Apple Assembly Line Volumn 1 -- Issue 3 December, 1980 As I write this, there are 85 paid subscribers! I sent out about 140 flyers in the last two weeks, so maybe the number will double again next month! Pass the word to your friends and local Apple clubs ... and let me know how you like the content, style, et cetera. In this issue... ---------------- Intelligent Disassemblers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Integer BASIC Pretty Lister . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Listed Expressions with .DA Directive . . . . . . . . . . 9 Block MOVE and COPY for Version 4.0 . . . . . . . . . . 11 Handling 16-Bit Comparisons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Quarterly Disk #1 ----------------- If you find there just isn't enough time to type in all the source programs in the Apple Assembly Line, I will be happy to save you the trouble. Every three months I will put together a "Disk of the Quarter" which contains all the source in the format of the S-C ASSEMBLER II Version 4.0. The price is only $15, and I will pay the postage. The first such disk is ready now, covering October, November, and December of 1980. The disks and the programs are for subscribers only. Save your fingers, get yours now! Help for Beginners ------------------ I will write some beginner's material from time to time for this newsletter, but I cannot cover every base at once. Meanwhile, many of the magazines and club newsletters are beginning to publish articles for beginners who want to learn assembly language. One of the best and most accessible is Creative Computing. Chuck Carpenter's "Apple-Cart", a monthly feature, in the November, 1980 issue, was great! He actually began the subject of machine language in the October issue, but in the November one he covered indexing, indirect addressing, and interrupts. By the way, Chuck is also a subscriber to the Apple Assembly Line. There have also been some good beginner articles in recent copies of Nibble and Softalk. Nibble has been printing a lot of assembly language programs, which are good to study. Intelligent Disassemblers ------------------------- Not one, but two! In this issue of AAL you find two ads for intelligent disassemblers. Dr. Robert F. Zant, of Decision Systems, and Bob Kovacs, of RAK-WARE, have each written one. After all these years, two of them pop up in the same week! Dr. Zant's reads a binary file and writes a text file which can be EXECed into either the S-C ASSEMBLER II Version 4.0 or the Apple assembler from the DOS Tool Kit. He writes an intermediate text file during pass one of the disassembly, and then reads it back in, formats it for the desired assembler, and writes it back out. His disassembler is a combination of machine language code and Applesoft code; you have to have Applesoft in ROM and at least 32K RAM. He includes a couple of handy utility programs on the diskette. Bob Kovac's disassembler works from a binary program already in memory. Both passes are performed in memory, and then the text file is written. Since everything is done in memory, it is very fast. The resulting text file is EXECed into the S-C ASSEMBLER II Version 4.0. Both disassemblers create labels for all branch addresses inside the block being disassembled. Bob Kovac's version also makes labels for all external branch addresses, putting .EQ lines at the beginning to define them. The RAK-WARE version also make symbols for all page-zero references. They also are set up with .EQ lines at the beginning of the text file. Both disassemblers output a control-I at the beginning of each line rather than a line number. This causes the assembler to generate its own line number when the file is EXECed, and allows you to set your own increment and starting line number just before typing the EXEC command. Set the increment by using the INC command; and set the starting line