\documentclass[a4paper]{article}
\newcommand*{\eAS}{\textup{\textit{e}AS}}
\newcommand*{\easversion}{\oldstylenums{0.3.0}}
\newcommand*{\documenttitle}{Using \eAS}
\newcommand*{\documentdate}{\oldstylenums{2024}-\oldstylenums{02}-\oldstylenums{04}}
\newcommand*{\rulewidth}{0.4pt}
\makeatletter
\newcommand*{\@usagevalue}[1]{\textit{<#1>}}
\newcommand*{\@usagevaluestar}[1]{\{\textit{<#1>}\}}
\newcommand*{\usagevalue}{\@ifstar{\@usagevaluestar}{\@usagevalue}}
\newcommand*{\usage}[1]{Usage: \fbox{\texttt{#1}}}
\makeatother
\newenvironment{codeblock}{\mdframed\verbatim}{\endverbatim\endmdframed}
\newenvironment{alertentry}[2]{{\bfseries#1\newline\itshape\tiny#2}\par\small}{}
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\usepackage[british]{babel} % Localise for English
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\usepackage[hidelinks, pdfusetitle]{hyperref} % Create hyperlinks
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\renewcommand*{\sectionmark}[1]{\markboth{\thesection\ #1}{}}
\fancyhead[l]{\bfseries\documenttitle}
\fancyhead[c]{\bfseries v. \easversion}
\fancyhead[r]{\bfseries \nouppercase{\leftmark}} % CONTENTS will be uppercase by default.
\fancyfoot[c]{\bfseries Page \nicefrac{\thepage}{\pageref*{LastPage}}}
\usepackage{multicol} % Format in multiple columns
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\titleformat{\section}{\huge\scshape\bfseries}{\thesection}{1ex}{}{}
\titleformat{\subsection}{\large\bfseries}{\thesubsection}{1ex}{}{}
\title{\documenttitle}
\author{Gabriel Bjørnager Jensen}
\date{\documentdate}
\begin{document}
\pagenumbering{gobble} % Don't count the first page.
\thispagestyle{empty} % We also don't need any headers or footers here.
\vspace*{\fill}
\begin{center}
{\huge\bfseries\documenttitle}
\includegraphics[interpolate, width=6cm]{build/eas.png} % This is build by the makefile.
{\huge\bfseries\easversion}
\end{center}
\vspace*{\fill}
\clearpage
\thispagestyle{empty} % This page is also unique.
\begin{center}
Copyright © \oldstylenums{2023}-\oldstylenums{2024} Gabriel Bjørnager Jensen.
This manual is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike \oldstylenums{4.0} International license.
See more at \url{https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/}.
The \eAS\ logotype ``e'' is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike \oldstylenums{4.0} International license.
See more at \url{https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/}.
\rule{\linewidth}{\rulewidth}
\textit{Arm}, \textit{Thumb}, \textit{Arm7}, \textit{Arm7TDMI}, \textit{Arm7TDMI-S}, and \textit{Arm7EJ-S} are registered trademarks or trademarks of Arm Limited (or its subsidiaries or affiliates).
\textit{UNIX} is a registered trademark of The Open Group Limited.
The \eAS\ project is \textit{not} affiliated with Arm Limited and/or The Open Group Limited.
\vspace*{\fill}
This manual was written using \LaTeX.
\documentdate
\end{center}
\clearpage
\pagenumbering{arabic} % Now we can number.
\tableofcontents
\clearpage
\section{About \eAS}
\label{sec:about_eas}
\eAS\ (\textit{/i:z/} as in ``ease'') -- the \textit{Embedded Assembler} -- is an open-source cross-assembler for embedded devices using the Arm instruction set architecture.
