Rating: | |
Category: | |
Year released: | |
Author: |
Stuart Ball Robert Probin |
Publisher: |
Lightsoft |
The latest and greatest of Lightsoft's 68k & PowerPC assembler, Fantasm 6, short for "Fantasy asm" or "Fantasy Assembler", was initially sold commercially, like all the previous versions, since 2000. It was later released free of charge by the end of 2002, and became libre software with its source code available by mid 2003.
------------------------------
Download #1 contains the latest version of Fantasm, LIDE, Anvil etc., distributed for free, in .sit format, from December 2002. (Note: No LXT.)
Download #2 is the exact same as download #1, but in .zip format, originally distributed to deal with a StuffIt Expander 8 problem on Mac OS X.
Download #3 contains a little update to complement download #1 or #2. It also recommends updating to the latest version of the MrC compiler, which can be found here (version 5.0d3).
Download #4 contains the final version of the source code in .sit format, from 5 July 2003, as well as two previously-unreleased versions of LXT, called LXT Carbon, being the latest versions of LXT. To compile the source code, "LXT Carbon 1.00" is required, while "LXT Carbon (Development Version)" contains further updates, but has not been tested. The source code contains a partial port to Mac OS X, and updates Anvil to version 3.1.
Download #5 is the exact same as download #4, but distributed as a tarball (.tar.gz).
Download #6 is a little Lightsoft-developed helper app that splits the resource fork of a file into separate data fork files. Comes with its own source code.
Download #7 contains e-mails from a Fantasm Mailing List from July 1998, in a .sit.hqx archive. (The .sit archive within is partially corrupted, and can't be extracted by StuffIt 7.0.3, but StuffIt 5.5.1 or 4.0.1 are able to. The result is a partially-readable e-mail collection.)
It is preserved here for reference and historical purposes.
Download #8 contains a PDF of (32-bit) PowerPC Assembly Language for Beginners with sample projects for Fantasm in binhexed StuffIt archives.
------------------------------
Here's a brief summary of the main tools found in the downloads:
Fantasm 6 - 68k/PPC assembler, supports AltiVec and even the 64-bit 620 PPC processor.
LIDE 3 - Lightsoft IDE
Anvil 3.0 (binary) / 3.1 (source code) - Project Manager, it also supports the C/C++ programming languages and Apple's MrC[pp] compiler. Integration with other programming languages and 3rd party tools is also possible. (Especially with this version.)
LXT Carbon 1.00 / LXT Carbon (Development Version) - Short for "Lightsoft Cross Translation", it translates 68k assembly code into PPC assembly code, meant for porting code originally written in 68k assembly, the ending result of which can be tinkered with to improve PPC performance (to remove translation bloat). It basically applies macros from a list, which can be edited/improved/customized at will.
The "Carbon" version was built on top of LXT 2, the then-latest version, updated for the purpose of building Fantasm, Anvil etc. as a Carbon app.
The downloads also optionally include multiple other tools, such as MacsBug, the AltiVec Emulator and the MrC[pp] compiler. They can all be separately updated. Programs made with Fantasm, and their source codes, are also included, as well as other source code examples, manuals and tutorials.
A registration code was freely given away on the license file. It is 2764000.
------------------------------
Links:
- http://www.lightsoft.co.uk:80/
- http://www.lightsoft.co.uk/Fantasm/fant.html
- http://www.lightsoft.co.uk/support.html (older snapshot with many more useful links directly accessible)
- http://www.lightsoft.co.uk:80/lxt2.html
- Descriptions of some of the included example projects
- Using PPC assembly or C to create Mac OS X Carbon apps with Fantasm
- Testing Fantasm 6 on Mac OS X
- PowerPC Assembly Language for Beginners (written by the authors of Fantasm, PDF)
- Introduction to AltiVec assembly language (also written by Lightsoft)
- AltiVec & Fantasm (+ resources)
- Stuart Ball's blog
- Robert Probin's blog (still live, with author still in touch with Stuart Ball)
- Robert Probin's site (also live)
- http://www.tau.it/lightsoft/ (extremely old Lightsoft website)
- http://website.lineone.net/~lightsoft/main.html (yet another extremely old Lightsoft website)
- http://lightsoft.co.uk:80/forums/Open_Source_Fantasm/ (Contains a few threads regarding the released source code of Fantasm & related tools. Warning: lots of archived bot messages mixed in)
- Lightsoft Forums main page
- Why Fantasm? (MPW vs. Fantasm example)
- Screenshot-filled Guide Tour to using Fantasm
See also: Fantasm 2, Fantasm 3, Fantasm 4 & PowerFantasm 4, Fantasm 5, MPW.
CompatibilitySummary:
SSW 7.1 ~ Mac OS 9.2.2 (PPC recommended)
Mac OS X 10.0 ~ 10.1 (partial compatibility, Classic only)
Mac OS X 10.2+ (very low or no compatibility, Classic only)
Detailed:
Any PPC based Mac, iBook, iMac etc. The software may run on a 680x0 based Mac but we would not recommend it.
6 Megs of free memory to run and Build. More for more complex projects.
System 7.1 or later (not OS X, runs OK in Classic up to 10.1). Whilst Anvil will build just fine under 10.2 - it cannot seem to find Shared Libraries (e.g. Interface Lib) when opening a C project and stalls forever at this point. You will need to force quit Anvil in this case.
256 colour monitor or better (but it'll work with anything).
Comments
If anyone still has LXT 2 somewhere (LXT2.00Apr99.sit.hqx), I'd be eternally grateful.
Though I don't expect it to be easily found. (Maybe some UK Mac compilation CDs between 1999 and 2000 might have it? Or the fabled MacRUS archive, whatever the URL to that, or to a mirror of that, is.)
As a little bonus, here's something else way cool they have written and freely distributed:
PowerPC Assembly Language for Beginners (PDF, archive.org)
Easily the best assembly-related document I have ever read.