Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!think.com!sdd.hp.com!mips!daver!ditka!zorch!amiga0!mykes From: mykes@amiga0.SF-Bay.ORG (Mike Schwartz) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy Subject: Re: 8-bit death Message-ID: Date: 26 May 91 20:44:07 GMT References: <3330.tnews@templar.actrix.gen.nz> <1089@stewart.UUCP> Organization: Amiga makes it possible Lines: 39 In article melling@cs.psu.edu (Michael D Mellinger) writes: > >In article mykes@amiga0.SF-Bay.ORG (Mike Schwartz) writes: > > Assembler language programmers have been porting to other CPUs for years by writing > translators that work on the source level. Ends up being as little work as porting > a 'C' program (even between different compilers on the SAME machine). And it doesn't > matter if you call BlitBitMap(), because you won't find it on any other platform... > >Hmmm. How about a few examples to support your statement that >translating assembler is about as much work as porting C? Me thinks >that you are incorrect. > >-Mike Going back about 10 years... Most of the AtariSoft games for the PC were "compiled" from 6502 source code (C64, Apple II, Atari 800) into 8086 on the source code level. Rather than listing thousands of games that used similar techniques, I will just list a few from the last couple of years... These below were games originally written for the Apple IIGS and ported to other systems using source code translation: Zany Golf, Immortal, Ski or Die, and Budokan. I did Budokan, and did the translation from IBM assembly source to 68000 assembly by hand. While doing it, I saw that it was trivial to write an ARexx program to do 99% of the work. I would think that SED or AWK would be just as easy to do such a translator in. As far as porting 'C' goes, I am over 8 weeks porting a 'C' program from the Amiga to CDTV - using the same 'C' compiler even. And if you consider porting from Amiga, Windows, or Mac to XWindows, your 'C' code is going to be full of GUI specific code in the original version that will need a massive rewrite. I've been looking at the instruction sets for various risc processors, and writing a 68000 assembler to risc "compiler" is trivial. And 68000 assembly is so nice to write in, it is an excellent alternative to writing in 'C'. -- **************************************************** * I want games that look like Shadow of the Beast * * but play like Leisure Suit Larry. * ****************************************************