Author: | Richard Brooksby |
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Date: | 2016-03-07 |
LOLAN is a compiler for a Forth-like language for the Amstrad CPC microcomputer.
I wrote it when I was 16. At that time I had never really seen a compiler or any programming languages except BASIC and assembler. I was fascinated by the Jupiter ACE microcomputer, which had FORTH instead of BASIC, and somehow got hold of the book "FORTH on the BBC Microcomputer" by Richard de Grandis-Harrison. I stared at that book for a long time and deduced how to make a compiler for FORTH without any real knowledge of compilers.
LOLAN is not a traditional threaded-interpretive FORTH, but compiles straight to Z80 opcodes. Most words are compiled straight to CALL instructions.
The computer was written using the GEN80 assembler, and the source code is in a binary format. I am working on decoding it.
Everything still runs in a CPC464 emulator. You can load the "lolan.dsk" and enter:
RUN"LOLANC.BIN
to start the compiler. Try:
0 load> pede.0
to load the "Pede" game, then:
game
to start it. It was programmed for the Amstrad joystick, and you may find it impossible to control.
There's also a Tron lightbikes game, referring to the 1982 movie "Tron".
I made various low-level utilities in LOLAN.
There was a successor, LOLAN 2, which I'll also work on retrieving from the archives.