Turning Ti-basic Into Z80 Asm

[SeveredCross]

Does anyone know if it is possible to input TI-BASIC into a computer program (that somebody made of course), and have it spit out Z80 ASM?

Also, when you want to make your BASIC program into one of those .8x* files, you have to use the TI-CONNECT software, right?

I ask because I've written 2 simple BASIC programs, a dice game (it sucks right now, but I'm working on it) and a line drawer that asks you for 4 points, calcs the slope and solves for the y-intercept, then draws the line.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

[David]

The question whether it's possible to make an basic->asm conversion program is one of the most recurring here :)

It has a simple answer: in theory - yes, but the resulting product would get very big, and it would not be noticeably faster than the basic version.

Your only option is to convert it by hand!

If you mean that you want to save a basic program to a *.8xp computer file, yes TI-connect does that.

[JacobdeHaan]

I don't think that there's any doubt that it's possible, I mean the TI-OS converts a BASIC program to ASM every time you run one, and I think that if the OS didn't have to worry about converting it to ASM and running it at the same time, the program would definently run faster, although I agree that it probably would be bigger.
Plus, if your program fails as ASM, you kill the calculator, while in BASIC it just spits out an error message.

[Jeffrey]

Please correct me if I am wrong, but I believe that the system parses the BASIC code, not change it to ASM. ASM does not really need a special paraser, since TASM compiles it to hex code (machine code). BASIC, however, has a parser on the calculator that transforms it into readable binary or hex (I am not sure). This is why BASIC programs take so long to run compared to compiled ASM programs.

[Babyboy]

ACTUALLY there IS!!!!

BASIC TO ASSEMBLER

Hope this helps

[Adm.Wiggin]

i tried that, it didnt work... got to the step about strings then stopped... every time i have tried (which is several )

[Jeffrey]

What BabyBoy failed to mention was that the BASIC to ASM program is in its Beta stage.

But thats a good thing. If it were ever completed then lazy BASIC programmers would be making huge, slow ASM programs. The only way to get the true advantages of an ASM program is to learn it yourself!

[SeveredCross]

Thanks guys, I'll try it out, hopefully it'll work...The program itself is really basic stuff, just a dice game sort of thing....

Wait, if I just write plain text BASIC commands into an .83p or .8xp and then try it with that will it work, or do I need to do anything else?

[SeveredCross]

[David]

[Jeffrey]

To give just a few:

delete programs, archive programs, unarchive programs, create appvars as well as programs, write directly to the graph driver (faster), invert text, enable lowercase...

Those are some of the things a BASIC programmer would like in BASIC, that ASM has. But the real advantages are:

A. Speed
B. Graphics cabalities
C. Efficiency
D. Bragging rights

[Darth Android]

jeffery:
asm IS hex code (the processor read straight asm)
tasm converts our wirds like add,sub,ld into hex/asm
a compiled asm is like optimised hex code
to run basic:
tios finds first line of program
converts to asm/hex
sends to processor
repeats with next line
if parser doesnt understand line/cant convert returns error
simple, no?

correct me if im wrong, anyone

[Arcane Wizard]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but:
Asm!=HEX

Asm is just compiled to hex, like pretty much any other programming language (or are most compiled to binary? I forgot).

Right?

[Justin W.]

A standard asm program is compiled into a binary format. Using a compiler such as that of the Cirrus SDK it will allow you to convert it to hexidecimal which can be edited on calc (not recommmended if you don't know what you're doing) and further can be compiled on calc as well.

A binary program is much smaller than that of a hexidecimal one. Approximately half.

[David]

A hexadecimal program is exactly a half of a binary.
(Size of AsmPrgm token excluded). A "hex program" is binary code transformed into character codes. Since it takes two hexadecimal digits to represent one byte, the size is double.