Using assembler routines from Atalan
It is possible to use assembler routines in Atalan.
For every atalan module (source code file with .atl extension), there can be associated file with .asm extension. If this file exists, it will be automatically included. You can put your assembler routines there.
To be able to call the assembler routine as an ordinary Atalan procedure, you need to declare it's header.
In this header, you must specify list of input and output arguments, their location and list of variables the procedure uses (trashes).
As an example, we will use zero function, that will set the specified block of memory with specified byte
fill_mem:proc adr@(cpu.a,cpu.x):adr size@cpu.y:0..255 b@fb:byte @cpu.a @cpu.x @cpu.y @arr
This declares procedure with three input arguments.
'adr' specified address of first byte to erase. The address will be passed in CPU registers A and X. A will contain lower byte of address. X will contain higher byte of the address.
'size' specifies number of bytes to fill (0..255). It will be passed in register Y.
The byte to use for fill 'b' will be passed in variable fb.
When executed, the procedure will use CPU registers A,X,Y and variable arr. Their value is trashed i.e. set to some undefined value.
It is necessary to specify the trashed registers and variables, otherwise optizer will expect their value to be same as on procedure entry.
Sharing variables between Atalan and assembler
When it is necesary to access same variable both from Atalan and assembler, you must first declare the variable in Atalan.
You can then refer to that variable in your assembler using directly it's name.
## var.atl
speed:0..100
## var.asm
lda #30
sta speed
You can also define the address of the variable in Atalan. In such case, it is possible to access the variable in assembler either by it's name, or directly using the address (not recommended).
If you forget to declare the variable, you will get an assembler error
var.asm (3) ERROR: Undeclared label speed (BANK=0)
sta speed