Programmer 7500/MAX_PROGRAMMERS.iso/INFO/ASM/A86A.ZIP/AREAD_ME.DOC

Text File | 1986-11-16 | 13.3 KB | 254 lines

A86 assembler package   V2.18   (V2.16 XREF and EXMAC)      November 16,1986
The entire package is Copyright (C)1986 Eric Isaacson. All rights reserved.

For easier bulletin-board distribution, I have split this package into two
ARC files, A86A.ARC and A86B.ARC.  The first half contains enough to get you
started; you can evaluate the package and then download the second half later
on.


Introduction

A86 is the finest assembler available, at any cost under any terms, for the
86-family of microprocessors (IBM-PC, compatibles, and not-so-compatibles).
In contrast to software firms who attempt to restrict the distribution of their
products via protection-schemes, I encourage free distribution, and trust that
those who use my products will pay for them.

Please keep in mind the fundamental good spirit of free-distribution software
as you endure the following barrage of legalities.  Then evaluate the
outstanding value that the A86 package offers you.  I assure you that you will
not be disappointed.


Legal Terms and Conditions

This package is provided to you under the following conditions:

1. You may copy this entire package, and give it to anyone who accepts these
   terms.  The copies you distribute must be complete and unmodified.  You
   do not have to be registered to distribute this package.

2. You may execute the programs in this package, in order to evaluate them.
   If you decide that any of this package is of use to you, you must become a
   registered user by sending $40 US to:

      Eric Isaacson
      416 E. University Street
      Bloomington, IN 47401

   Registered users may order update-diskettes (5.25 inch, double density)
   for $10 US, plus enough to cover extra postage if you are overseas. (In
   other words, send $50 if you want to register and get an immediate
   update-diskette.)  Once you register for this package, you are entitled to a
   life-time of updates of this package, at $10 each, as long is I am in
   business and willing to cash your $10 checks.  (Well, let's make that 10
   1986-dollars.  If rampant inflation sets in, I reserve the right to raise
   prices accordingly.)  Indiana residents add sales tax.

   I have a combination offer for the A86 and D86 packages.  Instead of
   $40 + $40 = $80, I charge $70 for both.

   Educational institutions and training facilities MUST be registered in order
   to use A86 in courses.  Contact me for special terms.

   Companies and government agencies MUST be registered in order to use A86 for
   their work.  Again, contact me for special terms.

3. You may not sell this package to anyone.  If you distribute this package
   on a diskette, any fees you collect must be specified as materials/handling,
   and may not exceed $10 for the diskette.

4. You are completely responsible for determining the fitness or usability of
   this package.  I will not be liable for any damages, of any kind, arising
   from any failure of any programs in this package to perform as expected.

5. You must be a registered user to sell or distribute any programs that you
   have written or modified using this assembler.  If you do sell or distribute
   such programs, you must insure that your registered name (company or
   individual) will always be distributed with the program, so that I can
   verify your registration.  Any individual or company found to be violating
   these terms will liable for triple registration fees for every machine
   they own capable of running my assembler (plus any legal and court costs).

6. This assembler uses a code-generation "footprint" that will enable me to
   tell, and to demonstrate in a court of law, if a non-trivial object file has
   been produced by my assembler.  The specification for this "footprint" is
   sufficiently obscure and complicated that it would be impossible to
   duplicate by accident.  I claim exclusive rights to the particular
   "footprint" I have chosen, and prohibit anyone from duplicating it.  This
   has at least two specific implications:

   a. Any assembler that duplicates the "footprint" is mine.  If it is not
      identified as mine and issued under these terms, then those who sell
      or distribute the assembler will be subject to prosecution.

   b. Any program marked with the "footprint" has been produced by my
      assembler.  It is subject to condition 5 above.

   *** NOTE: If you have the impression that the "footprint" adds bytes to your
       program file, you are wrong.  You retain complete control over the object
       code generated.  A86 takes advantage of situations in which more than one
       set of object codes can be generated for a given instruction: the
       "footprint" consists of a complicated mix of choices in such situations.


Overview of A86

A86 accepts assembly-language source files, and transforms them directly into
either: (1) .COM files executable under MS-DOS, starting at offset 0100 within
a code segment; or (2) object files starting at offset 0, suitable for copying
to ROMs.  A86 is a full-featured, professional-quality program. I designed A86
to be as closely compatible to the standard Intel/IBM assembly language as
possible, given that I insisted upon making design and language enhancements
necessary to make A86 the world's finest assembler.  Some of A86's most notable
features are:

* A86 is blazingly fast.  Don't believe the advertisements of that other, big
  company.  THIS is the fastest MSDOS macro assembler, bar none. On an 8MHz AT
  with hard disk drives, A86 assembles a large program at a rate of over a
  thousand lines per second. That's per second.  NOT per minute, per second.

* A86 is simple to use.  You can feed it a program containing just machine
  instructions, without the red-tape (NAME, ASSUME, SEGMENT PARA PUBLIC,
  PROC, ENDP, END, PUBLIC, EXTRN, etc. etc.) necessary with other assemblers.
  The output of A86 is a .COM file, ready to execute immediately.  You
  don't have to go through a linker.  (If you have programs written for
  that other assembler containing the red-tape directives, you may leave
  them in: A86 knows about them, and is programmed to happily ignore them.)

* In spite of its simplicity, A86 encourages modular programming, with
  separately-developed source files.  This is because A86 assembles multiple
  source files in its invocation line; and because A86 assembles source files
  faster than other people's linkers can link their object files.  You get all
  the advantages of relocation/linkage systems (building up libraries of
  reliable program modules that you can piece together), without the
  disadvantages (excessive, time-and-source-code-wasting, confusing red tape).

