NBC/NXC to NXT compiler

Adapted from Bricxcc by John Hansen (see http://bricxcc.sourceforge.net/nbc/). This is based on the latest available release, 1.2.1.r4. I just tried to compile it on a up-to-date Linux distribution (because this is the target language of my compiler project for a CS lesson), because the provided Linux binary was not working anymore. I also moved and edited a few stuff, because the file organization was a mess.

I do not plan on fixing bugs or anything ;) If you are a CS student in the University of Namur, you probably know where to find me for (some kind of) support, though.

Also, I'm not supporting Windows and Mac compilation at the moment (but PR are welcomed if someone is motivated enough, the tricky part is probably to get the pascal compiler and libusb). There are already binaries for those operating systems, but I didn't test them.

Compile that in Linux

Note: on Uuntu, there is also a nbc package if you prefer. The one in Fedora is a bit outdated, so this explain why I tried to compile it.

Check your package distribution for something that looks like fpc and install it, or go to the page for the latest version of the compiler, download and install what corresponds to your distribution ;
Check your package distribution for something that looks like libusb-dev and install it ;
Clone this repository ;
Compile the compiler: make all. If everything goes well, there should be a nbc executable file in your folder.
Test that everything goes well, by using ./nbc tests/bools.nbc. The output should look like

# Status: NBC compilation begins
# Status: Compiling for firmware version 128, NBC/NXC enhanced = FALSE
# Status: Loading NBC system files
# Status: Running NBC Preprocessor
# Status: Include path = /home/pierre/code/nbc-compiler/;/usr/local/include/nbc/;tests/
# Status: Processing include: NBCCommon.h
# Status: Compiling NBC source code
# Status: Finished compiling NBC source code
# Status: Finalizing dependencies
# Status: Optimizing at level 1
# Status: Build codespace references
# Status: Optimize mutexes
# Status: Compact the codespace
# Status: Remove unused labels
# Status: Compact the dataspace
# Status: Sort the dataspace
# Status: Generate raw dataspace data
# Status: Fill clump and codespace arrays
# Status: Update executable file header
# Status: Write file header to executable
# Status: Write dataspace to executable
# Status: Write clump data to executable
# Status: Write code to executable
# Status: Write optimized source to compiler output
# Status: Finished

If so, you are good :)

Using it

There is some help:

$ ./nbc -help
Next Byte Codes Compiler version 1.2 (1.2.1.r4, built Sat 04 Apr 2020 12:07:06 PM CEST)
     Copyright (c) 2006-2010, John Hansen
Syntax: nbc [options] filename [options]

   -S=<portname>: specify port name (usb), brick resource name, or alias
   -d: download program
   -r: download and run program
   -b: treat input file as a binary file (don't compile it)
   -q: quiet
   -n: prevent the system file from being included
   -D=<sym>[=<value>]: define macro <sym>
   -x: decompile program
   -Z[1|2]: turn on compiler optimizations
   -ER=n: set maximum errors before aborting (0 == no limit)
   -PD=n: set max preprocessor recursion depth (default == 10)
   -O=<outfile> : specify output file
   -E=<filename> : write compiler messages to <filename>
   -I=<path>: search <path> for include files
   -nbc=<filename> : save NXC intermediate NBC code to <filename>
   -L=<filename> : generate code listing to <filename>
   -Y=<filename> : generate symbol table to <filename>
   -w[-|+] : warnings off or on (default is on)
   -sm[-|+] : status messages off or on (default is on)
   -EF : enhanced firmware
   -safecall: NXC will wrap all function calls in Acquire/Release
   -api: dump the API to stdout
   -v=n: set the targeted firmware version (default == 128, NXT 1.1 == 105)
   -help : display command line options

... But basically, the only thing you need is

/path/to/nbc /path/to/input.nbc -O=/path/to/output.rxe

The -O= part is only required if you wan to execute your program latter in a simulator, like this one. There is a port of their interpreter available here.

Also note that right after the execution of this command, echo $? is either 0 if the compilation went well, 1 if it is not the case, so that should allow for some CI/testing procedure.

pierre-24 / nbc-compiler

NBC/NXC to NXT compiler

Compile that in Linux

Using it

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