z80' could be very
useful as the six include files there have all the Game Boy hardware register
address and memory definitions you could ever need and more.
7.2. 'examples/gb-z80/lib'
This folder holds few very useful libraries for you to use in your Game Boy
projects. Instead of reinventing the wheel, use the stuff found in here.
Remember to compile the libraries right after you've installed WLA by
executing 'make' in the 'lib' directory.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8.... Temporary Files
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note that WLA will generate two temporary files while it works. Both files
are placed into the current working directory.
Under Amiga: "wla_a.tmp" and "wla_b.tmp".
Under MSDOS: "wla_a.tmp" and "wla_b.tmp".
Under Win32: ".wla%PID%a" and ".wla%PID%b" (where %PID% is the process id).
Under Unix: ".wla%PID%a" and ".wla%PID%b" (where %PID% is the process id).
When WLA finishes its work these two files are deleted as they serve
of no further use.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
9.... Compiling
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
9.1. Compiling Object Files
To compile an object file use:
"wla -[itvx]o [DEFINITIONS] <ASM FILE> [OUTPUT FILE]"
These object files can be linked together (or with library files) later
with "wlalink".
Name object files so that they can be recognized as object files. Normal
suffix is ".o" (WLA default). This can also be changed with .OUTNAME.
With object files you can reduce the amount of compiling when editing
small parts of the program. Note also the possibility of using local
labels (starting with "_").
Note! When you compile objects, group 1 directives are saved for linking
time, when they are all compared and if they differ, an error message is
shown. It is advisable to use something like an include file to hold all
the group 1 directives for that particular project and include it to every
object file.
If you are interested in the WLA object file format, take a look at the
file "txt/wla_file_formats.txt" which is included in the release archive.
Here are some examples of definitions:
-DIEXIST
-DDAY=10
-DBASE=$10
-DNAME=elvis
And here's an WLA example creating definitions on the command line:
wla-gb -o -DDEBUG -DVERBOSE=5 -DNAME="math v1.0" math.s
DEBUG's value will be 0, VERBOSE's 5 and NAME is a string definition
with value "math v1.0".
9.2. Compiling Library Files
To compile a library file use:
"wla -[itvx]l [DEFINITIONS] <ASM FILE> [OUTPUT FILE]"
Name object files so that they can be recognized as library files. Normal
suffix is ".lib" (WLA default).
With library files you can reduce the amount of compiling. Library files
are meant to hold general functions that can be used in different projects.
Note also the possibility of using local labels (starting with "_").
Library files consist only of FREE sections.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
10... Linking
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
After you have produced one or more object files and perhaps some library
files, you might want to link them together to produce a ROM image / program
file. "wlalink" is the program you use for that. Here's how you use it:
"wlalink [-divs]{b/r} <LINK FILE> <OUTPUT FILE>"
Choose 'b' for program file or 'r' for ROM image linking.
Link file is a text file that contains information about the files you want
to link together. Here's the format:
1. You must define the group for the files. Put the name of the group
inside brackets. Valid group definitions are
[objects]
[libraries]
[header]
[footer]
[definitions]
2. Start to list the file names.
[objects]
main.o
vbi.o
level_01.o
...
3. Give parameters to the library files:
[libraries]
bank 0 slot 1 speed.lib
bank 4 slot 2 map_data.lib
...
Here you can also use "base" to define the 65816 CPU bank number
(like .BASE works in WLA):
[libraries]
bank 0 slot 1 base $80 speed.lib
bank 4 slot 2 base $80 map_data.lib
...
You must tell WLALINK the bank and the slot for the library files.
4. If you want to use header and/or footer in your project,
you can type the following:
[header]
header.dat
[footer]
footer.dat
5. If you want to make value definitions, here's your chance:
[definitions]
debug 1
max_str_len 128
start $150
...
If flag 'v' is used, WLALINK displays information about ROM file after a
succesful linking.
If flag 's' is used, WLALINK will produce a NO$GMB symbol file. It's useful
when you work under MSDOS (NO$GMB is a very good Game Boy emulator for MSDOS/
Windows) as it contains information about the labels in your project.
