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Which emulator and assembler for the Mac?

Posted: Sun Dec 04, 2016 1:15 am
by Lardo Boffin
Hi all

Apologies if this has already been asked!

I would like to get into Z80 assembly for the zeddy and was wondering which emulator and assembler combo are best for the Mac? Any recommendations for Z80 programming books for the zeddy also appreciated.

Oridinarily I would write software on the computer that it is for but:-

a) my zeddy doesn't have a good screen output at the mo (viewtopic.php?f=7&t=2146)

b) I think it will be a lot easier to do on a Mac if for no other reason than being able to see a large amount of code at once without scrolling

Obviously anything I write will be tested and used on the real thing! I have a ZXpand waiting to be used in anger.

As a complete newbie to zeddy programming (I wrote some very simple stuff in BASIC when they first came out) if someone has a simple 'hello world' program they can share for whichever assembler it is that would be fantastic! :D

Ideally I would like to write a very simple game just to see if I can fit anything interesting into 1k. At work I use computers with literally unlimited resources (certainly by zeddy standards) it isn't much of a challenge / very interesting.

Lardo

Re: Which emulator and assembler for the Mac?

Posted: Sun Dec 04, 2016 7:00 am
by Paul
I recommend ZEsarUX which runs natively on Windows, Linux and Mac AND supports ZXPAND.
Also I recommend Pokemons Zeddy IDE as a develpment base which runs fine under wine(bottler)
This book Mastering Machine Code on Your ZX81 might be of use as well.
Kind regards
Paul

Re: Which emulator and assembler for the Mac?

Posted: Sun Dec 04, 2016 10:59 am
by Lardo Boffin
Paul wrote:I recommend ZEsarUX which runs natively on Windows, Linux and Mac AND supports ZXPAND.
Also I recommend Pokemons Zeddy IDE as a develpment base which runs fine under wine(bottler)
This book Mastering Machine Code on Your ZX81 might be of use as well.
Kind regards
Paul
Thanks Paul. Any idea where I can download Pokemons Zeddy IDE? When I google it I only really see the wrong kind of Pokemon!
Ive found and installed ZEsarUX.

Lardo

Re: Which emulator and assembler for the Mac?

Posted: Sun Dec 04, 2016 11:11 am
by Paul
It can be downloaded here
I'm afraid the posts are in German but translation apps will help in case you are not familiar with German language.

Re: Which emulator and assembler for the Mac?

Posted: Sun Dec 04, 2016 4:23 pm
by Lardo Boffin
Paul wrote:It can be downloaded here
I'm afraid the posts are in German but translation apps will help in case you are not familiar with German language.
Thanks Paul. I speak English, various dialects of BASIC and C, BCPL, 6502, a little bit of Forth, JavaScript, HTML, XSLT and TSQL but no German! Ironically I have a German copy of the ZX81 Basic manual which came with a bunch of stuff from a guy in the Netherlands (free to a good home if anyone wants it? Will just need the cost of p&p).

Am sure google translate will not let me down!

Just found Winebottler - looks awesome!

Lardo

Re: Which emulator and assembler for the Mac?

Posted: Thu Nov 09, 2017 11:49 pm
by BarryN
If anyone is interested, I have built a ready to run self contained Mac version of the Windows ZX81 emulator EightOne. It is available here:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B8RnV ... 0xHYWVJcWc

Re: Which emulator and assembler for the Mac?

Posted: Fri Nov 10, 2017 10:04 am
by sirmorris
Very interested in MacEO. Did you bottle it? I was considering this but I always find it such a faff. If you would share the magic - or perhaps even volunteer to perform the Mac release once every so often 8-) - then having a mac native version would be a massive bonus for some. Myself included. A windows VM is generally part of my dev environment so I haven't experienced sufficient friction to get off my arse and do it myself :D

I heartily acknowledge that other emulators are available. However I use features of ZXpand emulation which are only ever current in EO as I am the maintainer of that feature :shock: ... also if I need a debugging feature I just add it ;)

I develop on my Mac at home. For smaller things I use ZX-Ide (English instructions are here on SZXW - haven't you searched?? Shame on you Lardo :lol:) but for larger projects I favour using VS Code and BRASS which is a .net program and runs natively under MONO. It's simply a question of preference of editor. Wherever tools are windows only I tend to track down the source and recompile them. I am considering a move to sjasm because it's cross platform and well supported but that spectrum icon puts me off ;)

I'm doing a little game at the moment so things are pretty fresh in my mind and I'll be happy to help if you have any Qs.

Re: Which emulator and assembler for the Mac?

Posted: Tue Nov 14, 2017 8:11 am
by sirmorris
BarryN wrote: Thu Nov 09, 2017 11:49 pmI have built a ready to run self contained Mac version of the Windows ZX81 emulator EightOne.
And very useful it is too! Thanks! But it would be more useful if I could work out how to update the content of the zxpand_sd_card folder. Is there a trick? I've found the folder within the .app and putting files there appears to work but the EO executable can't see them.

Re: Which emulator and assembler for the Mac?

Posted: Tue Nov 14, 2017 8:48 am
by chernandezba
Paul wrote: Sun Dec 04, 2016 7:00 am I recommend ZEsarUX which runs natively on Windows, Linux and Mac AND supports ZXPAND.
Thanks Paul :)

Re: Which emulator and assembler for the Mac?

Posted: Fri Nov 17, 2017 10:16 am
by BarryN
To find the ZXpand_SD_Card folder look for a folder with a path like this:
/Users/your_user_name/Library/Application\ Support/com.amobiledevice.EightyOne_151026483219281/drive_c/winebottler/ZXpand_SD_Card
When a wine bottle is first run, it copies the application to a virtual C drive path like the one above.

The updated Mac app I just posted has tools to give you easy access to this and other key folders.