Apple II Technical Notes _____________________________________________________________________________ Developer Technical Support Apple IIgs #103: Inline Procedure Name Format Modified by: Matt Deatherage May 1992 Written by: Dave Lyons December 1991 This Technical Note describes a simple format for imbedding procedure names in object code, for use by debugging utilities. CHANGES SINCE DECEMBER 1991: Changed &syscnt to &SYSCNT so it works with the CASE ON APW directive. Clarified the possible addition of parameters after the Pascal string. _____________________________________________________________________________ GSBug 1.5b18 and later support a simple convention for including procedure names inline in the object code, for debugging purposes. INLINE NAME FORMAT 82 xx xx brl pastName 71 77 dc.w $7771 nn xx xx xx xx... str 'the name string' pastName ... That is, an imbedded name is a BRL around a signature word and a Pascal string. The name string can theoretically be up to 255 characters long, but in practice only short names are useful. For example, GSBug displays only the first 15 characters of a name when it is encountered, and only the first 11 when it appears as the operand of a JSR or JSL instruction. Names in this format always start with a BRL, not a BRA or JMP. Signature word values other than $7771 are reserved for future definition, and more information may be added after the Pascal string. Be careful what you name! Be careful not to name something important--like a table, or a label from which you compute other addresses. The extra bytes generated by the inline name would mess up your calculations. If you name a heartbeat task, out-of-memory queue routine, or other construction that needs a special header, be sure to put the name where the executable code starts, not at the beginning of the header. APW ASSEMBLY MACRO The following macro is for the APW assembler. If you equate DebugSymbols to zero, the macro generates no object code. If DebugSymbols is nonzero, the macro generates an inline name corresponding to its label. Use the name macro anywhere you would use a label. For example: DebugSymbols GEQU 1 ... CountItems name The macro: MACRO &lab name &lab anop aif DebugSymbols=0,.pastName brl pastName&SYSCNT dc i'$7771' dc i1'L:&lab',c'&lab' pastName&SYSCNT anop .pastName MEND MPW IIgs Assembly Macros The following macros are for the MPW IIgs assembler. If you equate DebugSymbols to zero, the macros generate no object code. If DebugSymbols is nonzero, the macros generate inline names corresponding to their labels. Use the name macro anywhere you would use a label. Use the procname macro in place of a proc directive, at the beginning of a procedure. For example: DebugSymbols equ 1 ... CountItems name TaskLoop procname The macros: macro &lab name &lab if DebugSymbols<>0 then brl @pastName lclc &olds &olds setc &setting('string') string asis dc.w $7771 dc.b &len(&lab),'&lab' string &olds @pastName endif mend * You can use procname instead of proc macro &lab procname &x &lab proc &x if DebugSymbols<>0 then brl @pastName lclc &olds &olds setc &setting('string') string asis dc.w $7771 dc.b &len(&lab),'&lab' string &olds @pastName endif mend WRITING UTILITIES THAT RECOGNIZE INLINE NAMES If you write a utility that recognizes inline procedure names in this format, check for a signature word of $777x, not specifically $7771. This allows more information to be added to the format later (a signature of $7772 could mean there is a Pascal string followed by parameter-passing information, for example).