Automatic LD to LDH conversion (rgbasm -l)

Deprecated in 0.7.0, removed in 0.8.0.

rgbasm(1) used to automatically treat ‘LD’ as ‘LDH’ if the address was known to be in the $FF00-$FFFF range, with the -L flag to opt out. rgbasm(1) 0.6.0 added a -l flag to opt in instead.

Instead, use ‘LDH’, and remove the -L and -l flags from rgbasm(1).

Automatic NOP after HALT (rgbasm -H)

Deprecated in 0.7.0, removed in 0.8.0.

rgbasm(1) used to automatically insert a ‘NOP’ after ‘HALT’, with the -h flag to opt out. rgbasm(1) 0.6.0 added a -H flag to opt in instead.

Instead, use an explicit ‘NOP’ after ‘HALT’, and remove the -h and -H flags from rgbasm(1).

Nested macro definitions

Removed in 0.4.2.

Instead, put the nested macro definition inside a quoted string (making sure that none of its lines start with ENDM), then interpolate that string. For example:

MACRO outer
    DEF definition EQUS """
        MACRO inner
            println (\1) - (\\1)
        \nENDM"""
    {definition}
    PURGE definition
ENDM
    outer 10
    inner 3 ; prints 7

Negative DS

Removed in 0.3.2.

This was used to "rewind" the value of @ in RAM sections, allowing labeled space allocations to overlap.

Instead, use UNION.

__FILE__ and __LINE__

Deprecated in 0.6.0, removed in 0.7.0.

Instead, use WARN or FAIL to print a complete trace of filenames and line numbers.

_PI

Deprecated in 0.5.0, removed in 0.6.0.

Instead, use ‘3.141592653’.

Treating multi-character strings as numbers

Deprecated in 0.9.0.

Instead, use a multi-value CHARMAP, or explicitly combine the values of individual characters.

rgbgfx -f/--fix and -F/--fix-and-save

Removed in 0.6.0.

Instead, use ‘rgbgfx -c/--colors’ to explicitly specify a color palette. If using ‘-c embedded’, arrange the PNG's indexed palette in a separate graphics editor.

rgbgfx -D/--debug

Removed in 0.6.0.

Defining constants and variables without DEF

Deprecated in 0.7.0, removed in 0.8.0.

EQU, EQUS, =, RB, RW, and RL definitions used to just start with the symbol name, but had to be typed in column 1.

Instead, use DEF before constant and variable definitions. Note that EQUS expansion does not occur for the symbol name, so you have to use explicit ‘{interpolation}’.

Defining macros like labels

Deprecated in 0.6.0, removed in 0.7.0.

Macros used to be defined as ‘name: MACRO’.

Instead, use ‘MACRO name’. Note that EQUS expansion does not occur for the macro name, so you have to use explicit ‘{interpolation}’.

Defining variables with SET

Deprecated in 0.5.2, removed in 0.6.0.

Variables used to be defined as ‘name SET value’.

Instead, use ‘DEF name = value’.

Global labels without colons

Deprecated in 0.4.0, removed in 0.5.0.

Labels used to be definable with just a name, but had to be typed in column 1.

Instead, use explicit colons; for example, ‘Label:’ or exported ‘Label::’.

'\,' in strings within macro arguments

Deprecated in 0.5.0, removed in 0.7.0.

Macro arguments now handle quoted strings and parenthesized expressions as single arguments, so commas inside them are not argument separators and do not need escaping.

Instead, just use commas without backslashes.

'*' comments

Deprecated in 0.4.1, removed in 0.5.0.

These comments had to have the ‘*’ typed in column 1.

Instead, use ‘;’ comments.

PRINTT, PRINTI, PRINTV, and PRINTF

Deprecated in 0.5.0, removed in 0.6.0.

These directives were each specific to one type of value.

Instead, use PRINT and PRINTLN, with STRFMT or ‘{interpolation}’ for type-specific formatting.

IMPORT and XREF

Removed in 0.4.0.

Symbols are now automatically resolved if they were exported from elsewhere.

Instead, just remove these directives.

GLOBAL and XDEF

Deprecated in 0.4.2, removed in 0.5.0.

Instead, use EXPORT.