The assembler is primarily targeted at UNIX systems -- however -- other platforms may be considered in the future (see section \ref{sec:setup:machine_requirements}).
\begin{center}
\begin{tabular}{|l|l|l|}
\multicolumn{3}{c}{\itshape\bfseries Consider checking out some of my related projects:} \\
\multicolumn{3}{c}{} \\
\hline
\multicolumn{1}{|c|}{\bfseries Title} & \multicolumn{1}{c|}{\bfseries Description} & \multicolumn{1}{c|}{\bfseries URL} \\
agbsum & AGB image header checksum patcher. & \url{https://mandelbrot.dk/agbsum} \\
AX & AGB development framework. & \url{https://mandelbrot.dk/ax} \\
Luma & AGB emulator. & \url{https://mandelbrot.dk/luma} \\
\hline
\end{tabular}
\end{center}
\subsection{Rationale}
\label{sec:rationale}
I had wanted to write an assembler for the Arm instruction set architecture that:
\begin{itemize}
\item Was open-source
\item Had a clean and readable codebase
\item Was simple to use and not overly complex (a.k.a. lived up to the ``Unix Philosophy'')
\item Could more or less replace armasm (as an open-source alternative)
\item Could directly target embedded devices, e.g. the Game Boy Advance (and potentially later consoles)
\item \textit{Bonus} --- Could also target hosted systems, e.g. the Raspberry PI running FreeBSD
\end{itemize}
It is easiest to be comfortable with a program which you have written yourself.
Or, as Ken Thompson put it:
\begin{center}
\fbox{\centering\itshape\bfseries You can't trust code that you did not totally create yourself.}
\end{center}
Altough this journey is also for the sake of my own experiences, \eAS\ was one of my first projects intended for real-world applications.
\subsection{Copyright \& License}
\label{sec:copyright_and_license}
\eAS\ is copyright © \oldstylenums{2023}-\oldstylenums{2024} Gabriel Bjørnager Jensen.
\eAS\ is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
\eAS\ is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
See the GNU General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with \eAS\ and/or this manual.
If not, see \url{https://www.gnu.org/licenses/}.
\clearpage
\section{Project Changelog}
\label{sec:project_changelog}
\begin{multicols*}{2}
\subsection*{Version 0.3.0}
\label{sec:project_changelog:version_0-3-0}
\begin{itemize}
\item Bump minor version
\item Update manual
\item Update crate description
\item Update copyright years
\item Prioritise armasm compatibility
\item Rename project to eAS (was AAS)
\item Add logo
\item Add trademark notices to manual
\item Update readme
\item Support long arguments
\item Add configuration structure
\item Refactor tokeniser
\item Bump dependency versions
\item Restructure code
\end{itemize}
\subsection*{Version 0.2.0}
\label{sec:project_changelog:version_0-2-0}
\begin{itemize}
\item Bump minor version
\item Update and fix manual
\item Update copyright notices
\item Change acronym meaning
\end{itemize}
\subsection*{Version 0.1.0}
\label{sec:project_changelog:version_0-1-0}
\begin{itemize}
\item Bump minor version
\item Add manual
\item Update gitignore
\item Add readme
\item Update license notices
\end{itemize}
\subsection*{Version 0.0.0}
\label{sec:project_changelog:version_0-0-0}
\begin{itemize}
\item Add gitignore
\item Add test source file
\item Implement tokeniser
\item Add license file
\item Add changelog
\end{itemize}
\end{multicols*}
\clearpage
\section{Setup}
\label{sec:setup}
\subsection{Machine Requirements}
\label{sec:setup:machine_requirements}
\eAS\ has -- at the moment -- only been tested to work on Arch Linux.
However, support is planned for most mainstream UNIX systems and Linux distributions.
\subsection{Download}
\label{sec:setup:download}
\eAS\ may be downloaded in source form from one of the following official mirrors:
\begin{figure}[H]
\centering
\caption{Official mirrors.}
\label{fig:mirrors}
\begin{tabular}{l>{\itshape}l}
\hline
\multicolumn{1}{>{\bfseries}c}{URL} & \multicolumn{1}{>{\bfseries}c}{Remarks} \\
\hline
\url{https://mandelbrot.dk/eas} & The ``main'' mirror \\
\url{https://gitlab.com/bjoernager/eas.git} & {} \\
\url{https://github.com/bjoernager/eas.git} & {} \\
\hline
\end{tabular}
\end{figure}
Thanks to GitHub and GitLab for providing the additional (unaffiliated) mirrors.