number by typing the number you want less the increment, followed by a space and return. I forgot to mention, Bob Kovac's disassembler works with either Integer BASIC or Applesoft. He has driver programs written in both languages on the diskette. They both are excellent tools, which have long been needed. They both cost the same, $25. What can I say? Buy them both! Do it before the end of 1980, and get a tax deduction before Reagan and our new Congress lower the incode tax rate! Advertising in AAL ------------------ For the first time, there are some ads in your newsletter. I think you will find them almost as useful as the non-ad material, because so many of you have asked me for compatible two-pass disassemblers to go along with the S-C ASSEMBLER. If you have written some programs that your want to sell, which you think other readers of the Apple Assembly Line would be interested in, you can advertise here, too. The cost is quite low ... $20 for a full page, $10 for 1/2 page. Integer BASIC Pretty Lister --------------------------- About 2 1/2 years ago, Mike Laumer, of Carrollton, Texas, wrote a program to make pretty listing of Integer BASIC programs. He gave me a copy to look at, and then we both forgot about it. A few days ago I found it again, dusted it off, typed it in, and tried it out. After a little debugging, here is the result. Which is neater? 100 FOR I=1 TO 40: A(I)=I: A(I+41)=I*I: NEXT I or? 100 FOR I=1 TO 40 : A(I)=I : A(I+41)=I*I : NEXT I Mike and I happen to like the latter format, especially for printing in newsletters. It is a lot easier to read. And why print it if no one is going to read it? If you are in Integer BASIC, and you have a program in memory ready to list, here are the steps to get a "pretty listing". 1. BLOAD B.PRETTY.LISTER 2. POKE 0,40 (or whatever number of characters 3. CALL 2048 per line you wish it to use) If you want it to print on your printer, be sure to turn it on in the way you usually do before the CALL 2048. For example, if you have a standard Apple interface in slot 1, type "PR#1" just before the CALL 2048. If you check it out, you will find a lot of similarity between the code in this program and what is stored in the Integer BASIC ROMs around locations $E00C through $E0F9. The routines are not in the same order, and there are a few significant changes to make the listing "pretty" and to control the line length. As I was typing in Mike's program, I took the liberty of "modularizing" it a little more, so that I could understand it. The PRINT.DECIMAL routine in lines 2500-2810 is almost identical to the one at $E51B in the BASIC ROMs. The changes are for the purpose of counting the number digits actually printed; this allows a closer control over line length. Since one of the promised features of the Apple Assembly Line was commented disassemblies of some of the Apple's ROM code, I will try to explain how PRETTY.LIST works in some detail, module by module. You can then apply my explanation to the code which resides in ROM at $E00C-$E0F9. PRETTY.LIST: This module is the overall control for the listing process. Since PP points to the beginning of the BASIC source program, lines 1270-1300 transfer this pointer into SRCP. Then SRCP is compared with HIMEM, to see if we are finished listing. The check is made before even listing one line, because it is possible that there is no source program to list! If the value in SRCP is greater than or equal to the value in HIMEM, then the listing is finished, and PRETTY.LIST returns to BASIC by JMP to DOS.REENTRY ($3D0). If the listing is not finished, I call PRINT.ONE.LINE to format and print out one line of the source program. "One line" may be several statements separated by colons. Then I jump back to the test to see if we are through yet, and so on and on and on. PRINT.ONE.LINE: A source line in Integer BASIC is encoded in token form, and this