If flag 'd' is used, WLALINK discards all unreferenced FREE and SEMIFREE
sections. This way you can link big libraries to your project and WLALINK
will choose only the used sections, so you won't be linking any dead code/data.
If flag 'i' is given, WLALINK will write list files. Note that you must
compile the object and library files with -i flag as well. Otherwise WLALINK
has no extra information it needs to build list files. Here is an example of
a list file: Let's assume you've compiled a source file called "main.s" using
the 'i' flag. After you've linked the result also with the 'i' flag WLALINK
has created a list file called "main.lst". This file contains the source
text and the result data the source compiled into. List files are good for
debugging.
Make sure you don't create duplicate labels in different places in the
memory map as they break the linking loop. Duplicate labels are allowed when
they overlap each other in the destination machine's memory. Look at the
following example:
...
.BANK 0
.ORG $150
...
LD A, 1
CALL LOAD_LEVEL
...
LOAD_LEVEL:
LD HL, $2000
LD (HL), A
CALL INIT_LEVEL
RET
.BANK 1
.ORG 0
INIT_LEVEL:
...
RET
.BANK 2
.ORG $0
INIT_LEVEL:
...
RET
...
Here duplicate INIT_LEVEL labels are accepted as they both point to the
same memory address (in the program's point of view).
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
11... Arithmetics
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
WLA is able to solve really complex calculations like
-((HELLO / 2) | 3)
skeletor_end-skeletor
10/2.5
so you can write something like
LD HL, data_end-data
LD A, (pointer + 1)
CP (TEST + %100) & %10101010
WLALINK also has this ability so it can compute the pending calculations
WLA wasn't able to solve.
The following operators are valid:
(, ), | (or), & (and), ^ (power), << (shift left), >> (shift right), +, -,
# (modulo), ~ (xor), *, /, < (get the low byte) and > (get the high byte).
Note that you can do NOT using XOR:
VALUE_A ~ $FF = 8bit NOT
VALUE_B ~ $FFFF = 16bit NOT
WLA computes internally with real numbers so (5/2)*2 produces 5, not 4.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
12... Disassembling
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
WLAD is a disassembler that can be used to disassemble an existing GB-ROM image
into a WLA-syntax compatible source file. It won't produce very readable
code as all the labels etc. are discarded in the last phase of linking when
the ROM image is made. In the current state WLAD doesn't generate labels,
but it will in the future.
Here's how you use it:
"wlad [-dsa] <BIN FILE>"
Give it the binary file (usually the extension is .gb or .cgb) and WLAD will
output the source code into stdout (the shell you are using). Here's an
example what you can do if you want the source code into a file instead
of the screen:
"wlad tbp.cgb > tbp.s"
WLAD has three option flags:
a - Disable address output.
d - The upper banks (1->) are disassembled as data.
s - The upper banks (1->) are disassembled as data with string detection
enabled.
Use the 's'-flag if you intend to change texts in games. The flags 'd'
and 's' cannot be used at the same time.
Examples:
[seravylocalhost parallax]# wlad -da parallax.gb > parallax.s
[seravylocalhost parallax]# wlad -s parallax.gb > parallax.s
WLAD supports both normal GB-ROMs and Pocket Voice (tm) ROM images. Only WLAD
GB-Z80 exists curently.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
13... Binary to DB Conversion
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
WLAB converts binary files to WLA's byte definition strings. Here's how
you use it:
"wlab -[ap]{bdh} <BIN FILE>"
Give it the binary file and WLAB will output the WLA DB formatted data of it
into stdout. Here's an example from real life:
"wlad -da gayskeletor.bin > gayskeletor.s"
WLAB has three command flags of which one must be given to WLAB:
b - Output data in binary format.
d - Output data in decimal format.
h - Output data in hexadecimal format.
WLAB has also two option flags:
a - Print the address (relative to the beginning of the data).
p - Don't print file header.
Examples:
[seravylocalhost src]# wlab -bap iscandar.bin > iscandar.s
[seravylocalhost src]# wlab -h starsha.bin > starsha.s
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
14... Things you should know about coding for...
