CALL / RET flags preserve

macca

Hello,

Time for another explanation:

The documentation say that CALL pushes C and Z into stack along with address, and RET pops them back, however if you run this code, it seems that the flags are not preserved:

                mov     t1, #$08
                cmp     t1, #$08    wz  ' Z=1
        if_z    call    #func           ' reset Z ?
        if_z    mov     t1, #$FF
        if_nz   mov     t1, #$00
                debug(uhex_byte(t1))
                jmp     #$

func            cmp     t1, #$FF    wz  ' Z=0
                ret

t1              long    0

It should set t1=$FF but it is $00 meaning that Z is reset by the called function. To prove it, comment the wz effect on the func row, and the assignment is correct.

Also have some doubt about_ret_ because while the description for ret(instruction) say that the flags are restored (but apparently not), the description for_ret_ (prefix) does not!

What I'm missing ?

Ariba

I think you need to write:

func            cmp     t1, #$FF    wz  ' Z=0
                ret     wcz

to restore the flags to the state they were at subroutine entry.

Andy

TonyB_

RET WCZ restores C and Z.
RET WC restores C only.
RET WZ restores Z only.
RET does not restore C or Z.
_RET_ does not restore C or Z.

macca

Yes, of course I missed the effects!
It is also a logic behaviour because someone may want the calling function to change the flags in some cases.

Thanks, sorry for the silly questions, I'm having lot of difficulties interpreting this documentation.