Documentation Homepage HAMLib reference Back to HAM Homepage

Macro Types

General Layout of a HAM hardware macro:

<type>_<register_name>_<action> [ (parameters) ]

type

The Type determines if this macro will modify something in hardware, or just return a value, return a pointer to a specific adress in the GBA memory or Input/Output system, or other things.

• F_ returns a value
• M_ returns no value
• R_ is the adress of a register
• C_ is a constant
• MEM_ returns memory locations
• TOOL_ is a collection of macros

register_name

Denotes the name of the register the macro is related to. Applied in all HAM macros where the operation is carried out on a single register. see include/mygba.h for a list of values. there are many.

action

Basically the real "name" of the macro. This should be the component of the name that makes you recognize what it does see include/mygba.h for a list of values. there are many.

parameters

If a macro takes parameters (mostly TOOL_ and M_ macros), you supply them in brackets after the macro name see include/mygba.h for a list of values. there are many.

M_BG2CNT_MOSAIC_SET_ON

We can, according to the rules above, extract the following info about this macro:

• it will not return a value after being called (M_ type)
• it operates on the BG2 Control Register (BG2CNT)
• it does "MOSAIC_SET_ON", on this register, so we can assume this turns on Mosaic support for the BG, and we are dam right. This is what it does.

If you need assistance in finding macro names, I can wholeheartedly suggest a Program called VisualAssist from WholeTomato software, which is a Intellisense enhancer fro Visual C++ (my favourite Source code editor). It works very well with HAM, you should try it. Also, VisualHAM includes MacroLookup functionality in its newer versions.