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Please check out the source code examples (in 'examples' directory) for
quick target system specific information.
14.1. Z80
Check the Z80 specific directives. All SMS/GG coders should find .SMSTAG,
.SDSCTAG and .COMPUTESMSCHECKSUM very useful...
14.2. 6502
For example mnemonics ADC, AND, ASL, etc... cause problems to WLA, because
they take different sized arguments. Take a look at this:
LSR 11 ; $46 $0B
LSR $A000 ; $4E $00 $A0
The first one could also be
LSR 11 ; $4E $0B $00
To really get what you want, use .8BIT, .16BIT and .24BIT directives. Or
even better, supply WLA the size of the argument:
LSR 11.W ; $4E $0B $00
14.3. 65C02
Read 14.2. as the information applies also to 65C02 coding...
14.4. 6510
Read 14.2. as the information applies also to 6510 coding...
14.5. 65816
Read 14.2. as the information applies also to 65816 coding...
WLA-65816 has also few SNES specific directives which are all very
helpful. Remember that when you use .LOROM, .HIROM, .SLOWROM and .FASTROM
WLA automatically writes the information into the output.
.COMPUTESNESCHECKSUM, .SNESHEADER and few others could also be useful.
Use .BASE to set the upmost eight bits of 24bit addresses.
If possible, use operand hints to specify the size of the operand.
WLA is able to deduce the accumulator/index mode to some extent from REP/SEP
-mnemonics and .ACCU and .INDEX -directives, but just to be sure, terminate
the operand with .B, .W or .L.
AND #10 ; can be two different things, depending on the size of the accu.
AND #10.B ; forces 8bit immediate value.
AND #10.W ; forces 16bit immediate value.
Or if you must, these work as well:
AND.B #10 ; the same as "AND #10.B".
AND.W #10 ; the same as "AND #10.W".
14.6. HUC6280
Read 14.2. as the information applies also to HUC6280 coding...
14.7. SPC-700
Nothing special so far...
14.8. Pocket Voice (GB-Z80)
Pocket Voice uses its own MBC. You can enable Pocket Voice mode by selecting
Pocket Voice cartridge type ($BE in $0147) and defining correct
.ROMBANKMAP and .MEMORYMAP. In PV mode bank 0 is 24KB and the rest are 8KB.
Note that WLA assumes that ROM offset is all the time 0. If you use
something else as the offset, make sure to compute the jumps by hand as WLA
cannot do that.
Check out examples/gb-z80/include/pocket_voice.i for more information.
14.9. GB-Z80
WLA outputs only $10 when it decodes "STOP". Often it's necessary to put an
extra "NOP" ($00) after a "STOP", and sometimes something else, but that's
left entirely to the user.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
15... WLA Flags
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here are short descriptions for the flags you can give to WLA:
You can supply WLA with some (or all or none) of the following option flags.
i - Add list file information. Adds extra information to the output so
WLALINK can produce list files.
M - WLA generates makefile rules describing the dependencies of the main
source file. Use only with flags 'o' and 'l'.
q - Quiet mode. .PRINT* -directives output nothing.
t - Test compile. Doesn't output any files.
v - Verbose mode. Shows a lot of information about the compiling process.
x - Extra compile time definitions. WLA does extra work by creating
few helpful definitions on the fly.
One (and only one) of the following command flags must be defined.
l - Output a library file.
o - Output an object file.
Examples:
[seravylocalhost tbp]# wla -voi testa.s
[seravylocalhost tbp]# wla -oM testa.s
[seravylocalhost tbp]# wla -l testb.s testb.lib
Note that the first example produces file named "testa.o".
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
16... Extra compile time definitions
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When you supply WLA with the flag 'x' it will maintain few useful definitions
while compiling your source codes. Please use the enhanced error reporting
engine (so don't use flag 'f') in conjunction with flag 'x' as some of the
definitions require extra information about the flow of the data which isn't
available when using the old, crippled error reporting engine.
Here's a list of what you get when you use flag 'x':
WLA_FILENAME - A string definition holding the file name WLA is currently
processing.
