I'm proud to announce version 2.3 of CC65, a C crosscompiler /
crossassembler combo for 6502 systems.

CC65 has C and runtime library support for most CBM machines, and -
thanks to the great work of Kevin Ruland - for the Apple ][. The
libraries are fairly portable, so creating a version for other 6502s
shouldn't be too much work.

Here is a list of the compiler features:

  * Includes a C compiler, macro assembler, archiver, linker and a
    frontend (compile & link) utility. The assembler generates
    relocatable object files, the linker is very configurable and allows
    overlays, ROMable code, splitted output and much more.

  * The compiler is not quite ISO compatible, however, a large subset
    is supported.

  * Supported target systems are:

    	- C64
    	- C128
    	- C16, C116, Plus/4
    	- CBM 600/700 family (programs run in bank 1)
    	- Newer PET machines (not 2001)
	- The Apple ][

    For all these systems a precompiled runtime and C library is
    available. Supporting more targets is not very difficult since the C
    library was written with portability in mind.

  * Several system specific support routines like a conio library or
    modules for joystick access are available.

  * The assembler and linker do also support the 65816 as a target,
    however, the compiler is not able to generate code for this CPU and
    there is no RTL support.

  * Lots of docs and a few sample programs included.

  * Easy interfacing between C code and assembler.

  * Fullscreen debugger for most machines as a linkable module.

  * Full sourcecode available as well as binaries for

  	- Linux (RedHat 6.1 and 5.x RPM)
  	- DOS
  	- Windows 95/98/NT



What is new in this version:

  * Several bugs fixed.

  * Several new bugs introduced.

  * Faster and shorter code.

  * Support for the Apple ][.



Support for some features is still missing. To name a few:

  * No floats.

  * No file routines. Actually, most stdio routines are there, but the
    low level file I/O is missing, so you get linker errors if you try to
    use them with files.

  * The 80 column mode on the C128 is not supported by the conio library.

  * ACE is no longer supported. The old code is still there, but I had
    not the time to keep it current.



More information:

For your convenience, I've put all doc files also on the web server:

    http://www.von-bassewitz.de/uz/cc65/doc/

The cc65 main page

    http://www.von-bassewitz.de/uz/cc65/

will get updated to reflect the new version in the next few days.

There is also a cc65 mailing list. To subscribe, send a mail to
majordomo@musoftware.de with the command

    subscribe cc65

in the body of the mail.



Help:

Any help is appreciated! There are still areas, where the package is
incomplete, expecially when it comes to the libraries. If you think about
investing some time, here's a todo list:

  * File routines for the CBM systems are still missing. The C library
    uses a layered approach, so there are only 4 routines needed to get
    most of the higher level stuff up and running. All that is needed are
    C compatible open/close/read/write functions.

  * Support for the 80 column mode on the C128.

  * Support for ACE or other systems (VIC20, PET, even an Atari version
    shouldn't be too difficult).

  * A graphics library. The Plus/4 has a 320*200 mode that is very
    compatible the C64 and C128. With some clever programming it should
    be possible to write something that translates for all three
    platforms without changes.



Available packages:

As usual I will provide the complete sources and several binary packages
binaries. There's a binary RPM for RedHat which is probably the fastest
way to get going if you're running RedHat Linux. Since this is also my
development platform, new features and bug fixes are first available for
Linux.

Binaries for DOS and and Windows will follow or may already be available
at the time you read this. While the sources do still compile under OS/2,
I have dropped support for OS/2 binaries, since were almost no downloads
of the OS/2 version.



Download:

For more information and links to the FTP server, see

    	http://www.von-bassewitz.de/uz/cc65/

For direct download, use

        ftp://ftp.musoftware.de/pub/uz/cc65/



Thanks to all who sent feedback and suggestions!


-- 
Ullrich von Bassewitz                                  uz@musoftware.de