About wAx - Chysn/VIC20-wAx2 GitHub Wiki

wAx is a machine language monitor for the Commodore VIC-20. wAx runs as a BASIC extension. This means that wAx's commands, including assembly, can be executed from BASIC's direct mode, or seamlessly within BASIC programs.

wAx has all of the usual monitor tools like assembly, disassembly, data entry (hex, text, and binary), breakpoint management, search, transfer and fill, compare, memory load and save, that kind of thing.

But it also has features that are unique or uncommon in native assemblers. wAx is a "somewhat symbolic assembler," supporting simple symbols and forward references, arithmetic operators, multi-pass assembly capability, and code relocation. It offers built-in support of 6502 "illegal" opcodes. It provides for code unit testing with an assertion tester and selection of multiple BASIC programs in memory. wAx integrates with BASIC by allowing substitution of BASIC variables into wAx commands.

wAx also has a user plug-in manager, with a documented API so that you can write your own plug-ins. Or, just use some of the built-in plug-ins included with the package!

wAx is an open-source product, released under the M.I.T. license. It was crafted to be the finest native assembler for the VIC-20 that no-money can buy. I hope you enjoy it.

Live Long and Prosper,

Jason

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank everybody who has supported the development of wAx, especially Michael Kircher, who has helped in too may ways to enumerate. But especially, I owe him debts of gratitude for teaching me about I/O operations, pushing me to perfect stack handling, and contributing to the plug-in environment with his relocation code and "knapsack" debugging ideas, and many other things.

Thanks also to Max Certelli for inventing the JollyCart PCB that powers wAxpander. Max helped me finally realize my goals of expanding wAx as a development and debugging platform, while allowing me to bring it to you at a reasonable price. Grazie amico!