routine has to convert it back to the original form to list it. First, let's look at how a coded line is laid out. # line bytes number body of source line 01 The first byte of a line is the line length; we will ignore it in this program, because we do not need it. The last byte of each line is the hex value $01, which is the token for end-of-line. That is all we need to signal the end of a line, and the start of another one. The second and third bytes of each line are the line number, in binary, with the low byte first. The body of the line is made up of a combination of tokens and ASCII characters. For the most part, tokens have a hex value less than $80, while the ASCII characters have a hex value greater than $80. One important exception is the token for a decimal constant. These are flagged by a pseudo-token consisting of the first digit of the constant in ASCII (hex $B0 through $B9); after the token, two bytes follow which contain the binary form of the constant with the low byte first. For example, the decimal constant 1234 would be stored in three bytes as: $B1 D2 04. The task of PRINT.ONE.LINE is to scan through the coded form of a line, printing each ASCII character, and converting each token to its printing form. In addition, the routine must count line position as it goes, so that a new line can be started when one fills up. Furthermore, we want it to start a new line whenever the ":" indicates a new statement has begun within a line. We have to look out for REM statements and quoted strings, because the ":" might appear in them without signalling a new statement. Lines 1400-1460 start the ball rolling. The line position is set to zero, and the fill flag for the PRINT.DECIMAL routine is set to produce a right-justified-blank-filled number. Then GET.NEXT.BYTE is called to advance the SCRP past the byte count in the first byte of the line. GET.NEXT.BYTE returns the value of the byte in A, and with Y=0. This time we ignore the value in A, and use the fact that Y=0 to clear A. Lines 1470-1510 pick up the two bytes of the line number and call PRINT.DECIMAL to print it out. These same lines will be used later to print out any constants which are in the line. These lines are entered this time with A=0 and with IB.FILL set for the RJBF mode (right-justified-blank-filled). Later for constants they will be entered with IB.FILL set for printing with no leading blanks, and with A <> 0. The value in A is used to set IB.FLAG, which determines whether a trailing blank will be printed. One will be printed after the line number, but not after a constant inside a line. (For a character that uses so little ink, blanks can sure eat up a lot of code!) At line 1520 the main body of the PRINT.ONE.LINE routine begins. CHECK.EOL.GET.NEXT.BYTE decides whether we are getting too close to the end of the line. This prevents splitting token-words in half, with a few characters dangling off the end of one line, and the rest starting a new one. (At least, on the screen it would look like that; on a printer it might just print out into a margin.) The routine will start a new line before returning if the end is too near. When it finally does return, the next byte will be in A, and Y will be zero. If the next byte is a token (less than $80), control branches to line 1720. If the first bit of the byte is 1, and the second bit is 0, the code at lines 1550-1580 assumes the pseudo-token for a constant has appeared. If the second bit is also 1, the byte is an ASCII character. Before printing the character, lines 1590-1630 may print a blank. This would be a trailing blank after printing a token or a line number. The character is then printed at lines 1640-1650, and another end-of-line check is made. This time "too near the end" is defined as within 3 spaces. The next byte must either be a token or yet another ASCII character, so a determination is made in