Add an `__oam_used` marker dropped by IrOp::DrawSprite codegen, and
compute a `has_visual_output` flag in the linker from the marker
plus the presence of any user palette / sprite / background. When
that flag is false — i.e. a purely audio- or compute-only program
— the linker skips both the reset-time default palette load and
the `gen_enable_rendering` PPU_MASK write. `gen_init` already
leaves rendering disabled, so the PPU stays silent and palette RAM
stays in its power-on state. ~72 bytes reclaimed for non-visual
programs.
Caveat: audio-only ROMs now display an undefined backdrop colour
instead of the default-palette black. jsnes renders that as a
mid-grey; Mesen/real hardware may vary. Programs that want a
specific backdrop should declare their own palette. The golden
png for `examples/sfx_pitch_envelope` (the one audio-only example
in the set) flips from all-black to all-grey to document this.
`__oam_used` is also consumed by the next two commits (default
smiley CHR gate, OAM DMA gate), so introducing it here keeps the
marker table coherent in one place. Emitting it inline in the
DrawSprite codegen path does shift a handful of peephole-block
boundaries for programs that draw — pixel goldens flip for
`examples/comparisons` by 56 out of 61440 pixels (a one-pixel
sprite-position drift caused by accumulated branch-page-crossing
cycle drift), a cousin of the audio-hash drift already documented
in the prior two commits.
https://claude.ai/code/session_016kM6P7PukktBDqTZexrrAN
Drop __mul_used from IrOp::Mul codegen and __div_used from IrOp::Div
/ IrOp::Mod codegen (modulo reuses the same routine). The linker
skips gen_multiply / gen_divide for programs that never emit the
markers, following the same pattern already used by __audio_used /
__ppu_update_used / __sprite_cycle_used.
The optimizer already rewrites multiplies and divides by constant
powers of two into shifts (and modulo by constant powers of two
into masks), so the markers only fire for genuinely runtime math.
A program like `examples/comparisons.ne` that never multiplies or
divides now reclaims ~56 bytes of PRG; programs that use only one
of the two reclaim the other's share.
Audio goldens flip for every example that uses audio. The .ne
sources are unchanged and the pixel goldens are byte-identical —
the audio stream differs only because removing the math routines
shifts the audio tick's absolute address in PRG by 56 bytes, which
changes which of its internal branches cross 6502 page boundaries
and therefore the per-frame cycle count of a single NMI by 1-5
clocks. Over 180 frames the accumulated drift shifts APU register
write timing enough to render a different digital sample stream
at the same logical wave shape. Expected consequence of ROM-layout
change under cycle-accurate emulation; documented path per
CLAUDE.md "Updating goldens".
https://claude.ai/code/session_016kM6P7PukktBDqTZexrrAN
Every NEScript condition (`if x < N`, `while i < end`, etc.)
lowers in two IR ops: `CmpX(d, a, b)` materializes a 0/1
boolean into temp `d`, and the block's terminator
`Branch(d, t, f)` reads `d` and branches on it. The codegen
faithfully emitted both halves — `LDA / CMP / branch-to-true /
LDA #0 / JMP done / true: LDA #1 / done:`, then later
`LDA d_slot / BNE branch_t / JMP branch_f` — about 14 cycles +
13 bytes per condition.
The 6502's natural pattern is one `CMP` + one branch on the
flags it just set: 8 cycles, no register-clobber, no temp slot.
Detect the canonical pattern in `gen_block` (last op is an 8-bit
`CmpX` whose dest temp is what the terminator branches on, with
no other uses) and emit the fused form directly via a new
`gen_cmp_branch` helper. The temp's allocation, store, load, and
the terminator's branch fall away.
Bookkeeping subtlety: the source temps `a`/`b` must be retired
*after* the fused emit, not before — the original `gen_op` order
is "emit body of op, then `retire_op_sources`". Decrementing
their use counts before the CMP would free their slots while
they were still live; `load_temp(a)` would then re-allocate `a`
to whatever stale slot the free list popped next. Got hit by
this on the first attempt — the SHA-256 example dutifully
returned all-zero hashes until the order was fixed.
Updated `ir_codegen_local_label_suffix_is_bank_namespaced`: the
test was relying on `if x == 0` to emit `__ir_cmp_*` labels for
its bank-namespacing check, which the fusion now collapses into
direct branches. Switched the test source to a shift-by-variable
pattern (`x = x << n`), which always emits `__ir_shift_loop_*`
labels regardless of future cmp/branch optimizations.
Cycle savings: ~6 cycles per condition. The SHA-256 rotate
loops alone account for ~9K cycles per block. Across all
examples the cycle drift shows up as audio-tick phase shifts
in five timing-sensitive ROMs (`audio_demo`, `friendly_assets`,
`noise_triangle_sfx`, `platformer`, `sfx_pitch_envelope`); the
goldens for those are refreshed in this commit, plus
`platformer.gif` (the only demo gif whose bytes actually moved).
Verified: cargo test/clippy/fmt clean on rustc 1.95.0;
emulator harness 34/34; reproducibility diff clean; SHA-256 of
"NES" still computes to AE9145DB…4E0D.
https://claude.ai/code/session_01FRmSBruVWCufm3LsUVMs8v
Adds six NES-friendly authoring shortcuts so programs don't have to
hand-pack hex bytes for every kind of art asset. Every new syntax is
strictly additive — existing examples keep their byte-identical ROMs
and goldens.
* palette: ~50 named NES colours (`black`, `sky_blue`, `dk_red`, …)
usable anywhere a colour byte is expected, plus a grouped-form
`bg0..sp3` + `universal:` shape that auto-fills every sub-
palette's first byte (fixing the `$3F10` mirror trap).
* sprite: `pixels:` ASCII-art alternative to 16-byte CHR, supporting
multi-tile sprites split in row-major reading order.
* sfx: scalar `pitch:` matching the v1 driver's latch-once behaviour,
plus `envelope:` as a friendlier alias for `volume:`.
* music: `tempo:` default duration + note-name notes (`C4, Eb4,
rest 10`) alongside the existing `pitch, duration` pair form.
* background: `legend { '.': 0, '#': 1 }` + `map:` string rows,
plus `palette_map:` grids that auto-pack the 64-byte attribute
table from 16×15 sub-palette digits.
A new `examples/friendly_assets.ne` exercises every shortcut at once
with a matching pixel + audio golden; the other 22 golden tests still
match byte-for-byte.
https://claude.ai/code/session_01PzaSFj3VahDzxEYTKCESkz
