HP-49 Series - HPGCC For The 49g+/50g

HPGCC For The 49g+/50g

HPGCC is an implementation of the GCC compiler, released under the GNU GPL. It is now mainly targeted at the ARM based 49g+/50g calculator. Previous versions of HPGCC supported the other ARM based calculator models (the 48gII, and the 39g+/39gs/40gs), but this was removed due to lack of interest and compatibility issues. Formally, HPGCC is a cross-compiler; it compiles code for the ARM-based HP calculators, but runs on a PC rather than the target system.

The latest version of HPGCC offers many enhancements from earlier versions. Most notably, the compiled code is now in ARM Thumb mode by default, resulting in great reduction in code size with little performance hit. Besides implementing most of ANSI C, there are device-specific libraries that allow access to things like the calculator's RPN stack, memory and piezoelectric buzzer. The GCC compiler itself is the property of the Free Software Foundation, and they state that its use does not impose any particular licensing restrictions on any of its output. However, the libraries included with HPGCC, including routines necessary to actually invoke any HPGCC-compiled program on an actual calculator, are released under a modified GPL license, contrary to GCC on many other platforms which use a more permissive license for their libraries. Thus any programs that link against them can only be distributed if they are also released under the GPL (with an exception for "non-profit" software).

Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X versions are available for download. The Windows version also includes a version of Programmer's Notepad for a basic IDE.

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