< back to index

Types

Numeric types

Millfork puts extra limitations on which types can be used in which contexts. 1-byte arithmetic types work in every context. 2-byte arithmetic types work in context that are not overly complicated. 3-byte and larger types have limited capabilities.

• byte – 1-byte value of undefined signedness, defaulting to unsigned

• word – 2-byte value of undefined signedness, defaulting to unsigned (alias: int16)

• int24 – 3-byte value of undefined signedness, defaulting to unsigned (alias: farword; this alias is deprecated and will be removed in the future)

• long – 4-byte value of undefined signedness, defaulting to unsigned (alias: int32)

• int40, int48,... int128 – even larger types of undefined signedness, defaulting to unsigned

• sbyte – signed 1-byte value (alias: signed8)

• ubyte – unsigned 1-byte value (alias: unsigned8)

• signed16 – signed 2-byte value (experimental)

• unsigned16 – unsigned 2-byte value (experimental)

• pointer – raw pointers; the same as word, but variables of this type default to be zero-page-allocated and you can index pointer-typed expressions. You can create pointer values by suffixing .addr to the name of a variable, function or array.

You can access single bytes of variables by using the following notations:

• for 2-byte-sized variables: .lo for the least significant byte and .hi for the most significant byte

• for larger variables: .b0 for the least significant byte and then .b1, .b2 and so on

You can also access words that are parts of variables:

• for 3-byte-sized variables: .loword is the word formed from .b1 and .b0 and .hiword is the word formed from .b2 and .b1

• for 4-byte-sized variables: .loword is the word formed from .b1 and .b0 and .hiword is the word formed from .b3 and .b2

Numeric types can be converted automatically:

• from a smaller type to a bigger type (byte→word)

• from a type of undefined signedness to a type of defined signedness (byte→sbyte)

• from a type of defined signedness to a type of undefined signedness (sbyte→byte)

Numeric types can be also converted explicitly from a smaller to an equal or bigger size. This is useful in situations like preventing overflow or underflow, or forcing zero extension or sign extension:

byte a
a = 30
a * a         // expression of type byte, equals 132
word(a) * a   // expression of type word, equals 900

word x
byte y
y = $80
x = y         // does zero extension and assigns value $0080
x = sbyte(y)  // does sign extension and assigns value $FF80

You can also explicitly convert expressions of type bool to any numeric type. false is converted to 0 and true is converted to 1.

byte a,b,c
a = 5
b = byte(a == 4) // b is now equal to 0
c = byte(a == 5) // c is now equal to 1

Typed pointers

For every type T, there is a pointer type defined called pointer.T.

Unlike raw pointers, they are not subject to arithmetic.

You can index the pointer like a raw pointer or an array. An expression like p[n] accesses the nth object in an array of consecutive objects pointed to by p.

You can create pointer values by suffixing .pointer to the name of a variable, function or array.

You can replace C-style pointer arithmetic by combining indexing and .pointer: C p+5, Millfork p[5].pointer.

You can use the typed pointer as a raw pointer by suffixing .raw.

Examples:

pointer.t p
p = t1.pointer // assigning a pointer
p.raw       // expression of type pointer, pointing to the same location in memory as 'p'
p.lo        // equivalent to 'p.raw.lo'
p.hi        // equivalent to 'p.raw.lo'
p[0]        // valid only if the type 't' is of size 1 or 2, accesses the pointed element
p[i]        // accessing the ith element; if 'sizeof(t) == 1', then equivalent to 't(p.raw[i])'
p->x        // valid only if the type 't' has a field called 'x', accesses the field 'x' of the pointed element
p->x.y[0]->z[0][6]   // you can stack it
p.raw += sizeof(t) // if p points to an element of an array, then advances it to the next element

nullptr

There is a 2-byte constant nullptr that can be assigned to any 2-byte pointer type. Its actual value is defined using the feature NULLPTR, by default it's 0.

nullptr isn't directly assignable to non-pointer types.

Function pointers

For every type A of size 1 or 2 (or void) and every type B of size 1 or 2 (or void), there is a pointer type defined called function.A.to.B, which represents functions with a signature like this:

B function_name(A parameter)
B function_name()  // if A is void

To call a pointed-to function, use call. Examples:

word i
function.void.to.word p1 = f1.pointer
i = call(p1)
function.byte.to.byte p2 = f2.pointer
i += call(p2, 7)
function.word.to.byte p3 = f3.pointer
i += call(p2, 7)

Using call on 6502 requires at least 4 bytes of zeropage pseudoregister.

The value of the pointer f.pointer may not be the same as the value of the function address f.addr.

Interrupt handler pointers

Functions that are interrupt pointers have their own pointer types:

• pointer.interrupt for hardware interrupt handlers

• pointer.kernal_interrupt for kernal interrupt handlers

pointer.kernal_interrupt is automatically convertible to function.void.to.void

interrupt void handler1(){}
kernal_interrupt void handler2(){}

pointer.interrupt p1
p1 = handler1.pointer
pointer.kernal_interrupt p2
p2 = handler2.pointer
function.void.to.void p3
p3 = handler2.pointer

Boolean types

Boolean types can be used as conditions. They have two possible values, true and false.