\subsection{Installation}
\label{sec:setup:installation}
First, make sure to meet the prerequisites for installing \eAS\:
\begin{itemize}
\item Having installed \textit{Rust} and the build system \textit{Cargo}
\begin{itemize}
\item Install either of the \texttt{rust} or \texttt{rustup} packages using pacman (Arch Linux)
\item Install the \texttt{lang/rust} package (FreeBSD)
\item Read the official Rust documentation at \url{https://www.rust-lang.org/tools/install/}.
\end{itemize}
\item Having compiled the \eAS\ executable \textbf{using the \textit{release} profile}
\begin{itemize}
\item Run \texttt{cargo build -{}-release}
\end{itemize}
\end{itemize}
Then, to install the executable, simply execute:
\begin{center}
\begin{varwidth}{\linewidth}
\ttfamily
install -m755 "\$\{BINDIR\}" "target/release/eas"
\end{varwidth}
\end{center}
wherein \texttt{\$\{BINDIR\}} denotes the destination directory, usually \texttt{"/usr/bin"}.
A PKGBUILD for \eAS\ will likely be provided in the near future at \url{https://mandelbrot.dk/pkgbuild_eas}.
\clearpage
\section{Usage}
\label{sec:usage}
Invoke the assembler using the \texttt{eas} command (or a path to the executable):
\begin{center}
\fbox{\ttfamily eas \usagevalue*{options} \usagevalue{input}}
\end{center}
wherein \texttt{options} is an optional combination of any of the following arguments:
\begin{tabular}{|>{\ttfamily}l|l}
-c\usagevalue{encoding} & Sets the expected input file encoding (character set) to \textit{encoding} \\
-f\usagevalue{format} & Sets the target executable format to \textit{format} \\
-m\usagevalue{processor} & Sets the target processor (machine) to \textit{processor} \\
\multicolumn{2}{c}{} \\
-{}-help & Prints help \\
-{}-version & Prints versioning
\end{tabular}
Short arguments may be chained together, however, only the last in a chain may be transitive.
\subsection{File Encodings}
\label{sec:usage:file_encodings}
Only the following identifier is supported when provided to the \texttt{-c} parameter:
\begin{itemize}
\item \texttt{utf8} \textit{--- default}
\end{itemize}
\subsection{Target Processors}
\label{sec:usage:target_processors}
Only the following identifier is supported when provided to the \texttt{-m} parameter:
\begin{itemize}
\item \texttt{arm7tdmi}
\end{itemize}
\subsection{Target Executable Formats}
\label{sec:usage:target_executable_formats}
Only the following identifier is supported when provided to the \texttt{-f} parameter:
\begin{itemize}
\item \texttt{elf} \textit{--- default}
\end{itemize}
\clearpage
\section{Syntax}
\label{sec:syntax}
The syntax of \eAS\ assembly is designed to be largely compatible with that of the official \textit{armasm} assembler.
Each line of an assembly source file is a \textit{node} and has the following format:
\begin{center}
\begin{varwidth}{\textwidth}
\ttfamily
\usagevalue*{label} \usagevalue*{instruction} \{; \usagevalue{comment}\}
\end{varwidth}
\end{center}
where each part -- the \textit{label}, the \textit{instruction}, and the \textit{comment} -- are optional and may (usually, see below) be provided in any combination.
A \textit{label} is an identifier that will be assigned to the resulting memory address.
Labels are often used to name code blocks (so-called \textit{functions} or \textit{subroutines}), but also variables and constants.
Some assembler directives, such as \texttt{ALIGN} (see section \ref{sec:directives:align}), do not accept a label.
See each directive's own entry for more information.
\textit{Instruction} is here used as an umbrella term for actual instructions of Arm architectures, pseudo-instructions, and assembler directives.
\textit{Comments} are described in detail in section \ref{sec:syntax:comments}.
\subsection{Comments}
\label{sec:syntax:comments}
Comments are denoted with a \texttt{;} (semicolon) delimiter, and continue until the end of the current line.
Multi-line comments are not supported.
\begin{codeblock}
@ This is not comment.
// This is also not a comment.
/*
This is also an error.
*/
; This is a comment.
MOV r0, pc ; This line will be parsed up till the semicolon.
