rptb1 / lolan

My first compiler, from 1986, for a Forth-like language, plus games!

LOLAN

Author:	Richard Brooksby
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.