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- Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
- Path: sparky!uunet!paladin.american.edu!gatech!swrinde!sdd.hp.com!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!news.cso.uiuc.edu!alexia!cole
- From: cole@alexia.lis.uiuc.edu (Sandra Stewart-Cole)
- Subject: Re: using the A5 register (help wanted)
- References: <1993Jan3.180416.2891@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu>
- Message-ID: <C0B4CL.LK@news.cso.uiuc.edu>
- Sender: usenet@news.cso.uiuc.edu (Net Noise owner)
- Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
- Date: Mon, 4 Jan 1993 02:02:44 GMT
- Keywords: Help wanted
- Lines: 21
-
- In <1993Jan3.180416.2891@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu> rduta@nyx.cs.du.edu (Radu)
- writes:
-
- >I was wandering if someone could explain to me how the A5 register works.
- >And as logn as we are on the subject, what is the purpose for SetUpA5 &
- >RestoreA5, and when are they used.
-
- A5 is used as a base to reference all of an application's global variables. If
- you are programming in a high-level language, you usually never need to be
- concerned with this fact, as long as you are writing an application with no
- interrupt-driven code. THAT sort of code (like VBL routines that run every time
- the hardware draws the screen and some other types of code that might be
- running wt a time when the system has moved another application's value into
- A5) needs to get access to application globals and can do so by using the
- SetUpA5 and RestoreA5 routines. The details on these is to be found in IM VI or
- in the tech notes.
-
- >If someone could direct me to a FTP site that caries info files, I'd apreciate
- >that also.
-
- ftp.apple.com. Apple's ftp site. for tech notes, check dts/mac/tn
-