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Cross-Overlays

And now for something completely different: After a few false starts I have finally set off creating version 3 of the SB-Assembler. Work is still in progress, but it is going very well indeed.
Why would I need another version? Well, for starters I'm switching over from M$ products to Linux. And since version 2 runs on DOS only, this would mean some compatibility problems. OK, I could keep an old computer around for DOS only, or I could use a DOS box emulator. But now I have seen the light, it is very awkward to switch back from the Linux command line to DOS. There are simply too many restrictions in DOS.
In version 2 it was rather hard to make changes because it was written with a very peculiar assembler (Turbo Assembler, not from Borland). There were also some restrictions in the entire mechanism which made it rather hard to implement modern microcontrollers like AVR and PIC. A total redesign can take away those restrictions.
I can't share the source code of version 2. It is too complicated, and you probably can't get the required assembler anyway. This prohibits others from creating new Cross overlays, which means more work for me. Writing the new version in Python automatically solves this, because python is an interpreter language. (I know, it is possible to distribute compiled programs only, but I will include the source anyway)

Should I wait for version 3? Not necessarily. Version 3 will be compatible with version 2 in all the important features. So you can start with version 2 now and switch over to version 3 as soon as it becomes available. You can use all the skills you've learned from version 2 in version 3, so nothing is really wasted.

When will it be ready? Hopefully soon. Keep an eye on my blog to see the progress.
As soon as the program does something sensible you can become a beta tester if you like. Simply drop me a message if you're interested.

• Will now run on Linux, MAC and Windows machines.
• Written in python, a modern multi platform programming language.
• Source files will be inlcuded, allowing you to create your own cross overlays.
• Local labels from other global labels can now be accessed.
• Can now generate warning messages where errors would be inappropriate.
• Include source files can now be nested as deep as you like.
• Seperate target spaces for code memory, RAM memory and EEPROM memory.
• The .TA directive can be used to map generated code to the ROM address map easily.
• More room, we can now use Giga bytes, in stead of some 550k bytes to do our job.