Looking back at Devpac 3 - Amiga Assembler, Linker & Debugger
Вставка
- Опубліковано 26 лип 2024
- In this video I take a look at "Devpac 3" by Hisoft. An Assember, Linker & Debugger for the Amiga computer. Used to make your own software for the Amiga using 68000 assembly language.
0:00 What is Devpac?
0:48 Unboxing?
3:40 The Manual
5:51 Loading the tutorial
7:30 The demo.s source
8:24 Following the Tutorial
9:47 Assemble!
10:52 Debugging
17:24 Success
17:58 A flick through the manual
19:36 Conclusion
Links:
• Installing Devpac 3 As... - Devpac 3 Hard Drive Install Video
🎯 Key points for quick navigation:
00:00 *🖥️ Introduction to Devpac 3 and Its Contents*
- Overview of Devpac 3 by Highsoft for Amiga computers,
- Mention of the 68,000 pocket programming guide included with Devpac 3,
- Explanation of the significance of the guide for programming in assembly language on Amiga.
01:35 *💾 Devpac 3 Disks and Versions*
- Description of the disk wallet and its contents,
- Information about the different versions of the program and files for Workbench 1.3 and 2.0,
- Advice on disk care and maintenance to avoid damage and data loss.
03:29 *📚 Manual and Registration Details*
- Overview of the registration card and the manual included with Devpac 3,
- Importance of the manual for learning to use the software effectively,
- Mention of historical use of Devpac for creating assembly language programs on Amiga.
05:30 *🔧 Quick Tutorial Introduction*
- Explanation of the quick tutorial included in the manual,
- Instructions for loading the demo program and initial setup steps,
- Use of the tutorial to introduce basic assembly and debugging processes.
07:22 *🚀 Loading and Assembling the Demo Program*
- Loading the demo program into the editor,
- Explanation of the program structure and assembly process,
- Identification of deliberate errors in the program for debugging practice.
09:25 *🛠️ Debugging the Program*
- Introduction to the debugger tool in Devpac 3,
- Explanation of how to use the debugger to find and fix errors in the code,
- Step-by-step walkthrough of debugging the program to correct the syntax error.
13:05 *🔄 Correcting and Reassembling the Program*
- Correcting the program to load the address correctly,
- Reassembling the program and verifying the corrections,
- Demonstration of successful program execution after fixing the error.
17:30 *📖 Continuing the Tutorial and Additional Features*
- Continuing the tutorial to explore more features of Devpac 3,
- Discussion on setting breakpoints and further debugging techniques,
- Overview of the comprehensive manual for in-depth learning and usage.
18:56 *🖥️ In-depth Look at Devpac 3 Manual*
- Overview of the manual’s content including the assembler and debugger sections,
- Explanation of how the manual details the use of floating point registers, output file formats, and assembler directives,
- Discussion on the importance of such a manual for programming on the Amiga back in the day.
19:50 *💽 Reflections on Using Devpac 2 and 3*
- Personal experience with using Devpac 2 obtained from an Amiga format,
- Comparison between past proficiency in Amiga machine language and current rustiness,
- Acknowledgment of the complexity of writing full programs and the need for additional resources like books on hardware programming.
20:16 *📚 Future Plans for Amiga Software Videos*
- Intention to create more videos exploring Amiga software,
- Potential programming projects and demonstrations of what can be done on the Amiga,
- Excitement about revisiting and showcasing the capabilities of the Amiga through various software explorations.
This is a top class Assembler. I've been using it for several years on my Amiga 500, 1200, and 4000D. It's so easy to install and get started with. Plus, it tells you how to convert from other Assemblers, which honestly aren't much different, since the instruction set doesn't change on the 680xx processors, just the grammar/syntax in the assembler.
I used Devpac back in the day. I don't remember which version but I liked it a lot
As a professional software dev, I quite miss the days when you got a nice spiral bound lay-flat manual and could learn every aspect of a dev language. Although it's easier to get results nowadays with all the frameworks and libraries available, I did enjoy the early days of Amiga, IBM and PIC assembler and C/C++ programming.
Yeah, that manual is really well written and very well thought out, right down to the fact you can lay it flat (like I did in the video). It still amazes me how good it is for such old software. Visual Studio may have lots of language support and it does have a very good C++ compiler, but the day-to-day work in it sucks due to crashes and hangs and general sluggishness. They were simpler times back then, but at least the software was simpler to match.
