Date   : Thu, 05 Nov 2009 21:22:56 +0000
From   : afra@... (Phill Harvey-Smith)
Subject: Basic6809 1.00

John Kortink wrote:
> Introducing Basic6809.
> 
> Like Basic6502, which has been around for some time,
> Basic6809 patches the ARM BASIC V module (a limited
> number of versions is supported) to understand 'ancient'
> assembly code, in this case for the 6809.

Note this question is aimed at all, not just at John :)

Which prompts me to ask a possibly contentious question :

Why do people still use assembler embedded in basic programs to build 
stuff with ? Especially considdering some of the limitations of such ?
Moreso on the BBC than on the Arch, as at least the arch doesn't have 
the limitations of memory that the BBC does.

I have tried understanding the code of some projects (the menu program 
for BeebMMC is one example that springs to mind), but the total lack of 
formatting, comments and meaningfull names (all due to lack of memory), 
make this task very difficult, in some ways I feel I would be better 
working from a dissasembily, at least that way I know it's just code :)

Personally I prefer to use assemblers like BeebASM(6502) and 
Toolshed(6809) as they allow me to not limit the size of my source 
files, and so make my source more maintainable as I can lay it out in a 
way that is easier to understand, plus I can add verbose comments 
without fear of overflowing the memory limits of the assembler.

I'm probably going to get branded a heritc for this, but so what I feel 
the question has to be asked :)

Cheers.

Phill.

-- 
Phill Harvey-Smith, Programmer, Hardware hacker, and general eccentric !

"You can twist perceptions, but reality won't budge" -- Rush.