lines 1660-1700. Tokens are harder to handle, because we have to test for several special cases, and if not a special case the token table must be searched to find the token's name. Lines 1720-1740 test for the end-of-line token; if this is it, a carriage return is printed and PRINT.ONE.LINE returns back to its caller. If the token is the new-statement-token, used for ":", a new line is started. Then the fun begins: we have to search the token table. This table is the most recondite portion of the whole Apple computer! I have only scratched its surface. The table is located between $EC00 and $EDFF, but it is not in that order. It goes like this: first $ED00, then $EDFF-$ED01 (yes, backwards!), then $EC00, then $ECFF-$EC01. The names for all the tokens are stored in the table, along with various bits of information about precedence and syntax. If you print out the table, you will not see any names... Steve Wozniak subtracted $20 from each byte before putting it into the table. Well, there is a lot more to it than that, but I am getting lost, side-tracked. After finding the token's name string inside the token table, we have to print it out. This is done in lines 1840-1940. The name is terminated either by the last character having a value greater than $BF, or by the next character in the table having a value less than $80. The routine at $E00C decides whether or not to print a trailing blank, I think. After printing the token's name, lines 1960-2010 test for REM or a quoted string. Either of these would be followed by a bunch of ASCII characters terminated by a token, so control branches to line 1660 to print them out. If neither, we go back to line 1520, to get the next token, or whatever. Somehow I skipped over line 1830. I believe the JSR $EFF8 determines whether or not to print a space in front of the token name. FIND.TOKEN: Lines 2040-2110 set up a pointer to the half of the token table which contains the name string for the token we want. Tokens $00 through $50 are in the first half, and $51 through $7F are in the second half. Lines 2120-2250 scan through the table, counting token names as they are passed. When the nth one is found, where n is the token value, the routine returns. It returns with A=0, and Y = offset in the half of the token table we have been scanning. CHECK.EOL.GET.NEXT.BYTE: Enter this routine with A containing the number of bytes short of the end of the line you want to test for, as a negative number. If too near the end, CR.7.BLANKS will be called to start a new line. In any case the routine exits by transferring to GET.NEXT.BYTE to get the next byte from the source line. CR.7.BLANKS: Prints a carriage return adn 7 blanks to start a new line. CHAR.OUT: Simply counts characters and then calls on the Apple monitor to print out a character. We need to count columns for CHECK.EOL.GET.NEXT.BYTE. PRINT.DECIMAL: Lifted out of Integer BAIC from $E51B, and modified to eliminate the ability to store the converted number in the input buffer, and to add the ability to count output characters. Additions to this program: You might like to add some more featrures to this program. For example, it would be nice to have it request the line length and printer slot number itself, and turn the printer on and off. Also, it would be helpful to add indentation for FOR...NEXT loops and IF...THEN statements. The same program could be merged with a cross reference program to build and print a variable and line number cross reference. If you decide to try any of these, or any other enhancements, why not write them up and send them to me for publication? 