\end{codeblock}
\subsection{Character Set}
\label{sec:syntax:character_set}
\eAS\ requires that all input files be encoded in UTF-8 \textbf{only}.
Outside of strings and comments, only a small subset of ASCII characters are allowed (see figure \ref{fig:character_set}).
The presence of any character outside of this subset will yield in an error.
\begin{figure}[H]
\centering
\caption{ASCII-subset of which character are valid outside strings and comments.}
\label{fig:character_set}
\begin{tabular}{|c|c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c|}
\hline
{} & \textbf{0} & \textbf{1} & \textbf{2} & \textbf{3} & \textbf{4} & \textbf{5} & \textbf{6} & \textbf{7} & \textbf{8} & \textbf{9} & \textbf{A} & \textbf{B} & \textbf{C} & \textbf{D} & \textbf{E} & \textbf{F} \\
\hline
0 & \textit{NUL} & {} & {} & {} & {} & {} & {} & {} & {} & \textit{HT} & \textit{LF} & {} & {} & {} & {} & {} \\
1 & {} & {} & {} & {} & {} & {} & {} & {} & {} & {} & {} & {} & {} & {} & {} & {} \\
2 & \textit{SP} & ! & " & \# & {} & {} & {} & {} & {} & {} & {} & {} & , & {} & {} & {} \\
3 & 0 & 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & 5 & 6 & 7 & 8 & 9 & {} & ; & {} & {} & {} & {} \\
4 & {} & A & B & C & D & E & F & G & H & I & J & K & L & M & N & O \\
5 & P & Q & R & S & T & U & V & W & X & Y & Z & [ & {} & ] & {} & \_ \\
6 & {} & a & b & c & d & e & f & g & h & i & j & k & l & m & n & o \\
7 & p & q & r & s & t & u & v & w & x & y & z & {} & {} & {} & {} & {} \\
\hline
\end{tabular}
\end{figure}
\clearpage
\section{Directives}
\label{sec:directives}
\subsection{ALIGN}
\label{sec:directives:align}
\usage{ALIGN \usagevalue{alignment}}
Aligns to the next \textit{alignment}-bit boundary.
The alignment \textit{alignment} must be a power of two.
\subsection{CODE16, THUMB}
\label{sec:directives:code16}
\usage{CODE16|THUMB}
Indicates that all future code -- until otherwise noted -- should be translated to Thumb instructions.
\subsection{CODE32, ARM}
\label{sec:directives:code32}
\usage{CODE32|ARM}
Indicates that all future code -- until otherwise noted -- should be translated to ARM instructions.
\subsection{FILL}
\label{sec:directives:fill}
\usage{\usagevalue*{label} FILL \usagevalue{repeat}\{, \usagevalue{value}\{, \usagevalue{size}\}\}}
Repeats the value \textit{value} in memory as an integer of \textit{size} bytes a total of \textit{repeat} times.
If \textit{value} is omitted, and -- by extend -- \textit{size}, they are treated as being zero and one, respectively.
In this case, the directive is identical to the \textit{SPACE} directive (see section \ref{sec:directives:space}).
The label \textit{label} -- if present -- is assigned to destination address.
\subsection{END}
\label{sec:directives:end}
\usage{END}
Signals that the assembler has reached the end of the file.
An \texttt{END} directive must be present in each source file.
\subsection{ENDP, ENDFUNC}
\label{sec:directives:endp}
\usage{ENDP|ENDFUNC}
Ends the current function body.
An \texttt{ENDP} or \texttt{ENDFUNC} directive may not be present without an equivalent and preceding \texttt{PROC} or \texttt{FUNCTION} directive.
\subsection{PROC, FUNCTION}
\label{sec:directives:proc}
\usage{\usagevalue{label} PROC|FUNCTION}
Signals that a subroutine will follow.
Each \texttt{PROC} or \texttt{FUNCTION} directive must have a matching \texttt{ENDP} or \texttt{ENDFUNC} directive before the end-of-file or another subroutine.
\subsection{SPACE}
\label{sec:directives:space}
\usage{\usagevalue*{label} SPACE \usagevalue{length}}
Zero-fills memory of the length \textit{length}.
