AsmTwo
AsmTwo is an Assembler (and Integrated Development Environment) for Amiga 68k, based on Asm-One 1.02 by Rune Gram-Madsen. For other Assemblers, see my previous article, Amiga Development Environments. For each version, I will add the changes and download link at the bottom.Why I'm making AsmTwo
One reason is that the latest version of Asm-One that works on Kickstart 1.3 is Asm-One 1.20 by TFA, and it's already bigger than is comfortable for an OCS 1MB Amiga. So AsmTwo aims to provide all the modern conveniences of later versions, without the bulk. I.e. I wanted to provide a version that would be small enough that you could do anything you wanted in the latest Asm-One/Asm-Pro on a normal Amiga 500 without harddisk, without feeling the need for more RAM.Another one was that the Debugger just didn't get any love in later versions. It just freezes on accelerated Amigas and you can't use it, so it seems that nobody does use it, either. One of the first things I did was spend a lot of time finding the bugs and testing on modern and old accelerators, from PPS040, 030 and Blizzard 060 to the new ACA products. Now I can use AsmTwo on all my Amigas.
Quick answer: if you want to 1) code on a modest Amiga or 2) make sure your code is compatible on 68000 and up, AsmTwo is a small but modernized Assembler with some productivity features that you may like if you like Asm-One/AsmPro.
The rest of the work is mostly on the Editor and GUI, with some features like:
- Code folding
- (Un)comment block quickly
- Code completion (WIP, will reveal once final)
- Find label, find usage, refactor
- AutoBackup-and-Run
- Error line in Includes
- Clipboard usable in status line parameter such as Find, and in the commandline window
- Persistent breakpoints in the Debugger
- Ctrl+Tab for block format (aligns labels and comments etc)
- Tab and Shift+Tab for easy indentation that looks reasonable
Is a Beta version "stable"??
Apart from this one nagging feature that I found and fixed in 0.96w, this is my Daily Driver. I use this and nothing else, all the time. I am my own tester and know of no bugs that would make you lose work.I trust this version, use it on all my various setups, and I write all my code in it, including new versions of AsmTwo. If you write 68k and have trouble with another version of Asm-One or AsmPro or even Seka, by all means try AsmTwo, it has been known to fix up existing sources to just assemble and run.
I hope I oversold it enough... But this is my experience, and also the goal from the start.
Differences from Asm-One
- There are no changes to the assembly and disassembly cores. Generally, you should expect exactly the same results as when using an Asm-One or Asm-Pro version - except being based on 68000 only instructions, which may help spot offending instructions and unaligned words if you want your code to be compatible with 68000 and up (you should want that! there are fast 68000 Amigas now!)
- This 68000 only mode may get 68020 and FPU instructions added, but it's not something that I can promise I will have time for.
- The Editor has been speed-optimized so that you can now scroll at 50 FPS if you set keyrepeat so in devs:system-configuration.
- Assembly speed has been slightly optimized but you won't notice any difference. :) There is another "secret" 11% faster mode that may get incorporated into the Auto-Backup-and Run.
- The Debugger works.
Future Features
I still doubt there will be any changes to the Assembly core; possibly a j and js instruction for dynamic jumps and calls, and automatic removal of (PC) for far accesses.I will not put a full feature list of what I want to add, since my main focus is only the features for the 1.0 that I will release as Open Source. This is so I can move on.
But generally it will be convenience and productivity; you will be able to write code faster, examine code without assembling it, and add resources with a faster workflow.
AsmTwo 0.96w features
- Code Folding now works properly at all times. Just double-click INCLUDE.
- Convenience and formatting improvements to the Editor and startup.
- Refer to the Readme for a longer (but not full) list of features. (Poke the menus and try key combos for more features, some of which may be WIP.)
AsmTwo 0.96w2 features
- Hotfix for a bug on Fastmem-less Amigas!