Date   : Tue, 25 Sep 2007 18:44:31 +0100
From   : info@... (Sprow)
Subject: : ARM7 Evaluation System & BBC/ Master

In article <070925135502@...>,
   Jonathan Graham Harston <jgh@...> wrote:
> > Message-ID: <001e01c7fe9b$d8c00f80$8a402e80$@com.au>
>  
> "Peter Craven" wrote:
> > I am assuming this is a really stupid question because I could not 
> > quickly
> > find much on Google, but was a C++ Compiler ever built that could be 
> > used on ARM7 with a BBC/ Master?
>  
> The standard gcc compiler can target the ARM. A lot of C++
> compilers are simply a preprocessor to a C compiler.
>
> To create an object file that runs on the ARM CoPro you would need
> suitable libraries. Effectively, the CoPro MOS is a primitive
> Arthur, so the Acorn OS-only libraries may be suitable.

Has anybody actually read the application note? All this material and the
underlying concepts are covered in detail there. There's no "may be
suitable" about it - this is all known for certain.

> A C compiler came with the ARM Eval. It's worth having a play
> with that to see if it will run on the ARM CoPro. Then it would
> be a case of needing a C++ frontend for it.

Per the FAQ at
  http://www.sprow.co.uk/bbc/armcopro.htm
I can guarantee that machine code off the ARM Eval discs will not work, as
they assume a status preserving PCS and will quite probably go bang at the
first 
  MOVS pc, lr
or similar legacy 26 bit instruction sequence.

> I expect the RISC OS C compiler won't run on the ARM CoPro as
> it is tied to RISC OS, not just to the ARM.

It's tied to RISC OS in that it uses the Shared C Library, otherwise it's
platform agnostic (indeed a Solaris version can be brewed from the same
sources). If someone could be bothered to make a Shared C Library for the
coprocessor it should work just fine since it's a CLI only program.

However, for the purposes of writing C for it I'd suggest using a desktop
machine (PC, Archimedes, whatever) to produce the binary and just run the
output on the coprocessor,
Sprow.