WLA_TIME - A string definition holding the calendar time (obtained using
C's ctime()).
WLA_VERSION - A string definition holding the version number of WLA.
So you can do for example something like
.DB WLA_TIME
to store the time when the build process started into the ROM file you
are compiling.
Definition "CADDR", which is present without supplying the flag 'x',
contains the current 16bit memory address. So
LD HL, CADDR
will load the address of the operand data into registers H and L. CAVEAT:
Remember when using defines that CADDR gets the address of the place where
the definition is used, not the address of the definition, which contains
the CADDR.
Note that you'll also get all these definitions in lower case
(e.g., "wla_filename").
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
17... Good things to know about WLA
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Is 64 bytes too little for a string (file names, labels, definition labels,
etc)? Check out "MAX_NAME_LENGTH" in defines.h.
- WLA preprocessor doesn't expand macros and repetitions. Those are actually
traversed in the assembling phase.
- WLA's source code is mainly a huge mess, but WLALINK is quite well
structured and written. So beware!
- Do not write ".E" into your sources as WLA uses it internally to mark
the end of a file.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
18... Author
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ville Helin, the author of Wzonka-Lad, a Game Boy emulator for the Amiga
machines, among other things. I work at the Helsinki University of Technology
(http://www.hut.fi) as a researcher. I like Game Boy (goes without saying),
anime soap operas, gym and hardcore video gaming.
email: vhelin#iki.fi
hpage: http://www.iki.fi/~vhelin
smail: Ville Helin
Dagmarinkatu 8 C 38
00100 Helsinki
Finland
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
19... Thanks
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Gaelan Griffin for endless suggestions and fast bug reports!
Take one feature from WLA and you have a 40% propability that Gaelan
bugged me to implement it. ;)
- Aleksi Eeben for lots of good bug reports and feature ideas!
- Nicolas Warren for few some serious bug reports (and even
fixes to them!) and for the good ideas!
- Madonna MkII (Matra Computer Corp.), Mike Blum, Anders Montonen,
Robert Kihl, Martin Konrad, Arto Salmi, Maxim, Yoshiaki Ishida
Tobias Pflug, Brad Jorsch and Michel Iwaniec for reporting bugs in WLA
and providing me with great ideas.
- Mark Knox, Igor Wronsky and Anders Montonen for helping me with
the MSDOS port!
- Gaelan Griffin for the Amiga port and valuable SPC-700 information!
- FluBBa for crucial HuC6280 bug reports!
- Christophe Iasci for the Win32 port!
- Marc Dünster and Kevin Mantey for the big help and suggestions with
wla-65816 and wla-spc700!
- John Schneider for makefile enhancements!
- Timo Jantunen for helping me with makefiles.
- Adam Klotblix for documentation improvements and bug reports.
- Zachary Keene for writing .SNESHEADER, .ENDSNES, .SNESNATIVEVECTOR,
.ENDNATIVEVECTOR, .SNESEMUVECTOR and .ENDEMUVECTOR. I want more
people like him! ;)
- People at gameboyvip.co.za, gameboydevlistbot.com,
gbadevyahoogroups.com and s8-dev for keeping up the good work! ;)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
20... Future
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Future enhancements (if I get really inspired):
- Listfiles.
- Much more features to WLAD (I already know of three) and
Z80/6502/65C02/6510/65816/HUC6280/SPC-700 support.
- Other optimizations, bug fixes and new features.
- You tell me.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
21... Support
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The currently supported systems are MSDOS/x86, Win32/x86, AmigaOS/680x0 and
Unix/xyz. If you'd like to see WLA for other platforms/configurations, send
me email and we'll see what I can do about it (if compiling WLA DX binaries
from the source release archive doesn't work for some reason).
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
22... Legal Note
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
WLA DX (the whole package) was written by Ville Helin, except for those
parts mentioned in section 19, in 1998-2004. WLA DX is GPL software. For
more information about GPL, take a look at the LICENCE file.
Game Boy and Game Boy Color are copyrighted by Nintendo.
Pocket Voice is copyrighted by Bung HK.
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