Chuck Yakym's notes on relocating TMSI Tiny BASIC

Tiny BASIC as provided by RCA, Pittman, and TMSI, was intended to be loaded at memory 0000H and above. Chuck wanted to make his Tiny BASIC source relocatable, to assemble for use in higher memory. Here's what he said he found in TMSI TB, and what he did about it, quoted with permission. Note that RCA Tiny BASIC uses a different PEEK location than TMSI's Tiny BASIC; changes to the RCA version would be different. - Herb

"The reason that it isn't relocatable is because the way they used R7 to point to the Fetch subroutine. Understanding that the way TB is written, the high order byte of R7 is ALWAYS = 00h. Now a very clever way that they used this fact that R7.1 is always 00h, then they could (and did) use the "97h" (GHI R7) command to clear the "D" register instead of using the LDI 00h (F8 00) code. They save one memory byte per usage."

[Note: TB assembly source implements this use, not by the "GHI R7" or "GHI PC" assembly instructions, but by defining "LDIO EQU 97H" and use of "DB LDIO". Look at the RCA and TMSI TB sources for details. - Herb]

"To make Tiny Basic completely relocatable, this restriction had to be removed from the code. Below is the ONLY use of the "97h" (GHI R7) command that is used in the Tiny Basic part of my [relocatable] monitor/Tiny Basic program."

 0148   97            DOIT:    GHI  R7     ; TABLE PAGE

All the other uses of the "97h" command had to be changed to the "F8 00" (LDI 00h) to make Tiny Basic "truly" relocatable. There is 18 uses of the "97h" command used in RCA's Tiny Basic that were used to clear the "D" register only. [This explains 18 bytes added to the Tiny BASIC code.]

[Additionally,] I changed the [TMSI TB's] PEEK subroutine; see below

                ; MEMORY PEEK AND POKE SUBROUTINES
                        ;
0014   f8 00         PEEK:    LDI    00H
0016   30 2c             BR    PEEK1

                        ;PEEK CONTINUES HERE TO MAINTAIN RCA CALL
 				;USR 20 AND 24 ROUTINES VALUES
002c   ba            PEEK1    PHI    AC
002d   48                LDA    XX		;XX is R8
002e   d5                SEP    R5

"The added BR PEEK1 command is the additional two bytes that I had to add because of the original "97h"command was used in address 0014h. This all explains why my Tiny Basic is 20 bytes longer than [Lee's version]". - Chuck Yakym