• bool – a 1-byte boolean value. An uninitialized variable of type bool may contain an invalid value. The value false is stored as 0, true as 1.

• several boolean types based on the CPU flags that may be used only as a return type for a function written in assembly:

  true if flag set	true if flag clear	6502 flag	6809 flag	8080 flag	Z80 flag	LR35902 flag
  set_carry	clear_carry	C	C	C	C	C
  set_zero	clear_zero	Z	Z	Z	Z	Z
  set_overflow	clear_overflow	V	V	P¹	P/V	n/a²
  set_negative	clear_negative	N	N	S	S	n/a²

  1. 8080 does not have a dedicated overflow flag, so since Z80 reuses the P flag for overflow, 8080 uses the same type names for compatibility.

  2. LR35902 does not support these types due to the lack of appropriate flags

You can convert from a boolean type to an arithmetic type by simply casting:

byte c = byte(x >= 0x80)

Examples:

bool f() = true

bool g(byte x) = x == 7 || x > 100

void do_thing(bool b) { 
    if b { do_one_thing() } 
    else { do_another_thing() }
}

asm set_carry always_true() {
#if ARCH_6502
    SEC
    ? RTS
#elseif ARCH_I80
    SCF
    ? RET
#elseif ARCH_6809
    ORCC #1
    ? RTS
#else
    #error
#endif
}

Special types

• void – a unit type containing no information, can be only used as a return type for a function.

Enumerations

Enumeration is a 1-byte type that represents a set of values:

enum <name> { <variants, separated by commas or newlines> }

The first variant has value 0. Every next variant has a value increased by 1 compared to a previous one.

Alternatively, a variant can be given a custom constant value, which will change the sequence.

If there is at least one variant and no variant is given a custom constant value, then the enumeration is considered plain. Plain enumeration types can be used as array keys. For plain enumerations, a constant <name>.count is defined, equal to the number of variants in the enumeration.

Assignment between numeric types and enumerations is not possible without an explicit type cast:

enum E { EA, EB }
byte b
E e
e = EA      // ok
e = b       // won't compile
b = e       // won't compile
b = byte(e) // ok
e = E(b)    // ok

array a[E]  // E is plain, array has size 2
a[0]        // won't compile
a[EB]       // ok

enum X {}   // enum with no variants
enum Y {    // enum with renumberedvariants
    YA = 5
    YB      // YB is internally represented as 6
}         
array a2[X] // won't compile
array a2[Y] // won't compile

Plain enumerations have their variants equal to byte(0) to byte(<name>.count - 1).

Tip: You can use an enumeration with no variants as a strongly checked alternative byte type, as there are no checks on values when converting bytes to enumeration values and vice versa.

Structs

Struct is a compound type containing multiple fields of various types. A struct is represented in memory as a contiguous area of variables or arrays laid out one after another.

Declaration syntax:

struct <name> [align (alignment)] { <field definitions, separated by commas or newlines>}

where a field definition is either:

• <type> <name> and defines a scalar field,

• or array (<type>) <name> [<size>], which defines an array field, where the array contains items of type <type>, and either contains <size> elements if <size> is a constant expression between 0 and 127, or, if <size> is a plain enumeration type, the array is indexed by that type, and the number of elements is equal to the number of variants in that enumeration.
  (<type>) can be omitted and defaults to byte.

Struct can have a maximum size of 255 bytes. Larger structs are not supported.

You can access a field of a struct with a dot:

struct point { word x, word y }

point p
p.x = 3
p.y.lo = 4

Offsets are available as structname.fieldname.offset:

pointer ptr
ptr = p.addr
ptr += point.y.offset
// ptr points now at p.y

// alternatively:
ptr = p.y.addr

You can create constant expressions of struct types using so-called struct constructors, e.g.:

point(5,6)

All arguments to the constructor must be constant.

Structures declared with an alignment are allocated at appropriate memory addresses. The alignment has to be a power of two.
If the structs with declared alignment are in an array, they are padded with unused bytes. If the struct is smaller that its alignment, then arrays of it are faster than if it were not aligned

struct a align(4) { byte x,byte y, byte z }
struct b          { byte x,byte y, byte z }
array(a) as [4] @ $C000
array(b) bs [4] @ $C800

a[1].addr - a[0].addr // equals 4
b[1].addr - b[0].addr // equals 3
sizeof(a) // equals 16
sizeof(b) // equals 12

return a[i].x // requires 22 or 24 cycles on 6502
return b[i].x // requires 18 cycles on 6502

A struct that contains substructs or subunions with non-trivial alignments has its alignment equal to the least common multiple of the alignments of the substructs and its own declared alignment.

Warning: Limitations of array fields:

• Structs containing arrays cannot be allocated on the stack.

• Struct constructors for structs with array fields are not supported.

Unions

union <name> [align (alignment)] { <field definitions, separated by commas or newlines>}

Unions are pretty similar to structs, with the difference that all fields of the union start at the same point in memory and therefore overlap each other.

struct point { byte x, byte y }
union point_or_word { point p, word w }

point_or_word u
u.p.x = 0
u.p.y = 0
if u.w == 0 { ok() }

Offset constants are also available, but they're obviously all zero.

Unions currently do not have an equivalent of struct constructors. This may be improved on in the future.

Unions with array fields have the same limitations as structs with array fields.