Really interesting look at the excellent assembler. For myself, I was well into using Asm-One (another excellent and popular assembler) waay back in the day.
Wish I’d kept my original box of this. Really enjoyed using it. The manual and pocket reference were excellent.
Back then you were also able to go onto Motorola’s website and order every single reference book for every one of their CPUs, FPUs and MMUs and they would just send them to you. For free.
Seems like Motorola really were keen on you getting to grips with their CPUs to do that.
This brings back some memories. I programmed two full games in DevPac between 1988 and 1991 and it was a very pleasant experience. I only wish I still had the sources so I could fix all the things in those games that still bug me today.
Yeah, it is a really good program for its era. I wish we had more source code for these old games open sourced. I feel like some sources may have been lost (like yours? Was it Bill & Ted?). But I suspect much of it still exists, stored on floppy disks maybe, under a bed somewhere? It would be great to be able to go back and do AGA remasters of some of the real classics, without having to dissasemble the game.
@@DavePoo2 Alas, the only source archive for “Dino Wars” and “Bill ‘n’ Ted” would be in the hands of Capstone (defunct) or OTWP (mostly deceased). The code part might not be too hard to recover, but getting something out that can compile and run would take months.
Bogus!
This was great and transported me back to the days when I was struggling along trying (and mostly failing) to learn 68K. A big part of the thrill was trying to get something, anything, working :-D This also made me recall Jez San and his compiler, Argasm.
Loved seeing this - thanks. I was 13 when I tried Devpac 2 from the Amiga Format cover disc and remember being utterly fascinated by it all 😃
The error is actually that it moves the 4 characters 'dos.' as a longword into an address register instead of an address. The 4 characters are located at an even address, so this will not generate an address error and work on all Amigas. This non-address happens to be even, because the '.' character is at an even offset in the ASCII table. IDK why the manual mentions an odd address error, because the pointer supplied to OpenLibrary is just a pointer to a string, and that string can certainly start on an odd address on all Amigas. Replacing move.l with lea is the fix, as you show.
I wish I had been able to learn assembly back in the day
It's never too late. Although these days I'd probably just recommend learning C instead and then learn how to read assembly for debugging.
Loved Devpac 3, XDebug, HiSoft Basic, HiSoft C, etc, on my Atari TT...
Yeah, I forgot to mention in the vid that this software was available for more than just the Amiga.
Thanks, I use Devpack on the Atari ST and I want to start programming the Amiga (where I'm a total noob), this is actually a nice introduction!
For a more modern approach, check out the VS Code plugin from Bartman. You can code in C)C++ on modern computer with very good debugging and profiling tools.
You need to get back into Amiga machine code and publish a primer on that. There are a couple of videos of people playing with Action Replay playing with machine code, but I want to see someone actually coding with it. Assembly on the Amiga is awesome, but I want to see machine code!
@@milk-it I've already got a couple of unedited videos on that but I have had to put stuff on hold for a bit.
@@DavePoo2 Oh man, you’ve got to get them out! I know they’re the niche of niche subjects, but for us hardware nerds they’re pure catnip 🤪🤣
I think I had one of the earlier versions of devpac on my A500 - though never really used it. Back in the late 80's I always wanted to learn 68000 assembly, having learned z80 on the Spectrum and the CPC464, though never spent enough time on it (I may have been at the pub.)
You could have spent all your time learning 68000 machine code, and instead you wasted it by going to the pub and having fun.
Thanks for the Video! Are the complete Manuals and the Disks preserved? Thank you very much indeed. ;-)
Not sure about the manuals, but the disks are here archive.org/download/CommodoreAmigaApplicationsADF
with this Devpac 2 or 3 can u program the Amiga (a big game or program) software etc? thanks..........
You can, and that is how it was done back in the day. Nowadays there are options for doing it on the PC, see the Amiga VSCode extension which would allow you to develop in C using modern tools and emulation.
I used this assembler because I can't afford a C compiler for the Amiga back in the day
Not sure how good the old C compilers were back in the day. With memory and CPU so tight, you wouldn't want a C compiler that would waste a single byte or CPU cycle. So maybe you made the right choice?
Not a coder, but could look to it :)
There might be places to learn 68000 machine language online somewhere if you are interested in that kind of thing. It's not a processor that is made anymore, but you can still learn how software and hardware works by learning to program it.
@@DavePoo2 Not interested, but updated CanDO and AMOS bight be my level
I still have my copy too!
i.imgur.com/taBIz8O.png
Nice work! Keep your disks safe in that wallet!