Gameboy Development Forum

I think it is a proper moment to apply some patches to the library too. Well-known issues, such as: https://gbdev.gg8.se/forums/viewtopic.php?id=214 for example.

Yes, the library that comes with SDCC will be removed in the next release (actually in the Linux version it's been removed already)

About making patches, I agree. I was just asking you all to do it via pull requests and ensuring they have been properly tested. I can't just accept any changes in the library that breaks some other stuff. I hope you guys understand it

one more improvement:
in order make headers compile with -DUSE_SFR_FOR_REG compiler option with sdcc4, modification of gb/hardware.h is needed:
#define __REG    extern volatile __sfr /* was: sfr UINT8 */
smaller and faster code is generated. i tested it, it's ok.

Hi Toxa... in the docs it says that SFR is experimental https://github.com/Zal0/gbdk-2020/blob/ … /ChangeLog
and then in 2.96a a pragma directive in hardware is added "#error SFR is unteseted and disabled in 2.96"

I can't find where __sfr is defined in order to understand how this works

GBDK 3.1 is out

https://github.com/Zal0/gbdk-2020/releases

I've got all the games I made with ZGB compiled with the latest GBDK
Also in the latest releases I already included gbdk 2020 in the env package

hm... there is a samptest.c example which is functional.
what is the exact problem? if you want to define those registers, you may declare something like this:

volatile unsigned char __at (0xFF30) wave[16];

Last edited by toxa (2020-07-10 14:07:50)

Hi Zalo,

I am using this library for the first time, what's the best way to install it and compile?

I think I am being thrown off by the broken links in the original doc: http://gbdk.sourceforge.net/doc/html/c01.html#I(USING-GBDK)C(1,SECT1)

GBDK-2020 v4.0 is released: https://github.com/Zal0/gbdk-2020/releases

- GBDK now requires SDCC 4.0.3 or higher, that has fully working toolchain. Old link-gbz80 linker is not used anymore, sdldgb and makebin are used to link objects and produce binary roms; maccer tool is no longer needed either
  - SDCC 4.0.3 has much better code generator which produces smaller and faster code. Code is twice faster
  - SOURCE LEVEL DEBUGGING is possible now! Native toolchain produces *.CDB files that contain detailed debug info. Look for EMULICIOUS extension for vs.code. It supports breakpoints, watches, inspection of local variables, and more!
  - SDCC 4.0.4 has fixed RGBDS support; library is not updated to support that in full yet, but it is possible to assemble and link code emitted by SDCC with RGBDS
  - New banked trampolines are used, they are faster and smaller
  - New (old) initialization for non-constant arrays do NOT require 5 times larger rom space than initialized array itself, SDCC even tries to compress the data
- Library was improved
  - itoa/ltoa functions were rewritten, div/mod is not required now which is about 10 times faster
  - sprite functions are inline now, which is faster up to 12 times and produces the same or smaller code; .OAM symbol is renamed into _shadow_OAM that allows accessing shadow OAM directly from C code
  - interrupt handling was revised, it is now possible to make dedicated ISR's, that is important for time-sensitive handlers such as HBlank.
  - printf/sprintf were rewritten and splitted, print functions are twice faster now and also requre less rom space if you use sprintf() only, say, in bgb_emu.h
  - crash_handler.h - crash handler that allows to detect problems with ROMs after they are being released (adapted handler, originally written by ISSOtm)
  - improved and fixed string.h
  - many other improvements and fixes - thanks to all contributors!
- Revised examples
- Improved linux support
- Lcc has been updated
  - it works with the latest version of sdcc
  - quoted paths with spaces are working now

Last edited by toxa (2020-10-01 09:02:15)

These look like great updates.

There seems to be a problem with calling initarand() and arand(). I opened an issue on github.

GBDK-2020 4.0.2 has been released::
https://github.com/Zal0/gbdk-2020/releases/tag/4.0.2

- Updated documentation
- Library was improved
  - Linking with stdio.h does not require that much rom now
  - Default font is changed to the smaller one (102 characters), that leaves space for user tiles
  - Fixed broken support for multiplying longs
  - Multiple minor improvements
- New bankpack feature, allows automatic bank allocation for data and code, see banks_autobank example, feature is in beta state, use with care
- Lcc improvements
  - Including fixed overriding of default shadow_oam, stack, etc. locations
- Added BGB debug example project

There is now also a GBDK and ZGB specific Discord server.
Link is on the GBDK-2020 github front page: https://github.com/Zal0/gbdk-2020/

Last edited by bbbbbr (2021-01-21 01:44:19)

GBDK-2020 4.0.3 has been released::
https://github.com/gbdk-2020/gbdk-2020/ … /tag/4.0.3

- Updated documentation, including the PDF version:
  https://gbdk-2020.github.io/gbdk-2020/d … index.html
  https://gbdk-2020.github.io/gbdk-2020/d … manual.pdf
- Library was improved
    - Metasprites support (see example)
    - GBCompress decompressor included (see example)
    - Large map scrolling helper functions (see example)
    - Multiple minor improvements
- New tools
    - png2mtspr converts png images into metasprite structs
    - gbcompress compression utility, compatible with GBTD/GBMB


Detailed changelog:
https://gbdk-2020.github.io/gbdk-2020/d … otoc_md121

(edit, point links to changed repo location)

Last edited by bbbbbr (2021-04-04 02:04:44)