Empty loop over a new CPU architecture!

And it's alive! Well, really. So I am working on a particular project since years, to be exact, a certain type of game console. In the past few months I was spewing out C code based on my completed specification like there is no tomorrow, no compiler, no testing, whatsoever. So the fairly complete emulator was sort of done a few days ago, and so well, let's try it out...

Now the definite proofs of the thing operating, the processor executing those few instructions in a loop, the emulator spitting out graphics and audio events at the appropriate intervals are rolling up on the console, so the first noticeable success of this project at least came clearly visible at last!

The method may look outright crazy, like writing up about 6500 lines (280Kb) of code without even giving it a go with a compiler, what you were smoking? I am however confident that I can deal with it, and this case this is what gives good results the soonest. There are means for systematically testing all eventually, it is just more important to get some impressions of the system as fast as possible, and now at least I have it fairly complete minus a swarm of bugs I will stomp out in the next few hours I spend working on it (which will last though as I can not allocate as much time for this task as I would like due to my job). So far to get the code running was at most like three hours, and a half hour to deal with some immediate problems which were apparent while getting this little program running (technically it is not even just a little program since it is sitting in sort of a descriptive ROM binary which has to be interpreted first to get there, and so it also has to work right).

More important now though is that it is a new processor architecture I am dealing with - so all I have right now is a hex editor to type up programs for it. Another side trip, to hack together some rudimentary assembler. But at least now I have to hack up an assembler for something!

Just some news, see, no idling here! Getting this all right and ready to be rolled out is some nasty amount of work which I want to put behind as fast as possible! Not like I would want to compromise quality, but right here and now it is more important to have a functional release worthy prototype (with it's documentations) which people may experiment with while I stomp out the rest of it's problems than to aim for utmost perfection here alone!