The \texttt{SPACE} directive is identical to the \texttt{FILL} directive with \textit{value} zero and \textit{size} one.
The label \textit{label} -- if present -- is assigned to destination address.
\begin{codeblock}
SPACE 0xFF
FILL 0xFF, 0x0, 0x1 ; Equivalent.
FILL 0xFF ; Also equivalent.
\end{codeblock}
\clearpage
\section{Alert Lookup}
\label{sec:alerts}
\begin{multicols*}{2}
\subsection{Syntax Errors}
\label{sec:alert_lookup:syntax_errors}
\begin{alertentry}{e0000}{END OF FILE}
Reached end-of-file before any \texttt{END} directive.
This directive must always be present in the end of any source file.
\textit{See section \ref{sec:directives:end} for more information.}
\end{alertentry}
\begin{alertentry}{e0001}{UNKNOWN MNEMONIC}
An unknown instruction, pseudo-instruction, or directive mnemonic was encountered.
\end{alertentry}
\begin{alertentry}{e0002}{ILLEGAL CHARACTER}
A character outside the allowed character set was found.
\textit{See section \ref{sec:syntax:character_set} for a list of allowed characters.}
\end{alertentry}
\begin{alertentry}{e0003}{INCOMPLETE NODE}
A node did not meet the requirements to be complete.
\textit{See section \ref{sec:syntax} for more information.}
\end{alertentry}
\begin{alertentry}{e0004}{UNTERMINATED STRING}
An open string did not have a matching terminating \texttt{"} (double quotation mark) character.
\end{alertentry}
\subsection{CLI Errors}
\label{sec:alert_lookup:cli_errors}
\begin{alertentry}{e1000}{INVALID SHORT PARAMETER}
An invalid character was provided as a short parameter.
\textit{See section \ref{sec:usage} for more information.}
\end{alertentry}
\begin{alertentry}{e1001}{MISSING INPUT FILE}
An input file was not provided.
\textit{See section \ref{sec:usage} for more information.}
\end{alertentry}
\begin{alertentry}{e1002}{MISSING TARGET PROCESSOR}
A processor target was not provided using the \texttt{-m} parameter.
\textit{See section \ref{sec:usage} for more information.}
\end{alertentry}
\begin{alertentry}{e1003}{MISSING SHORT VALUE}
A transitive short parameter was provided without its value.
\textit{See section \ref{sec:usage} for more information.}
\end{alertentry}
\begin{alertentry}{e1004}{INVALID TARGET FORMAT}
An invalid target format was provided.
\textit{See section \ref{sec:usage:target_executable_formats} for a list of valid target formats.}
\end{alertentry}
\begin{alertentry}{e1005}{INVALID TARGET PROCESSOR}
An invalid target processor was provided.
\textit{See section \ref{sec:usage:target_processors} for a list of valid target processors.}
\end{alertentry}
\begin{alertentry}{e1006}{INVALID LONG PARAMETER}
An invalid long parameter was proivded.
\textit{See section \ref{sec:usage} for a list of valid long parameters.}
\end{alertentry}
\begin{alertentry}{e1007}{MISSING LONG VALUE}
A transitive long parameter was provided without a value
\textit{See section \ref{sec:usage} for more information.}
\end{alertentry}
\begin{alertentry}{e1008}{MISSING SHORT ARGUMENT}
The lone character \texttt{-} (hyphen) was provided as an argument without any trailing short arguments.
\textit{See section \ref{sec:usage} for more information.}
\end{alertentry}
\begin{alertentry}{e1009}{INVALID FILE ENCODING}
An invalid input file format was provided.
\textit{See section \ref{sec:usage:file_encodings} for a list of valid target processors.}
\end{alertentry}
\begin{alertentry}{e100A}{MISSING LONG ARGUMENT}
A double hyphen sequence \texttt{-{}-} was provided without a long argument.
\textit{See section \ref{sec:usage} for more information.}
\end{alertentry}
\subsection{Internal Errors}
\label{sec:alert_lookup:internal_errors}
\begin{alertentry}{e2000}{ACCESS DENIED}
Access was denied to the input file or it doesn't exist.
\end{alertentry}
\end{multicols*}
\end{document}
