TMP(x) Assembler Support

[Kroc]

C64 OS (https://c64os.com) is written natively on a C64 (or 128) using Turbo Macro Pro. We'd like to create a PC-based SDK utilising VSCode and the PC version of TMP, TMPx. There currently isn't any VSCode grammar for TMPx, I can write one, but being a part of a complete development suite like VS64 would make life easier for onboarding developers.

I hope supporting TMPx is something you'd consider. Any way I can help, including writing the grammer, please ask.

Kind regards,
Kroc Camen.

[rolandshacks]

Hi Kroc,

...sounds like fun - but before we continue let me state that I am extremely limited in terms of time these days, but from mid of September things might get easier...

On to the idea and my initial thoughts / potential steps:

• new grammar for TMPx shouldn't be too hard (cloning ACME or KickAss grammar, etc.)
• introduction of TMPx as a new toolchain is a bit of work, but it wouldn't take very long if I focus on it (remembering the many times I did that for all the other toolchains)
• parsing for full "programmatic" language support needs to be checked, things might just work out of the box, others might not work, I will see
• challenge will clearly be the handling of TMPx debug info / memory map support. That requires a bit more patching as that part of the vs64 code base isn't super clean, yet
• task/launch integration isn't a complex thing, but it requires careful testing, fixing, testing, etc...

^ The list above might already be a good sequence of things to do iteratively - no magic needed, just a bit of time.

Things to understand / learn for me:

• C64 OS SDK - how does that work, what does the assembler produce?
• TMPx debug info format
• Expected ways and procedure to edit, compile, debug (how to call VICE, etc..)

Happy to have a closer look soon,

Roland

PS. Who would be part of the initiative? The C64 OS team, others? Sorry for that question, I am not aware of the active people and contributors around the C64 OS project.

[Kroc]

Nothing C64 OS specific would be required, just general support for TMPx, and even that can be minimal (just the grammar). I was going to make my own grammar file but I felt being a part of a more established tool would be more beneficial; I haven't had a chance to use VS64's capabilities to their fullest yet as I just learnt about it recently! I can still write the grammar for you if you want a starting point, although like yourself it'll take a while.

[Llamato]

Hi guys. Ahm Sorry if I am a bit late but I kinda already started working on TMPx support and forked the project for that.

I probably should have let you guys know in some way. I guess that is what I am doing now. Although I do not plan on doing anything C64 OS specific. Instead my development on integrating tmpx into vs64 mostly started to help with a university c64 coding project that requires the students to use TMPx.

For anyone interested on how far along the project is, feel free to check this out https://github.com/Llamato/vs64-tmpx/tree/tmpx

[rolandshacks]

Not bad!! Unfortunately, I don't have much time these days to help out - but in case you have quick questions, please let me know.
Roland

[Llamato]

Oh that is highly apricated and before I forget, thanks for making vs64, it is absolutely awesome.

Although with regards to @Kroc 's offer to help with the Gramma. I am currently a bit stuck on writing the parser for the debugger integration, If the offer still stands I would gladly take you up on it. With that we can finish the tmpx integration merge it into master here and then you and your team can add the c64 OS specific stuff on top of that. Does that sound like a plan @Kroc ?

[Kroc]

Yes, I can do the grammar; I'll base it off of something else in the repo like acme as I want to mimic your use of scope tags.

[rolandshacks]

Debugger info integration is not super clean, as I had to learn the hard way that most tools aren't designed to supply good structured information, and after I figured out (by doing a lot of reverse engineering) how to get it working, I just didn't want to touch all of it again.

If you can wait a bit for the debugging info, I'll have a look as soon as the rest is stable.

PS. In case you're implementing new things, please write high quality code in the first go... I think that would avoid tedious merge review cycles.

[rolandshacks]

About writing grammars - maybe you already know, but there is a "Scope Inspector" functionality which is of enormous help: https://code.visualstudio.com/api/language-extensions/syntax-highlight-guide#scope-inspector

[Kroc]

Yes, thank you. I had to install esbuild-dev via npm; I don't do any node-based JS development and the VSCode extensions I've written in the past are just static grammars without JS but I got it working easily enough. Perhaps consider including a section in your readme for how to edit the extension itself to make this more apparent 👍

[Llamato]

Good news Good news everyone. The TmpX module is almost done. Really the only thing missing now is debugging support and the grammar that is still work in progress if I understood @Kroc correctly.

I also discovered that it is rather easy to make the entire thing backwards compatible with Tmp06 for the c64. So I wrote some disk creation functions to generate either a program disk or a source code disk for use with Tmp06.

Would that be something vs64 could use @rolandshacks ? If so, please have a look here: https://github.com/Llamato/vs64-tmpx/tree/optionals

I think it might be a good idea to move those into the build system as for now the disks get deleted with every rebuild but other then that they work fine.

[pabu]

I have an old TMP project that I just recovered from 40 year old floppies. I can still build it with native tooling in Vice, but it would be amazing if this TMPx support could find its way back to the official VS64 repo so I can cross compile instead.

[rolandshacks]

Yes, it's a pity. The truth is that VS64 is a single person project and I have to admit that I cannot afford and justify the time to make it part of the official releases right now.

I am afraid any addition without siginificant testing all variants, platforms and setups would be a considerable risk -- potentially screwing things up for the "mainstream" user base. Secondly, after being merged, it would obviously be me to maintain the feature set for future releases as well. That's just not possible right now, and I therefore decided to let TmpX grow and mature separately in a feature branch.

Hope that makes sense to you.
Roland

[pabu]

Makes total sense from a stability perspective and I can't tell you enough how much I appreciate the time you already put into this project!

Perhaps a short section at the end of the README on how to run run/debug a local copy of VS64 could encourage others to contribute trivial fixes so that you can focus on the criticals. Not suggesting this would free up time for TMPx specifically. It was more as a general thought.

Cheers,
Patrik

[rolandshacks]

You're right. That's a good idea.
Thanks!
Roland