No macros in SX/B?

Paul Baker

Im trying to make my first SX/B project more readable through macros, but docs make no mention of macros and using SASM macros doesn't work, are macros availible?

PJMonty

Paul,

I don't believe that macros are available in SX/B. I'm curious about how big/complicated your project is that you want to use macros on it. Is it already well decomposed into logical functions? Have you considered breaking parts of the program into separate source files? I think the keyword is "Load" which lets you include other source files into a project. That could help break the bulk of the program's source listing into a collection of smaller, more readable source listings.

Thanks, PeterM

Bean

Paul,
You should be able to use macros with-in ASM..ENDASM blocks.
Also Peter is correct LOAD will load in an external sxb file and INCLUDE will load in an external src file.
Could you give an example of what you want to do ?
Bean.

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Jon Williams

Again, let me state the Parallax position that SX/B is designed as a learning tool; it will never have all the fancy features of a compiler that you'd actually have to pay for. I know this won't make some happy, but that's the position we've taken with this product. And no, we have not plans to retool it and charge for it. Our goal is educational, and as the SX contest clearly pointed out, clever programmers are doing really neat things with SX/B -- despite any perceived limitations.

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Jon Williams
Applications Engineer, Parallax
Dallas, TX· USA

Paul Baker

Its ok, I didn't need macros, I can get along fine without them. My program is programming another microcontroller via SPI using 4 byte command sequences, my code ends up looking like:

SPI_CMD(0) = $A4
SPI_CMD(1) = $53
SPI_CMD(2) = $00
SPI_CMD(3) = $00
GOSUB Send_SPI

I was hoping to define a macro something like

macro SPI_String 4
SPI_CMD(0) = \1
SPI_CMD(1) = \2
SPI_CMD(2) = \3
SPI_CMD(3) = \4
GOSUB Send_SPI
endm

then define the following

Program_Enable CON "($A4, $53, $00, $00)"

So I can declare in my code:

SPI_String Program_Enable

which is more readable than the original code, but like I said its no biggie.

One final question, does string constant substitution occur in ASM blocks or does SX/B pass ASM blocks straight to SASM without preprocessing the block?


Post Edited (Paul Baker) : 5/4/2005 3:59:35 PM GMT

Jon Williams

It seems like SX/B (1.21)·is already structured to do what you want to do.· Couldn't you do something like this:

Declare the subroutine:

SEND_SPI··· SUB··· 1, 4

Here's the subroutine code:

SEND_SPI:
· spiCmd(0) = __PARAM1
· spiCmd(1) =·__PARAM2
· spiCmd(2) = __PARAM3
· spiCmd(3) = __PARAM4

· DEC __PARAMCNT
· DO WHILE __PARAMCNT > 0
····dataOut = spiCmd(__PARAMCNT)
··· ' send it
··· DEC __PARAMCNT
· LOOP·
· RETURN

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Jon Williams
Applications Engineer, Parallax
Dallas, TX· USA

Post Edited (Jon Williams) : 5/4/2005 4:22:32 PM GMT

Paul Baker

Aha, thanks Jon, haven't completely explored subroutines in SX/B yet, I was unaware they supported parameters, that will work nicely.

Bean

Actually you can't use __PARAMCNT like that. It is the most volitile parameter, any array access will destroy it, and it should be considered READ-ONLY. You MUST store it in a regular variable as the first operation in the subroutine.

Somthing like:

SEND_SPI:
Count=__PARAMCNT
spiCmd(0) = __PARAM1
spiCmd(1) = __PARAM2
spiCmd(2) = __PARAM3
spiCmd(3) = __PARAM4
DEC Count
DO WHILE Count > 0
dataOut = spiCmd(Count)
' send it
DEC Count
LOOP
RETURN

Bean.

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"I thought I was wrong once...But I was mistaken [noparse];)[/noparse]"
·

Jon Williams

That's what I get for writing code on the fly! · Hopefully, though, users new to SX/B will get the message that there's more under its hood than what appears at first blush.

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Jon Williams
Applications Engineer, Parallax
Dallas, TX· USA

Paul Baker

Jon, (or anyone else for that matter) can you explain the declaration of a subroutine's syntax? I couldn't find it in the docs.

SEND_SPI SUB 1, 4

Im guessing the 4 is the number of parameters passed, what is the 1 for?

Jon Williams

SUB is part of version 1.2x -- you can get it here:

http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?p=517621

You'll find SUB in Reference\Definitions.· Quickly, the first parameter is the minium number of parameters required (if any), the second parameter is the maximum number of parameters allowed.

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Jon Williams
Applications Engineer, Parallax
Dallas, TX· USA