Hello,

I just got a Google alert for a new release of the Turbo51 compiler. It's a TP-compatible compiler for the 8051 microcontroller family. It's freeware, but not open source.

http://www.turbo51.com

Jonas

I browsed a bit there and it looks pretty cool! It seems to have full shortstring support at a first glance, and in general more of the BP dialect then most 8-bit dialects. T

The extensions are what one would expect (segment modifier and bit access. It also supports "our" %110101 syntax).

The only strange thing I found is this:

------------
* Local variables

All local variables in normal (non-reentrant) procedures and functions are static. They are placed like global variables but are accessible only in local scope. Default memory type for local variables can be set with compiler directive $ML MemoryType (DATA, IDATA or XDATA) and defaults to DATA. This memory type can be overridden for each variable declaration. ---------

(and same for params) I think it makes sense for embedded programming though, since it simplifies calling conventions. OTOH, they generally don't have that much fast RAM.

Pitty that we use (16-bit) Microchip nowadays.....

I think that the biggest problem for using it in a commercial project is that it is not open source and a hobby project. There is a risk it gets abandoned.

For PIC microcontrollers there is a good amount of a Pascal compilers.

A good commercial one: http://www.mikroe.com/en/compilers/mikropascal/pic/

A free compiler: http://www.pmpcomp.fr/index.php?lng=en

I think that the biggest problem for using it in a commercial project is that it is not open source and a hobby project. There is a risk it gets abandoned.

Yes. But that depends on the scale of you rusage.

For PIC microcontrollers there is a good amount of a Pascal compilers.

For 8-bitters there are some, but for 16 none. Moreover I didn't like the that much.

To be honest, there is no point also, since we mostly only instrument the hardware building blocks.