Oxygen Module for Structured Machine Code Programming

Updated 17 Mar 2008 13:20 gmt
New zip:
Oxygen with integrated thinBasic # variables
No longer case sensitive.
New thinCore interface for FreeBasic (work in progress)


This is my first thinBasic module.:)

It is based on my O2 (alias Oxygen) project which supports block structured machine code. It is intended to be used in conjunction with MC_Eval and MC_Exec. The O2 notation uses the same quote mark for comments as ThinBasic and does not use double quotes to delineate its own string literals. This enables Oxygen scripts to be incorporated, without any modifications into thinBasic multi-line strings. Oxygen Strings are 'glued' onto the end of MC_Eval strings to bind to thinBasic variables etc. The example included shows how this is done.


I reproduce it here:
[code=thinbasic]
uses "Oxygen"
dim vv as long = 5
dim sMC as string=MC_Eval ("
b9 #vv
8b 09
")+Oxygen_Eval("

'--------------'
' TESTS
'
' 12:10 14 Mar 2008
'
'--------------'
' nested loops
'--------------'

33 d2
(
b8 nl10
(
42
48 7f repeat
)
49
7f repeat
)
eb gEnd ' jump over some string data
[ this is a string ]

.End_of_Prog

8b c2
c3
")
Dim RetVal as long
RetVal=MC_Exec(sMC)
msgbox 0, Hex$(RetVal)

[/code]

Since Oxygen_Eval returns a BSTR, which PB uses for its dynamic strings, I hope I am right in assuming the returned string will be correctly disposed of by thinBasic when it is no longer needed ?

The Zip below includes source code, docs and the dll module which has no other dependencies. But I need to produce lots of examples to fully demonstrate its use.

It almost gave the correct answer to the meaning of life (hitchhikers guide to the galaxy) 42, I got 32, but if that is in hex I guess it is 50 in decimal.

Hi Charles,

first of all, thank you for your support of thinBasic. Every new module makes the package more powerful and one day it will help someone. I also vote for some example and docu as I can't get my head right now around it.

Cheers
Michael

Here is the instruction set so far. I will refrain from adding more and see what can be done using the set in its present state.

Code:

---

  ------------------------------------------------------------------------
    INSTRUCTION SET
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------
  all instructions are case sensitive (lowercase) except for hexadecimal
  all words are delimited by white space or comment mark
    '    comment to end of line
    [..]  string literal (the square brackets are nestable)
    .label forward labels (only the first 2 letters are significant)
    :    make entry in jump table
    $    make space (value in hexadecimal)
    $$    make space & align to nearest 4 bytes
    2 digits 0-9 a-f hexadecimal byte (these are not case sensitive)
    3 digits 0-7 octal byte
    g     short forward relative jump (but not into an inner block)
    gl    long forward relative jump (ditto)
    (     start of block
    )    end of block
    x    short jump exit from block
    xl     long jump exit from block
    r     short jump repeat from start of block
    rl     long jump repeat from start of block
    h    hexadecimal numbers: (not case sensitive)
    hw       word:  2 byte integer
    hl      long:  4 byte integer
    n    decimal numbers:
    nb      byte  1 byte
    nw      word:  2 byte integer
    nl      long:  4 byte integer
    nq       quad:  8 byte integer
    ns       single: 4 byte floating point
    nd      double: 8 byte floating point
 
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------

---

Thanks a lot Charles!
Machine code is not my "core business" (I still cannot understand it very well) but I appreciate a lot your efforts. Hope it will move some passion.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Charles Pegge

Since Oxygen_Eval returns a BSTR, which PB uses for its dynamic strings, I hope I am right in assuming the returned string will be correctly disposed of by thinBasic when it is no longer needed ?

---

Yes, thinCore should dispose allocated BSTR.
I will check asap and if not I will fix it.

Ciao
Eros

Thanks Charles,

so far it looks like a very nice addition!


Petr

I am delighted to say that creating a thinBasic module was painless.

I followed Eros sample code very closely, and got the Oxygen module working without any hitches. I wasn't certain how Freebasic would read a BSTR into its own dynamic string structure so I wrote a low level string copy which interprets the BSTR structure precisely rather than casting it as a Zstring (Asciiz in PB terms). It could be done with PEEKS and POKES but I used a short piece of ASM.

The reason that FreeBasic does not use BSTR for its dynamic strings, is that they are Microsoft platform dependent, so it has its own system that will also work under Linux.

Anyway here is the interface function, most of which deals with the BSTR to FB dynamic string transfer

FreeBasic [code=thinbasic]
Function Oxygen() AS BSTR

Dim ParensPresent As Long

ParensPresent = thinBasic_CheckOpenParens_Optional

Dim codBSTR As BSTR '---OLE string will be used to return value to thinCore

dim srcBSTR As BSTR
dim src as string
dim cod as string
dim ert as long
dim i as long
dim j as any ptr

thinBasic_ParseString(srcBSTR)
asm
mov eax,[srcBSTR]
mov ecx,[eax-4]
mov [i],ecx
end asm
if i>0 then
' copy to freebasic dynamic string then compile
src=string$(i,chr$(0))
j=strptr(src)
asm
mov esi,[srcBSTR]
mov edi,[j]
mov ecx,[i] 'length of data
nexch:
mov al,[esi] ' src
mov [edi],al ' dest
inc esi
inc edi
dec ecx
jnz nexch
end asm
cod=Hexlink( src,ert,i ) ' the Oxygen compiler linker
end if

codBSTR = SysAllocStringByteLen( strptr(cod), Len(cod) )

If ParensPresent = TB_TRUE Then thinBasic_CheckCloseParens_Mandatory

Function = codBSTR

End Function

[/code]

Hi Charles,

first of all thank you very much for starting the new thinbasic Oxygen module.
It seems a very interesting module that opens many others way of development that will make sure ThinBasic able to better meet what the user needs .

Regards,
Roberto

Thank you all

When there are updates, I will replace the Oxygen zip file attached to the first post on this thread. and I'll post examples with the other MC_Evals on the machine code board;
http://community.thinbasic.com/index.php?board=151.0

thinBasic_Oxygen will be synchronised with its stand alone counterpart that works directly from the console.
available here:

http://www.jose.it-berater.org/smffo...php?topic=1618

Ok thanks for details, it will be really great if you can also add a step up from machine code to assembler code.

Roberto