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Using Z80 like syntax to write PIC assembly

Since I first learned Z80 assembly (and a little bit of 6502) I find the instruction set very strange and different than what I am used to. My intention is to help Z80 lovers love the PIC too.
I have found two ways of writing PIC programs with Z80 like mnemonics. One is to use TASM ant the other is to use the Frogbit text processing language.

Take a look at the modified instruction set !!!

1. Doing it with TASM
TASM is a table driven shareware assembler. Since it is table driven it can be used for many micros by adding new tables. Current version of TASM comes with tables for Z80, 6502, 6800/6801/68HC11, 6805, 8048, 8051, 8080/8085, TMS32010, TMS320C25 TMS7000 and 8096/8019. The table I modified to accommodate Z80 like syntax is by DERREN CROME. I found that table on the Everyday Practical Electronics Magazine ftp site along with an old copy of TASM. The code in the table below is intended to flash a LED connected to Bit 0 of Port A. On the left you see the code written in Z80 style and the PIC equivalent on the right. The PIC equivalent was produced from the Z80 style code by a small program I wrote in the Frogbit language.

Z80 style code	PIC equivalent produced by my Frogbit program
#include t16c84.inc delayH .equ 0Ch delayM .equ 0Dh delayL .equ 0Eh clr PORTA set STATUS,rp0 ld 00011110b ld TRISA,a res STATUS,rp0 loop set PORTA,0 call delay res PORTA,0 call delay jp loop delay clr delayM ld 3 ld delayH,a dloop dsz f,delayL jp dloop dsz f,delayM jp dloop dsz f,delayH jp dloop ret .end	#include t16c84.inc delayH .equ 0Ch delayM .equ 0Dh delayL .equ 0Eh CLRF PORTA BSF STATUS,rp0 MOVLW 00011110b MOVWF TRISA BCF STATUS,rp0 loop BSF PORTA,0 CALL delay BCF PORTA,0 CALL delay GOTO loop delay CLRF delayM MOVLW 3 MOVWF delayH dloop DECFSZ delayL,F GOTO dloop DECFSZ delayM,F GOTO dloop DECFSZ delayH,F GOTO dloop RETURN .end

The TASM table I created also supports Microchip mnemonics and you can mix them with the Z80 style ones if you wish. Since TASM supports many other micros, you will be able to work with many micros in a familiar and proven environment.
Please note that there are some "problems" when using TASM with the PIC micro.

1. The TASM rule used in the table limits the argument size to 7Fh and such an instruction will cause an error:
   movwf 86h
   and must be written as
   movwf 06h
   While these two instructions are identical in hex, this may lead to confusion at times. The include file provided has the correct values for the registers on Page 1. For this example ; TRISB is defined as:
   TRISB .equ 06h
2. TASM can produce an object file in many formats but not in INHX8M, which is the format almost all pic programmers and disasssmblers around use. The problem with the INHX8M format is that the words use a low-byte/high-byte combination, while TASM generated object file uses a high-byte/low-byte combination. I worked around this poblem by removing the .MSFIRST directive from the table and using TASM with the -o10 option. This produces the desired object file but the list file produced is wrong because of the missing .MSFIRST directive. For example the
   CLRWDT command is listed as 64 00 ,while it is actually 00 64.
   If a correct listing is desired a second table with the .MSFIRST directive can be used.

I use TASM with these arguments in MicoAsm -84 -i -o10 $(FileName).$(FileEx)

Download the latest version (3.1) : tasm31.zip (184 Kb)
Download the MicroAsm editor to use TASM with Windows and error highliting : uasm10.zip (324 Kb)
Download the modified 16F84 table and the include file : table84.zip (2 Kb)
View the table online tasm84

2. Doing it with Frogbit
Frogbit is the name of both a programming language and of the tools used to develop programs written in it.
It is a small programming language which is designed for the manipulation of files and text. The syntax of the language is largely based on the use of keywords rather than punctuation; this means that Frogbit programs tend to be large but readable.
A well-featured IDE (integrated development environment) is provided for the development of Frogbit programs. The IDE has facilities for running, single-stepping and halting your program and also supports breakpoints, expression watches and file-view windows so that you can track intermediate results.
Once your program is debugged and working you can run it routinely using the more convenient RUN tool which does not support the debugging features of the IDE.
The Frogbit Language
Frogbit is a line-oriented language: each line consists of one or more command words which may be followed by parameters. Command parameters are usually (but not always) preceded by an identifying keyword. It is often the case that parameters can be omitted and a default value supplied by the system.
Like most programming languages Frogbit has variables for storing intermediate results. Frogbit has only one sort of variable: the sort that holds a string of characters. However, a Frogbit string can be as long as you like (2 thousand megabytes is the theoretical limit) and you can do integer arithmetic with numbers stored as strings.
You can make up expressions from variables, numbers and strings combined with operators. Some operators are symbols like '+', '*' and '=' but Frogbit also has a number of names used as operators, such as matches, beginsWith and contains.

I wrote a small frogbit program to convert Z80 style menmonics to PIC mnemonics. If the numbers are written according to MPASM syntax (e.g. b'10110111' instead of 10110111b or d'25' instead of 25 and so on...) the resulting code may be assembled using MPASM and make the use of development tools that support that format. Please note that I have not tried this with MPASM, but it must not be difficult to do that.
Also, you can use this to share your code with others who do not use the Z80 style mnemonics.
The table at the top of the page demonstrates a sample output of my frogbit program.

Warning: Do not put your labels on the same line with code, or they will be gone. I have not worked on this yet. Also do not forget that this is a text processing language and that everything is treated as text. I tested the program many times and corrected any problems I have encountered, but just be careful...

Download the latest version of Frogbit (1.01) : frogbit_101.zip (957 Kb)
Download frogbit program to conver Z80 style mnemonics to PIC assembly : z2p_V_01.zip (2 Kb)
The same of the above but will not add "; no change made" to lines that have not been changed z2p_V_01_wout_nochangemade.zip (2 Kb)
Here is a frogbit program to remove comments from your assembly code: comment_remover.zip (1Kb)

Frogbit is freeware, but TASM is not.
Visit Axiomatic Software, makers of Frogbit,

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For info on the PIC micro check out the sites on the PIC Micro Webring site, or see my PIC Links page.