FPC4NDS: first raw demo

[Legolas]

I did it! I did it!!! :toocool:

FPC4NDS works pretty fine now... It needs some minor tuning only. To make it short: in order to link devkitPro library to FPC4GBA made executables, I have switched from arm-elf to arm-eabi. After a bit of mumbling, I have tried to do the same in FPC4NDS and this is the result


Now I need to know how to handle 2 linker script with fpc without using external files (and - of course - without upsetting fpc's design rules...).
I'm thinking to something like a compiler switch or, (maybe) even better, a define like this:
[pascal]{$define ARM7} / {$define ARM9}[/pascal]


PS. I'm happy like a kid in a toy store :mrgreen:

[WILL]

Thats awesome! Very nice work. :thumbup:

So if you where to list the work to be done in a groceries list, what would we be seeing? And whats the estimated time-frame to completion? Of course that last question is only meant to be a wild figure... we all know these things take plenty of time.

On a more technical note though, are you trying to compound the GBA and NDS targets? Whats the advantage, if any to that if thats the case?

I think I'll create a NDS platform section in the Free Pascal Wiki now. Though similar, I believe that the two targets should be separated for information sake.

[Legolas]

So if you where to list the work to be done in a groceries list, what would we be seeing?

First of all, I'm waiting an answer from fpc guys to know how the compiler should handle two cpu. After this step, FPC4NDS could be released
Second, I need to convert some libnds headers. Keep in mind that now it is possible to ]
And whats the estimated time-frame to completion? Of course that last question is only meant to be a wild figure... we all know these things take plenty of time. [/quote]
I hope to make a gift for Christmas for the PGD community

On a more technical note though, are you trying to compound the GBA and NDS targets? Whats the advantage, if any to that if thats the case?

I'm thinking about that, but at this time is not a priority

I think I'll create a NDS platform section in the Free Pascal Wiki now. Though similar, I believe that the two targets should be separated for information sake.

Good work!

[dmantione]

Another way to debug is to use the new GDB stub for Desmume emulator.
:thumbup: free and open source
:thumbup: it works with gdb/insight, so source level is allowed
:doh: less advanced than no$gba
:doh: at this time it's very unstable

However no plans for a demo yet

This sounds interresting. If you have gdb working, it becomes then very easy to make the FPC IDE debug the program.

[Legolas]

Another way to debug is to use the new GDB stub for Desmume emulator.
:thumbup: free and open source
:thumbup: it works with gdb/insight, so source level is allowed
:doh: less advanced than no$gba
:doh: at this time it's very unstable

However no plans for a demo yet

This sounds interresting. If you have gdb working, it becomes then very easy to make the FPC IDE debug the program.

Yes, but at this time it allows breakpoints only and crashes every two breaths :roll:
Off course, if it will be improved, we (you! ) could try to use it in the FPC IDE

[savage]

Wow Great Stuff Legolas! Impressive stuff! So is there anything special that needs to be done to make it recognise the stylus input?

[Legolas]

Wow Great Stuff Legolas! Impressive stuff! So is there anything special that needs to be done to make it recognise the stylus input?

Thanks
Well, the touch screen is connected to a SPI bus, so it should be only matter of reading and writing data from this bus.
I have started to convert devkitPro's libnds headers, but h2pas can't help (I get a lot of internal errors). We are talking about 170 kb of c headers (:shock so, to speed up things, it could be nice to start an open conversion project, like quake2/3. If someone is interested to help, I could open a sourceforge account :think:

[noeska]

Is it realy already possible to compile for the nds? Do you have an downloadable bare bones example? I would be willing to help, but unfortunately i do not have much time left to take on new projects.

[savage]

I could open a sourceforge account :think:

I would say do it anyway, and people could jump in as and when they have time. Do you need to have assembler skills or us pure pascal enough?

[Legolas]

Is it realy already possible to compile for the nds? Do you have an downloadable bare bones example? I would be willing to help, but unfortunately i do not have much time left to take on new projects.

In a word, yes, it is already possible, though I haven't committed the changes on the svn yet

I could open a sourceforge account :think:

I would say do it anyway, and people could jump in as and when they have time. Do you need to have assembler skills or us pure pascal enough?

I'll do
And no, libnds sources are 95% pure c code. The only asm code is in the lib itself, and we need to translate the headers only