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FASM

A project log for Smaller C

Small and simple C compiler for x86 (DOS, Windows, Linux, Mac OS X) and MIPS (RetroBSD).

alexey-frunzeAlexey Frunze 09/06/2015 at 23:250 Comments

What's new in the compiler?
- it can use FASM instead of NASM when compiling 32-bit protected
mode x86 code (DOS/DPMI32, Windows, Linux)

There's now a wrapper around FASM, n2f.c, which if compiled into
nasm[.exe] will transparently convert the assembly code generated
by smlrc to the syntax and layout that FASM understands and invoke
FASM on it. A kind of NASM replacement/substitution. This tool
isn't general purpose, it converts only a very restricted subset of
assembly code from NASM syntax to FASM syntax and layout.

What does this mean? Well, for one thing, FASM is faster and
smaller than NASM, so you can make a floppy with the compiler
and the assembler and, say, DOS/DPMI32 library and you'll still
have about a half of the space free on the floppy. And you can
run this even in DOSBox without fearing that NASM would take
forever to assemble code with many jump instructions and without
having to give many many more CPU cycles to DOSBox.

Another thing is that this makes Smaller C fully and easily
portable to any x86 OS running apps in 32-bit protected mode.
Smaller C can fully recompile its libraries and itself if
there's NASM or YASM in your system. If porting NASM or YASM
is somehow problematic or undesirable, there's now another
option, FASM. FASM is written in 80386 assembly and can
recompile itself without needing any other tools. So, you
only need to teach FASM to use your OS syscalls and do the
same with the Smaller C library.

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