Bob, when Jerry brought this up the first thing that came to mind is
yacc/lex. I've been away from UNIX for several years. Can you give me a
pointer to the generic C code? I'm sure I can track it down but if you have
a preference (you mentioned GPASM), I'd appreciate it.

   I'm not committing to this but I want to revisit the subject. I wasn't
considering a `code converter', rather a `syntax modifier'. Consider an
example where BIT2 is moved to BIT1 in register UBits. Then the Z flag is
tested and a jump to Label1 occurs if False. Otherwise, the register Data is
compared to the literal Limit and a jump to Label2 occurs if Data is above
or equal to Limit. This provides a good idea of both the differences in
syntax and the overall compatibility of MPASM and CVASM.

   A `code converter' would do the following:

      MPASM:                          CVASM:
      ------------------------------------------------------------------
      Data    EQU     0x20            Data    =       20h
      UBits   EQU     0x21            UBITS   =       21h
      BIT1    EQU     1               BIT1    =       UBits.1
      BIT2    EQU     2               BIT2    =       UBits.2
      Limit   EQU     B'01010101'     Limit   =       01010101b


              BTFSS   UBits,BIT2              MOVB    BIT1,BIT2
              BCF     UBits,BIT1
              BTFSC   UBits,BIT2
              BSF     UBits,BIT1
              BTFSS   STATUS,Z                SZ
              GOTO    Label1                  JMP     Label1
              MOVLW   Limit                   CJAE    Data,#Limit,Label2
              SUBWF   Data,W
              BTFSC   STATUS,C
              GOTO    Label2

   A `syntax modifier' would do the following:

      MPASM:                          CVASM Compatible:
      ------------------------------------------------------------------
      Data    EQU     0x20            Data    EQU     20h
      UBits   EQU     0x21            UBits   EQU     21h
      BIT1    EQU     1               BIT1    EQU     1
      BIT2    EQU     2               BIT2    EQU     2
      Limit   EQU     B'01010101'     Limit   EQU     01010101b

              BTFSS   UBits,BIT2              BTFSS   UBits,BIT2
              BCF     UBits,BIT1              BCF     UBits,BIT1
              BTFSC   UBits,BIT2              BTFSC   UBits,BIT2
              BSF     UBits,BIT1              BSF     UBits,BIT1
              BTFSS   STATUS,Z                BTFSS   STATUS,2
              GOTO    Label1                  GOTO    Label1
              MOVLW   Limit                   MOVLW   Limit
              SUBWF   Data,W                  SUBWF   Data,W
              BTFSC   STATUS,C                BTFSC   STATUS,0
              GOTO    Label2                  GOTO    Label2

   Even a `syntax modifier' would still be a challenge as you have to deal
with MPASM's directives and conditionals as well as the macros, radix, etc.
Normally, converting from MPASM to CVASM is fairly easy for most example
code from Microchip and the public domain.

   - Tom

At 03:31 PM 5/14/99 -0400, Bob Drzyzgula wrote:
>Although the inclusion of macro/conditional capability inside
>CVASM would be the best solution -- then you could use
>the macros for the Paralax mnemonics as well -- perhaps a
>good start on a translator utility might be had by
>using the yacc/lex parsing engine in gpasm...? Just a
>thought.
>
>--Bob
>============================================================
>Bob Drzyzgula                             It's not a problem
>bob@drzyzgula.org                until something bad happens
>============================================================