millfork VS cowgol

Well from the pov of machine or assembly code, C is without a doubt a high level language.

But at the same time it's the lowest-level high-level language.

(there are a couple of interesting 'mid-level' languages for 8-bit processors though, like Millfork: https://github.com/KarolS/millfork)

Take a look at millfork, it's similar to what you're trying to do

There are no doubt some systems still running under emulation doing the same thing as they were 40 years ago. But the truth is CP/M is dead. Long live CP/M!

It's just hobbyists now. One hacker ported his game to a Kaypro under CP/M a couple years ago: http://www.chrisfenton.com/dd9-kaypro-edition/

Much of the focus is on porting CP/M to whatever new or old Z80 system someone has built or found. I can't think of anything particularly dazzling besides the above, in terms of recent new programs, but here are some pointers if you wanted to write something yourself!

RunCPM is a CP/M Z80 virtual machine under modern OSes for development etc. https://github.com/MockbaTheBorg/RunCPM

CP/Mish is an attempt to bring all the free software CP/M tools together. It is to CP/M as Linux is to UNIX, or FreeDOS is to MS-DOS. A mostly complete, improved, libre reimplementation: https://github.com/davidgiven/cpmish

Also from David Given (and not CP/M specific) is Cowgol. Alpha quality. But it's a self-hosted Pascal/Ada-like language with compiler. Runs on 8-bit systems, at least theoretically. It is written, of course, entirely in Cowgol: https://github.com/davidgiven/cowgol

Millfork is a language which targets CP/M systems, among others. It's a whole-program optimizing compiler for a language somewhat lower level than C, with properties that make it very nice to compile for 8-bit systems like no recursion, and no automatic promotion to 16-bit integers in type handling: https://github.com/KarolS/millfork

SDCC supports the platform with C surprisingly well. I wouldn't call it rock-solid but compared to the above toys it is an industrial quality compiler for the Z80. In fact, C seems to be the most common actual language for hobbyist and the little remaining serious Z80 development, probably ahead of assembly.

If it just reads and writes the terminal and can fit in 64 KB, then a port is probably straightforward.

My compiler architecture uses table-based backends, and the 8080 implementation ends up being 1600 lines, most of which is boilerplate: https://github.com/davidgiven/cowgol/blob/master/src/cowbe/arch8080.cow.ng

There are no doubt some systems still running under emulation doing the same thing as they were 40 years ago. But the truth is CP/M is dead. Long live CP/M!

It's just hobbyists now. One hacker ported his game to a Kaypro under CP/M a couple years ago: http://www.chrisfenton.com/dd9-kaypro-edition/

Much of the focus is on porting CP/M to whatever new or old Z80 system someone has built or found. I can't think of anything particularly dazzling besides the above, in terms of recent new programs, but here are some pointers if you wanted to write something yourself!

RunCPM is a CP/M Z80 virtual machine under modern OSes for development etc. https://github.com/MockbaTheBorg/RunCPM

CP/Mish is an attempt to bring all the free software CP/M tools together. It is to CP/M as Linux is to UNIX, or FreeDOS is to MS-DOS. A mostly complete, improved, libre reimplementation: https://github.com/davidgiven/cpmish

Also from David Given (and not CP/M specific) is Cowgol. Alpha quality. But it's a self-hosted Pascal/Ada-like language with compiler. Runs on 8-bit systems, at least theoretically. It is written, of course, entirely in Cowgol: https://github.com/davidgiven/cowgol

Millfork is a language which targets CP/M systems, among others. It's a whole-program optimizing compiler for a language somewhat lower level than C, with properties that make it very nice to compile for 8-bit systems like no recursion, and no automatic promotion to 16-bit integers in type handling: https://github.com/KarolS/millfork

SDCC supports the platform with C surprisingly well. I wouldn't call it rock-solid but compared to the above toys it is an industrial quality compiler for the Z80. In fact, C seems to be the most common actual language for hobbyist and the little remaining serious Z80 development, probably ahead of assembly.

If it just reads and writes the terminal and can fit in 64 KB, then a port is probably straightforward.