Compiling a Spin program on the PC

ersmith

spin2cpp version 3.0.5 is out now, and it adds the ability to put inline C code in Spin classes and to override the C compiler. This makes it possible to run Spin code on the PC, as long as you provide C replacements for any Propeller specific functions. The output type for a PC is "--elf"; that makes sense on Linux (where ELF really is the native format), not so much on Windows, but I was too lazy to add another command line option just for Windows.

Of course, no PASM code will run on the PC, and registers like OUTA and DIRA are not available. So to do any I/O you'll have to provide C versions of the I/O routines, surrounded by an appropriate #ifdef. spin2cpp allows you to put inline C code inside special comments marked with "{++".

For example, a hello world program that runs on both the Propeller and PC is:

''
'' simple hello world that works on PC or Propeller
''
'' to compile for PC:
''   spin2cpp --cc=gcc -DPC --elf -o Hello HelloWorld.spin
'' to compile for Propeller
''   spin2cpp --binary -Os -o hello.binary HelloWorld.spin
'' or
''   spin2cpp --asm --binary -o hello_pasm.binary HelloWorld.spin
''
VAR
  byte txpin
  byte rxpin
  long baud
  long txmask
  long bitcycles
   
#ifdef PC
'' we will be using stdio, so force it to
'' be included
{++
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
}
#endif

''
'' print out hello, world
''
PUB hello
  start(31, 30, 0, 115200)
  repeat 10
    str(string("hello, world!", 13, 10))
  exit(0)
  
''
'' code: largely taken from FullDuplexSerial.spin
''

PUB start(rx_pin, tx_pin, mode, baudrate)
#ifndef PC
  baud := baudrate
  bitcycles := clkfreq / baudrate
  txpin := tx_pin
  txmask := (1<<txpin)
  rxpin := rx_pin
#endif
  return 1
  
PUB tx(c) | val, waitcycles
#ifdef PC
  '' just emit direct C code here
  {++
  putchar(c);
  }
#else
  OUTA |= txmask
  DIRA |= txmask
  val := (c | 256) << 1
  waitcycles := CNT
  repeat 10
     waitcnt(waitcycles += bitcycles)
     if (val & 1)
       OUTA |= txmask
     else
       OUTA &= !txmask
     val >>= 1
#endif

PUB str(s) | c
  REPEAT WHILE ((c := byte[s++]) <> 0)
    tx(c)

PUB exit(code)
#ifdef PC
  {++
  exit(code);
  }
#endif
  repeat