* A86 has ample capacity for really large programming projects.  Its symbol-
  table capacity is approximately 1500 10-letter symbols, plus room for
  8K-bytes of compressed macro-definition text.  (10 letters is an average
  symbol length; A86 recognizes up to 31 letters in a symbol.)  Plus, A86's
  generic local-label facility effectively doubles your symbol table capacity.

* A86 has language extension features that, once you start using, you'll
  never want to do without.  These include multiple operands to PUSH and POP;
  conditional returns; MOV from one segment register to another; assembly-time
  assertion checking; based structures; and IF (flag) (statement).

* A86's macro-processor is the world's finest assembler macro facility.  Its
  looping and text concatenation abilities let you define sophisticated macros,
  whose calls look just like the machine instructions that surround them;
  without the clumsy invocation-syntax required by other macro-processors of
  A86's power.

* A86 provides clear, English error messages, given right at the point in the
  source code where A86 detected the error.  The messages are actually inserted
  into your source file, where you can read them and correct your code at the
  same time.  (Fear not: your original source is preserved in *.OLD if you want
  it.)  You can remove the messages yourself, or A86 will remove them for you
  when it reassembles the file.

* A86 provides a full complement of assembly-time expression arithmetic
  operators, compatible with Intel/IBM assemblers.

* A86 assembles the floating-point instruction set of the 8087/287.

* A86 assembles the extended instruction set of the 186/286/NEC series, except
  for those 286 instructions designed to support protected-mode operating
  systems.

* A86 works with an associated symbolic debugger, D86, to make the finest
  development environment available for the PC.  See the D86 package, available
  now, for the details of its wonderful features.

To give you a balanced view of A86, I shall now list some of its current
limitations. I don't consider any of these limitations inordinately difficult
for me to overcome; I just haven't gotten to implementing these features yet:

* Full support of floating-point processing is not complete-- I still need
  to add the ability to initialize arbitrary floating-point constants.

* A86 does not yet support the protected operating-system instructions of the
  286.

* A86 does not yet produce .OBJ files that can be linked to high-level-
  language programs.  Don't worry, I won't take away your direct-.COM-
  production; OBJ will just be an option.

* I intend to implement feature whereby A86 would, if it has undefined symbols,
  attempt to find those symbols in a library of source files, whose directory
  could be determined by an environment-variable.  This would give A86
  programming an ability like that of the "C" language, to effortlessly
  access library functions.  It's not there yet, but look for it Real Soon Now.


Who IS That Guy?

For those of you who wish to know what credentials I have for producing
programs that meet the above claims, let me tell you who I am.  I am
an independent software consultant.  I have worked with Intel microprocessors
since the early days of the 8080.  As an employee of Intel, I was a part of
the two-man team that implemeted the first ASM86 assembler.  I am one of the
world's leading authorities on the entire 86-family of microcomputers, having
completed numerous major projects involving the 8086, and 80186, and the
80286.  I am currently under contract with Wiley and Sons, publishers, to
write a book on the 386/387 architecture.

A86 and D86 themselves are mature, solid programs.  They have been in existence
for 3 years, running first under my own, proprietary operating system; then
later under the Xenix operating system on Altos computers, used by myself and
my clients.

Although I have been unknown to the world of the IBM-PC until now, I intend
to change all that in the next couple of years.  Peter Norton, watch out.
(By the way, Peter, you can't use DX as an indexing register.  And the use
of DXAX to hold a 4-byte return result is not such a strange choice; DXAX
is the 4-byte quantity used in the 16-bit multiply and divide instructions.
Nits aside, you wrote a great book; thanks from all of us PC programmers for
writing it!)



Support Your Local Bulletin Board

Bob Breedlove, a BBS Sysop in California, sent me a suggestion with his
registration: that I do something to support Sysops, since they are distributing
my software for me.  Good point, Bob.  Let me try this experiment (but I reserve
the legal right to cancel this offer at any time, without notice): if anybody
who registers wishes to support the BBS from which they obtained my program,
they should tell me the name and phone number of the BBS when they register.
They should also leave a message to the Sysop that they have done so, so the
Sysop can contact me with his/her address.  If I receive 5 registrations naming
a particular BBS, I'll award a free registration to the Sysop-- the Sysop can
designate who the registration is for; or (if the Sysop has already paid for a
registration) he/she can elect to receive a cash refund.  For each subsequent 5
registrations, I'll send the Sysop a cash rebate equal to one half the
registration fee.  Sorry, no bonuses for less than 5 registrations; I don't want
to be swamped with paperwork.


How to Get in Touch With Me

I would love to hear about what you think of my products.  But please remember
that telephone support takes time; and I don't have the money to hire a support
staff.  The most obvious way for you to communicate to me is to include your
comments with your registration.  Another way to communicate with me is to leave
a message, addressed to me, on the Bloomington PC-Link Central bulletin board,
at [phone]; or Indiana On-Line, at [phone].  I'll try to promptly
answer the questions of any REGISTERED users, either via the bulletin board, or
by return mail if you send me a self-addressed, stamped envelope.


What to Read Next

Read the file CONTENTS.DOC for an description of all the files in this package.
I have two batch files for printing the documentation: FLOPLIST.BAT if you
are keeping this package on a floppy, and HARDLIST.BAT if you have copied the
package to a hard disk, and extracted all the files using HEXTRACT.BAT.

The file DEMO.DOC will tell you how to assemble the A86 source programs
included in the package; following the directions there will give you a working
knowledge of operation of the assembler program.