1000 .TF B.PRETTY.LISTER 1010 .LIST OFF 1020 *--------------------------------- 1030 * INTEGER BASIC PRETTY-LIST 1040 *--------------------------------- 1050 LINE.LENGTH .EQ $00 1060 LINE.POSITION .EQ $01 1070 MON.CH .EQ $24 1080 PP .EQ $CA,CB 1090 HIMEM .EQ $4C,4D 1100 SRCP .EQ $E2,E3 1110 TKNP .EQ $CE,CF 1120 IB.FLAG .EQ $EA 1130 IB.FILL .EQ $FA 1140 *--------------------------------- 1150 DOS.REENTRY .EQ $3D0 1160 GET.NEXT.BYTE .EQ $E02A 1170 TOKEN.TABLE .EQ $ED00 1180 MON.COUT .EQ $FDED 1190 MON.CROUT .EQ $FD8E 1200 *--------------------------------- 1210 TOKEN.EOL .EQ $01 1220 TOKEN.COLON .EQ $03 1230 TOKEN.REM .EQ $5D 1240 TOKEN.QUOTE .EQ $28 1250 *--------------------------------- 1260 PRETTY.LIST 1270 LDA PP 1280 STA SRCP 1290 LDA PP+1 1300 STA SRCP+1 1310 .1 LDA SRCP SEE IF AT END 1320 CMP HIMEM 1330 LDA SRCP+1 1340 SBC HIMEM+1 1350 BCS .2 FINISHED 1360 JSR PRINT.ONE.LINE 1370 JMP .1 1380 .2 JMP DOS.REENTRY 1390 *--------------------------------- 1400 PRINT.ONE.LINE 1410 LDA #0 1420 STA LINE.POSITION 1430 LDA #$A0 SET UP PRINT.DECIMAL FOR RJBF 1440 STA IB.FILL 1450 JSR GET.NEXT.BYTE SKIP OVER BYTE COUNT 1460 TYA (A)=0 1470 .1 STA IB.FLAG 1480 JSR GET.NEXT.BYTE GET LINE NUMBER 1490 TAX LOW BYTE 1500 JSR GET.NEXT.BYTE HIGH BYTE 1510 JSR PRINT.DECIMAL PRINT THE LINE NUMBER RJBF 1520 .2 LDA #-7 WITHIN 7 OF END OF LINE 1530 JSR CHECK.EOL.GET.NEXT.BYTE 1540 STY IB.FILL CLEAR RJBF 1550 TAX TEST BYTE AND SAVE IN X-REG 1560 BPL .6 TOKEN 1570 ASL 1580 BPL .1 CONSTANT, GO PRINT IT 1590 LDA IB.FLAG 1600 BNE .3 DO NOT NEED A BLANK 1610 LDA #$A0 1620 STA IB.FLAG 1630 JSR CHAR.OUT 1640 .3 TXA RETRIEVE BYTE 1650 .4 JSR CHAR.OUT AND PRINT IT 1660 .5 LDA #-3 WITHIN 3 OF EOL 1670 JSR CHECK.EOL.GET.NEXT.BYTE 1680 TAX TEST BYTE, SAVE IN X-REG 1690 BMI .4 NORMAL CHAR 1700 STA IB.FLAG 1710 *--------------------------------- 1720 .6 CMP #TOKEN.EOL 1730 BNE .7 NOT END OF LINE 1740 JMP MON.CROUT END OF LINE 1750 .7 CMP #TOKEN.COLON 1760 BNE .8 1770 JSR CR.7.BLANKS 1780 LDA #TOKEN.COLON 1790 .8 PHA SAVE TOKEN 1800 JSR FIND.TOKEN 1810 BIT IB.FLAG 1820 BMI .9 1830 JSR $EFF8 1840 .9 LDA (TKNP),Y GET CHAR OF TOKEN NAME 1850 BPL .10 1860 TAX SAVE CHAR IN X 1870 AND #$3F 1880 STA IB.FLAG 1890 CLC 1900 ADC #$A0 1910 JSR CHAR.OUT 1920 DEY 1930 CPX #$C0 1940 BCC .9 1950 .10 JSR $E00C 1960 PLA GET ORIGINAL UNMOLESTED TOKEN 1970 CMP #TOKEN.REM 1980 BEQ .5 REM 1990 CMP #TOKEN.QUOTE 2000 BEQ .5 QUOTATION 2010 BNE .2 NEITHER 2020 *--------------------------------- 2030 FIND.TOKEN 2040 LDX #TOKEN.TABLE 2050 STX TKNP 2060 LDX /TOKEN.TABLE 2070 CMP #$51 SEE IF NEED OTHER HALF TOKEN.TABLE 2080 BCC .1 NO 2090 DEX YES 2100 SBC #$50 2110 .1 STX TKNP+1 2120 .2 PHA SAVE MODIFIED TOKEN ON STACK 2130 LDA (TKNP),Y Y GOES 0,FF,FE,... 2140 .3 TAX 2150 DEY 2160 LDA (TKNP),Y LOOK FOR NEGATIVE BYTE 2170 BPL .3 2180 CPX #$C0 IF BYTE BEFORE NEGATIVE BYTE IS 2190 BCS .4 BTWN $C0 AND $FF, THEN 2200 CPX #$00 KEEP LOOKING 2210 BMI .3 2220 .4 TAX 2230 PLA 2240 SBC #1 DECREMENT TOKEN 2250 BNE .2 NOT THERE YET 2260 RTS 2270 *--------------------------------- 2280 CHECK.EOL.GET.NEXT.BYTE 2290 CLC 2300 ADC LINE.LENGTH 2310 CMP LINE.POSITION 2320 BCS .1 2330 JSR CR.7.BLANKS 2340 .1 JMP GET.NEXT.BYTE 2350 *--------------------------------- 2360 CR.7.BLANKS 2370 LDA #$8D 2380 LDY #7 2390 STY LINE.POSITION 2400 .1 JSR CHAR.OUT 2410 LDA #$A0 2420 DEY 2430 BNE .1 2440 RTS 2450 *--------------------------------- 2460 CHAR.OUT 2470 INC LINE.POSITION 2480 JMP MON.COUT 2490 *--------------------------------- 2500 PRINT.DECIMAL 2510 STA $F3 2520 STX $F2 2530 LDX #4 2540 STA $C9 LEADING ZERO FLAG 2550 .7 LDA #$B0 2560 STA $F9 2570 .1 LDA $F2 2580 CMP $E563,X 2590 LDA $F3 2600 SBC $E568,X 2610 BCC .2 2620 STA $F3 2630 LDA $F2 2640 SBC $E563,X 2650 STA $F2 2660 INC $F9 2670 BNE .1 ...ALWAYS 2680 .2 LDA $F9 2690 CPX #0 SEE IF LAST DIGIT 2700 BEQ .4 YES 2710 CMP #$B0 NO, SEE IF LEADING ZERO 2720 BEQ .3 MAYBE 2730 STA $C9 NO 2740 .3 BIT $C9 STILL PLUS IF LEADING ZERO 2750 BMI .4 NOT LEADING ZERO 2760 LDA IB.FILL SEE IF BLANK FILL 2770 BEQ .5 NO 2780 .4 JSR CHAR.OUT PRINT CHAR 2790 .5 DEX 2800 BPL .7 2810 RTS Allow List of Expressions with .DA Directive -------------------------------------------- Some