HOME, CODE, DATA, and BSS

Deprecated in 0.3.0, removed in 0.4.0.

Instead of HOME, use ROM0; instead of CODE and DATA, use ROMX; instead of BSS, use WRAM0.

JP [HL]

Deprecated in 0.3.0, removed in 0.4.0.

Instead, use ‘JP HL’.

LDI A, HL and LDD A, HL

Deprecated in 0.3.0, removed in 0.4.0.

Instead, use ‘LDI A, [HL]’ and ‘LDD A, [HL]’ (or ‘LD A, [HLI]’ and ‘LD A, [HLD]’; or ‘LD A, [HL+]’ and ‘LD A, [HL-]’).

LDIO

Deprecated in 0.9.0.

Instead, use ‘LDH’.

LD [C], A and LD A, [C]

Deprecated in 0.9.0.

Instead, use ‘LDH [C], A’ and ‘LDH A, [C]’.

Note that ‘LD [$FF00+C], A’ and ‘LD A, [$FF00+C]’ were also deprecated in 0.9.0, but were undeprecated in 0.9.1.

LDH [n8], A and LDH A, [n8]

Deprecated in 0.9.0.

‘LDH’ used to treat "addresses" from $00 to $FF as if they were the low byte of an address from $FF00 to $FFFF.

Instead, use ‘LDH [n16], A’ and ‘LDH A, [n16]’.

LD HL, [SP + e8]

Deprecated in 0.3.0, removed in 0.4.0.

Instead, use ‘LD HL, SP + e8’.

LDHL SP, e8

Supported in ASMotor, removed in RGBDS.

Instead, use ‘LD HL, SP + e8’.

rgbasm -i

Deprecated in 0.6.0, removed in 0.8.0.

Instead, use -I or --include.

rgbgfx -h

Removed in 0.6.0.

Instead, use -Z or --columns.

rgbgfx --output-*

Deprecated in 0.7.0, removed in 0.8.0.

Instead, use --auto-*.

Trigonometry function units

Changed in 0.6.0.

Instead of dividing a circle into 65536.0 "binary degrees", it is now divided into 1.0 "turns".

For example, previously we had:

• ‘SIN(0.25) == 0.00002’, because 0.25 binary degrees = $0.25/65536.0$ turns = $0.000004\tau$ radians = $0.000008\pi$ radians, and $\sin (0.000008\pi )=0.00002$
• ‘SIN(16384.0) == 1.0’, because 16384.0 binary degrees = $16384.0/65536.0$ turns = $0.25\tau$ radians = $\pi /2$ radians, and $\sin (\pi /2)=1$
• ‘ASIN(1.0) == 16384.0’

Instead, now we have:

• ‘SIN(0.25) == 1.0’, because $0.25$ turns = $0.25\tau$ radians = $\pi /2$ radians, and $\sin (\pi /2)=1$
• ‘SIN(16384.0) == 0.0’, because $16384$ turns = $16384\tau$ radians = $32768\pi$ radians, and $\sin (32768\pi )=0$
• ‘ASIN(1.0) == 0.25’

** operator associativity

Changed in 0.9.0.

Instead of being left-associative, ‘**’ is now right-associative.

Previously we had ‘p ** q ** r == (p ** q) ** r’.

Instead, now we have ‘p ** q ** r == p ** (q ** r)’.

Space between exported labels' colons

Fixed in 0.7.0.

Labels with two colons used to ignore a space between them; for example, ‘Label: :’.

Instead, use ‘Label::’.

Space between label and colon

Fixed in 0.9.0.

Space between a label and its colon(s) used to be ignored; for example, ‘Label :’ and ‘Label ::’. Now they are treated as invocations of the ‘Label’ macro with ‘:’ and ‘::’ as arguments.

Instead, use ‘Label:’ and ‘Label::’.

ADD r16 with implicit first HL operand

Fixed in 0.5.0.

For example, ‘ADD BC’ used to be treated as ‘ADD HL, BC’, and likewise for ‘DE’, ‘HL’, and ‘SP’.

Instead, use an explicit first ‘HL’ operand.

= instead of SET

Fixed in 0.4.0.

The = operator used to be an alias for the SET keyword, which included using = for the SET instruction.

Instead, just use SET for the instruction.