Re: [Luxasm-devel] Re: Status of LuxAsm?

[Frank K. <fbk...@co...>]

Daniel R. Blair wrote:
> On Thu, 16 Mar 2006, Frank Kotler wrote:
> 
>> Sevag Krikorian wrote:
>>
>>> March 16.  Project is officially dead.
>>> RIP Luxasm, until someone revivies you....
>>
>>
>> In lieu of flowers, please send cash donations to...
> 
> 
> No Way!  I didn't think LuxAsm would end like this!

Well... Easter's coming up... you never know...

>  I was hoping for a 
> nice ASM IDE for FreeBSD!!!

I understand that Linux executables will run on BSD... dunno if that's
"all of 'em"... Jeff Owens has got an IDE for Linux:

http://members.save-net.com/jko%40save-net.com/asm/

Not ideal... the pop-up documentation is for Linux (and that's it's best
feature, IMO). However, the thing is highly configurable... might be
useful to you...

As you know (?), the "asmutils" macros allow the same code to be
assembled for Linux (with parameters in registers) or BSD (parameters on
the stack). There are other differences - the directory entry structure
is different, for example(!). These macros account for that... no doubt,
there's more to be done.

I've got a little "experiment" using those macros at:

http://home.comcast.net/~fbkotler/lxtest4.tar.bz2

(don't let the name of the executable fool you - this ain't LuxAsm!!!).
I don't recall if I got any feedback from you on it - it apparently
works on *some* other machines besides mine... I think someone said it
worked on BSD, but I don't know if it was assembled to "native" BSD or
not. I imagine it looks like crap on any machine besides mine - I "hard
coded" a lot of assumptions into it...

The main "experiment" was to see if I could get an Xwindow up - at all,
even just on my machine. To that extent, it was a "success". I was also
"experimenting" with calling conventions and stuff, so the code is a
horrid mish-mash, and not well-commented, so it isn't something we want
to "go forward" from! But it shows the basic "get a window" - one way to
do it - which was news to me. The buttons are "home-made" - just text
with a rectangle around 'em - probably *not* the way we want to do it. I
was trying to *minimize* calls to Xlib - with the thought of possibly
eliminating libraries completely, perhaps. A far more practical approach
is to use "helper libraries" (mosaic, gtk+, whatever) in addition to
Xlib. We need to decide exactly what we *are* going to do...

> Question, as I don't quite remember, back when I heard of LuxAsm and 
> joined the list.  Was the IDE to be written in ASM or just be an IDE for 
> ASM?

It was to be written in asm.

> If being written in ASM isn't a requirement,

... but that was then, this is now.

> then I think I could 
> help with the implementation of it... if it were in C or Java.  I am not 
> sure I am strong enough (nor have the time) to write an IDE in straight 
> ASM.  I don't know about anyone else, but, can I get some other's input? 
> Would anyone else be willing to help?

Well, *I* know less C than asm, and less Java than that. Maybe there are
other takers? ... but I don't see 'em jumping up :(

> And, are we looking at a Console based IDE (Much like Borland's 
> Pascal/Turbo C IDE (TurboVision)) or are we looking to do something in X 
> Windows?

We had in mind Xwindows... I don't think it's actually in the
constitution...

> I'm a developer for Bluefish, an X11 based HTML Editor

Ah, "editor"! You said the magic word! An "editor" is an essential part
of what we have in mind. I don't have the slightest idea how to write an
editor, and to be honest, it sounds like a tedious, thankless job.
You've got your vi folks and you've got your emacs folks, and you're not
going to please everybody - unless you're "highly configurable", which
sounds "highly complicated" to me. Someone with actual experience in
writing an editor should be a tremendous help!

> (with support for 
> many other languages) - I could really care less about HTML and the HTML 
> wizards.. but, I love using it to write C, Java, Perl, ASM, etc.  Just 
> wondering what the overall "Description" of LuxAsm was to be.

"An assembly language IDE with the editor written in C"???

The words that got me in trouble were "I think a port of RosAsm to Linux
would be cool." Betov replied with "Okay, Frank, you're the chief
maintainer of LuxAsm." I liked the name so much I started this project. :)

What I initially had in mind was a literal port of RosAsm... with
perhaps a couple "cheats" (no linkable object output is *not* gonna fly
in *nix). But Betov got pissy about my "allowing" several "Randall Hyde
supporters" to participate in the project - wanted all references to
RosAsm removed.


> 
> Any response is much appreciated,
> 
> Danny
> 

Ah, sh*t! Just found this in "drafts". Sorry, Danny! I had more to say I 
guess... better just send it...

Truth is, this project is *not* going well...

Best,
Frank