customers have said they wished the .DA directive in the S-C ASSEMBLER II allowed more than one expression per line. For example, ".DA 1000,100,10,1" would then produce 8 bytes of code just as though there were four separate .DA lines. (Once and a while I wish it worked this way too!) The following little patch will transform your .DA in just that way. Because of the .OR and .TF directives, assembling these 42 lines will produce two binary files that are ready to BLOAD. When you BLOAD them, the copy of the assembler in memory will be patched. You can then BSAVE the assembler (use a different name!), and you have the new capability. If you do not have Version 4.0 of the assembler, then this patch will not work. If you have one of the very earliest copies of Version 4.0, it may have some different addresses. Check it out before you type in the code: at $20D4 you should find three JMP instructions, as indicated in the comments here in lines 1210 through 1230. If you find those JMPs, go right ahead and make the patches. Of course, if you have already added some code at $24B0, then you will have to put this patch somewhere else. If you do not find those JMP instructions at $20D4, but you do find them at $20B1, then you need to change a few addresses in the patch code. Change the following lines as indicated: 1170 PSDA .EQ $2092 1190 .OR $20B1 1000 *--------------------------------- 1010 * PATCH FOR .DA WITH COMMA LIST 1020 *--------------------------------- 1030 * 1040 * TO INSTALL THIS PATCH: 1050 * 1060 * 1. BRUN ASMDISK 4.0 1070 * 2. BLOAD PATCH.DA.1 1080 * 3. BLOAD PATCH.DA.2 1090 * 4. BSAVE ASMDISK 4.1,A$1000,L$14FB 1100 * 1110 *--------------------------------- 1120 EXP.VALUE .EQ $DB 1130 *--------------------------------- 1140 GNC .EQ $128B 1150 EMIT .EQ $19FA 1160 CMNT .EQ $188E 1170 PSDA .EQ $20B5 1180 *--------------------------------- 1190 .OR $20D4 REPLACES: 1200 .TF PATCH.DA.1 1210 JMP BOTH.BYTES (JMP $19B2) 1220 JMP LOW.BYTE (JMP $194D) 1230 JMP HIGH.BYTE (JMP $19D7) 1240 *--------------------------------- 1250 .OR $24B0 PATCH AREA 1260 .TF PATCH.DA.2 1270 BOTH.BYTES 1280 LDA EXP.VALUE 1290 JSR EMIT 1300 HIGH.BYTE 1310 LDA EXP.VALUE+1 1320 ALL JSR EMIT 1330 JSR GNC 1340 CMP #', COMMA? 1350 BEQ MORE 1360 JMP CMNT FINISHED 1370 MORE JMP PSDA 1380 LOW.BYTE 1390 LDA EXP.VALUE 1400 CLC 1410 BCC ALL ...ALWAYS Block MOVE and COPY for Version 4.0 ----------------------------------- How many times have you wished there was an easy way to move a bunch of lines of your source program to some other place? I know it happens to me, and I frequently wish the assembler had this capability. Now, at last, it is possible. I no longer have to use DELETE, SAVE, HIDE, MERGE, LOAD in a very complicated sequence just to move that 20 line subroutine from the middle to the end of my source program! The program as written assumes you have set up the USR command vector to jump to $800. You do this by stuffing a 0 into $1007 and an 8 into $1008 (type $1007:00 08 as a command). Then if you type, for example, "USR 1100,1190,1800", a copy of lines 1100 through 1190 will be inserted before line 1800. A word of caution: the lines in their new location will still have the old line numbers, until you RENUMBER. You can LIST, SAVE, and LOAD while the lines are out of sequence like this, but beware of doing any further editing! First, use the USR command to make the new copy of the lines; second, RENUMBER the program; third, DELETE the lines form their old location. Voila! You have moved them. I just know someone (maybe everyone) is going to think that I should have made this program do its own renumbering. The reason I am confident of this is that I feel the same way. But the program as it stands is useful, and I will refine it later. My plan is to add one more parameter which specifies the increment for the line numbers in their new