• Just a reminder that providing specifics on, sharing links to, or naming websites where ROMs can be accessed is against the rules. If your post has any of this information it will be removed.
  • Ever thought it'd be cool to have your art, writing, or challenge runs featured on PokéCommunity? Click here for info - we'd love to spotlight your work!
  • PokéCommunity's Easter Egg Hunt is now on! If you're interested in looking for some eggs and earning badges, click here!
  • Our weekly protagonist poll is now up! Vote for your favorite Conquest protagonist in the poll by clicking here.
  • Welcome to PokéCommunity! Register now and join one of the best fan communities on the 'net to talk Pokémon and more! We are not affiliated with The Pokémon Company or Nintendo.
    Register

Tool: THUMB Editor & Assembler

karatekid552

What happens if I push it?....
    • 1,771
    Posts
    12
    Years

    THUMB Editor & Assembler


    So, I have always wanted to have a front end for HackMew's compiler since writing it up in notepad, opening up the command prompt, compiling the binary, and then dumping the contents into a rom honestly was just a little annoying, especially since I screw my code up so much and have to recompile far too many times. haha Either way, I finally got around to it. What this program is, is it is a very basic IDE for THUMB code that supports direct compiling to the rom, as well as a few other features:

    ~Simple syntax highlighting
    ~Test Compile
    ~Output to Binary
    ~Customize all editor colors
    ~.org dependent rom compiling
    ~Quick comment insertion

    Syntax highlighting:
    So, with this part, I really just wanted to improve the readability of code with a little bit of color. So, I added three types of highlighting: comments, large numbers, and labels.

    -Comments are anything between "/*" and "*/" and get highest prioity over the other highlighting, meaning if you comment out code, it won't get the other highlighting (like a normal text editor).

    -Labels are the heading for each section of your code, so in this piece:

    Code: 
    Main:    ldr r5, .new_bg_table
        push {r5}
        push {r1}
        bl varloader
    Main (and varloader) are considered labels. I honestly don't know what the real term for them is, but that is what I call them, otherwise they would just be "things ending in colons". These have the lowest priority.

    -Large Numbers are like labels, but they serve to define static numbers that are larger than one byte. Most of the time, they look like this:

    Code: 
    .new_bg_table:    .word    0x08F10000
    As you can see, they have the same format as labels. So, I made it simple: if you start it with a period, it will get large number highlighting, and if you don't, it will get label highlighting. Now, I know I could have run a search to see if the next charactors were .word/.hword but I did it this way, so don't yell at me.:P (If you want it changed, by all means do so, the source code is right there will the download, haha)


    Test Compile:
    This option will basically compile your ASM into a binary and either return the errors or an "Assembled Successfully" message. Good for a quick test to make sure your code compiles. All temp files *should* get deleted once it is done.


    Output to Binary:
    This option works just like HackMew's batch file, the only difference being a "save as" dialog vs command line.


    Customize all editor colors:
    I really hope this doesn't need an explanation.......


    .org dependent rom compiling:
    This was a fun feature to implement. If your ASM has a .org, use this option, as it will jump ahead in your output file to that offset and start working from there. Without this, if you were to compile to the rom, you would get at ton of 00's inserted instead of your code.:P Currently, it doesn't search for the .org, you provide it, but I would like to automate that in the future.


    Quick Comment Insertion:
    Typing "/* */" can be cumbersome if you are moving quickly, so I just added a new feature: hit "ctrl+q" to quickly add a new comment. PLEASE comment your code. It helps so much.



    ---
    I have been working on this for a while, and I released it on PHO on Nov. 16, but it wasn't the program I wanted it to be then. It had a lot of issues like: no normal saving, compiling required a console window open, the "open file" window didn't save where you were, etc. However, all of the big usage issues have been fixed and it is much more user friendly. So, now I'm finally releasing here on PC.

