Editing Setting Up a Programming Environment

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Before you dive into writing Super Nintendo programs, you need the necessary utilities and other things that will simplify your journey of learning how to program this beast.

### Documents ###

1. One great assortment of files was gathered by Qwertie, it contains documents on the cpu, graphics, etc: [snesbase.7z](/uploads/snesbase.7z)
1. Yoshi's docs - Oh wait, that's in the zip above. :) (in the Misc Directory)
1. 65816 Primer - wait, that's in the zip above as well. It's named 65816info.txt (in CPU dir)
1. Asmtutor - Great read for learning 65816 assembly: [Jay's ASM Tutorial](/jay's-asm-tutorial).
1. Save this more advanced, raw technical manual [SNES Dev Manual](/uploads/SNESDevManual.7z)
1. eKid's [pcx2snesWIN.7z](/uploads/pcx2snesWIN.7z) for Windows / [snesimg](http://github.com/MatthewCallis/snesimg) by [Matthew Callis](/matthew-callis) for macOS.

_*Inside Qwertie's package are a few key files you need to have on tap. They are qsnesdoc.html (in Mmio&amp;PPU directory), the entire yoshi directory, and the 65816 primer._

### Development Kits ###
1. Neviksti's Snes Starterkit [SNES-starter-kit.7z](/uploads/SNES-starter-kit.7z)

### The ASSEMBLER ###
I've heard all kinds of SNES assemblers - SNASM, TRASM, X816, etc, but for many reasons, we'll be using [wla-dx-9.2.7z](/uploads/wla-dx-9.2.7z) / [WLA DX 9.2](http://www.villehelin.com/wla_dx_9.2.tar.gz).

#### Where to put all the executables ####
Stick wla-65816 and wlalink into:

C:\WINDOWS\system32\
    /usr/local/bin/ for Linux users

This way you will be able to use them wherever you are, rather then having to put them in a certain directory.

Here is batch and shell script file which fully assembles projects into an SMC. Read their usage notes inside them. The batch is by Neviksti, shell script was converted by me.

**Linux / Mac OS X** : `wla.sh`

#!/bin/sh
    
    echo '[objects]' > temp
    echo $1.obj >> temp
    
    wla-65816 -o $1.obj $1.asm 
    wlalink -vr temp $1.smc
    
    rm $1.obj
    rm temp

**Windows** : `wla.bat`

@echo off
    goto continue
    
    # Notes: to compile EXAMPLE.ASM ---> EXAMPLE.SMC from the command prompt type:  wla EXAMPLE
    
    :continue
    echo [objects] > temp.prj
    echo %1.obj >> temp.prj
    
    echo on
    wla-65816 -o %1.asm %1.obj
    wlalink -vr temp.prj %1.smc
    @echo off
    
    del %1.obj
    del temp.prj

#### The Text Editor ####
Anything... notepad, wordpad, ultra-edit, Textmate some kind of word processor.

Ok, now you have a decent programming environment. Try to organize all the files so they are relative to each other. For instance, make a folder called SNES, and make a sub-directory named "docs," another called "code," etc. You don't have to be organized, but it helps (I've even printed out some docs). Do whatever the hell you want, ok? Alright, we'll start learning some [65816](/65816-reference) ASM in the next tutorial.

On to [Learning 65816 Assembly](/learning-65816-assembly)!

_Tutorial by [bazz](/bazz)_

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