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Beginners > Best GBA Compiler

#8518 - enliteneer - Sat Jul 12, 2003 9:18 pm

Which compiler is everyone using (armsdk, gcc, DevKit Advance, etc)?
Is one better suited for running apps on an actual gba (not emulator)?

Are they all just interchangable or is the compiler you choose dependent
on the sound library you use (directsound, Krawall, fras, maso)?

Speaking of sound, Ive read about using (not using) Bios Calls what
does this mean? Whats preferred?

Thanks!
Erich

p.s. Is there a memory map for the GBA that shows where SRAM,
flash, etc?

#8527 - yaustar - Sun Jul 13, 2003 1:53 am

DevKitAdvance is gcc I think and is used with C/C++. Quite popular in usage.
Someone will correct me on this since I think DevKitAdvance can be used with other languages as well.
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#8537 - Daikath - Sun Jul 13, 2003 9:39 am

Devkitarm is actually assembler, because it first converts the C/C++ code into assembler code.
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#8665 - Lupin - Thu Jul 17, 2003 3:28 pm

Quote:
Devkitarm is actually assembler, because it first converts the C/C++ code into assembler code.


...like nearly every compiler does.

bios calls are very usefull sometimes, but I don't believe that they are very fast, since bios sounds like an non-cpu-internal component to me.

#8675 - tepples - Thu Jul 17, 2003 8:48 pm

Lupin wrote:
bios calls are very usefull sometimes, but I don't believe that they are very fast, since bios sounds like an non-cpu-internal component to me.

Everything but EWRAM, cart ROM, and cart SRAM are inside the "CPU AGB" package, operating without wait states. IWRAM is 32-bit with no wait state, and so is the BIOS. Even the 16-bit VRAM is on the same die as the ARM core and has an average wait state of less than one cycle for CPU access. Yes, you heard right: VRAM is faster than EWRAM.
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