    This program is in no way a response to ~Andrea's compiler. We took separate routes on this one and I urge anyone to try both and see which one you like best. Here is a link to that thread: https://www.pokecommunity.com/threads/314358

    This program is written in Python and therefore doesn't need the .net framework which allows it to run very well under wine if you are on Linux. (Main reason I use Python, haha.) The only reason it requires wine is because it runs the as.exe and objcopy.exe that HackMew's batch file used (hence, it being a "front-end gui") which only run under a Windows environment.

    The future:

    What I need to do:
    -On close, it will NOT prompt you to save. I really need to add that in, but I haven't gotten to it yet.
    -There is only a "save as" function, no regular just "save". Not a necessity, but it would be nice.
    -Automated .org finding.
    -Force pop-ups to stay in the foreground.
    -Undo/Redo suck. No other way to put it. The Tkinter undo module is awful and I need to find a better way to do it.

    What I might do:
    -Customizable syntax highlighting so you can define your own highlights.
    -More options like word wrap, disable syntax highlighting (you could just change all of the colors to match the foreground, but yeah...), and font changes.

    Bugs:

    None yet.:D

    Screenshots:

    Spoiler:



    Disclaimer:

    Please, always back up your roms. This program has been tested, but not extensively and something could go wrong. I am not responsible for a destroyed hack.

    Download:

    *Please note that this is my first ever GUI program, so the code is very messy and a little inefficient.




    ~karatekid552
     
    Last edited:
    Congratulations on the release of a great tool! Lazy people like myself really appreciate the hard working people like yourself :P

    While realizing the only purpose of this tool is to compile ASM code, I do have some suggestions that may help ease the process for the user.
    The first one is to include a formatter. I'm not sure if you've seen one before, but generally good program tools have a format option that formats your code to be readable (note this doesn't fix bugged code). The second is to highlight errors and give error messages(the messages are a nice bonus, but jsut highlighting is great in and of itself).

    I could help you with the formatter, but the error messages you're gonna have to do yourself :P
     
    FBI agent said:
    Congratulations on the release of a great tool! Lazy people like myself really appreciate the hard working people like yourself :P

    While realizing the only purpose of this tool is to compile ASM code, I do have some suggestions that may help ease the process for the user.
    The first one is to include a formatter. I'm not sure if you've seen one before, but generally good program tools have a format option that formats your code to be readable (note this doesn't fix bugged code). The second is to highlight errors and give error messages(the messages are a nice bonus, but jsut highlighting is great in and of itself).

    I could help you with the formatter, but the error messages you're gonna have to do yourself :P
    Click to expand...

    Thanks man.:P

    Personally, the formatter would HAVE to be customize able, since everyone has a different format to their ASM that they like. However, things like auto-indent and such would be easy options and a nice touch.

    The program already returns error messages from a compile, but checking for them as you type would be cool. However, the way I have been doing the syntax highlighting (searching for patterns using the built in search function and regular expressions) won't work, as I am beginning to notice a lag if I add another search area.
     
    Just updated! xGal, I added your base converter. (May eventually add a full programmers calculator if I feel like it.:P) I also fixed a couple of saving bugs. (Nothing that would corrupt your save or anything, just annoying things about saving prompts.)
     
    As I've said before, seriously love this tool, it's really good.
    I figured a glowing testimony here wouldn't do any harm :p
     
    The download link is broken
     
    Download should be working again. I must have forgotten to remove the ad links when I was purging them from my other stuff. Sorry for any inconvenience. They now link directly to GitHub. If this is an issue, someone please email [email protected] as I am not very active anymore due to a crazy life.

    Remember, this was my first program I ever wrote so it can have issues. Back up your roms!:)
     
    karatekid552 said:
    Download should be working again. I must have forgotten to remove the ad links when I was purging them from my other stuff. Sorry for any inconvenience. They now link directly to GitHub. If this is an issue, someone please email [email protected] as I am not very active anymore due to a crazy life.

    Remember, this was my first program I ever wrote so it can have issues. Back up your roms!:)
    Click to expand...

    Yayks!
    Thanks for this tool!
     
    The tool looks great! Now I can use this instead of Notepad, and HackMew's compiler.
     
    You must log in or register to reply here.
    Back
    Top