location. Then let the third parameter be the line number for the first line of the block being copied. The program will check whether making the copy will clobber any existing lines, and error out if so. If not, the copy will be made with its new line numbers. Then a question will be asked of the form" DO YOU WISH TO DELETE THE OLD LINES? (Y/N)". But for now, I will live with the more tedious but still very useful version you see here. I would suggest that you put the object code of this program on a binary file, and then create an EXEC text file that contains the patch line to set up the USR command and a BLOAD command for the COPY program. The quarterly AAL diskette contains just such a file. Now let me describe how the COPY program works. Notice that lines 1000-1060 are a summary of the operating syntax. Line 1070, together with lines 2390 and 2400, make the last three symbols in the symbol table listing tell me the start, end, and length of the object code. These are very useful for writing the object code out to a binary file. (Of course, I could use the .TF directive and write it automatically.) Lines 1090-1220 define the page-zero locations the program uses. SS, SE, SL, and NEWPP are peculiar to this program; the rest of them are used by the monitor and the assembler. PP points to the beginning of the first source line in memory, and LOMEM is the lowest PP can go. A0, A1, A2, and A4 are used to pass addresses to the Apple Monitor Memory Move subroutine. Lines 1240-1280 define some addresses of routines inside the S-C ASSEMBLER II Version 4.0. SYNX is the Syntax Error routine. You will get a syntax error message if you type in less than three parameters with the USR command, if the first two parameters are backwards or the same, if the block specified to be copied is empty, or if the target location is inside the block to be copied. MFER is the routine to print MEM FULL ERR, and you will get this error message if there is not room to make a copy; that is, the space between PP and LOMEM is less than the size of the block you want to copy. SCND is the assembler routine to scan an input line from the current position and look for a decimal number. If it finds a decimal number, it will convert the number to binary and store it in A2L and A2H. As explained on page 10 of the Upgrade manual for Version 4.0, the first two parameters will have already been stored in A0 and A1. SERTXT is the assembler routine to find a line in your source program, given the line number. It is called with the X-register containing the address of the first byte in page-zero of the byte-pair containing the line number you are looking for. When SERTXT is finished, $E4,E5 points at the first byte of the line found, and $E6,E7 points at the first byte of the next line. (Of course, if your line number could not be found, both pointers will point at the next larger line.) MON.MOVE is a program inside the Apple Monitor ROM. It will copy a block of memory whose first byte address is in A1, last byte address in A2, to a new place in memory starting at the byte address in A4. This is the routine used when you use the monitor "M" command. It works fine as long as the target is not inside the source block. Now to the COPY program itself. Briefly, the three parameters are checked for presence and consistency, and pointers are set up defining the area to be copied. A new value of PP is computed based on the length of this block, and I check to see if there is room in memory. Next I search for the target location, and check to make sure it is not inside the source block. (We don't wat any infinite loops!) If the target is higher in memory than the source block I adjust the source block pointers by subtracting the block length from them. Then I move all source lines below the insertion point down in memory far enough to make a hole in the text into which the source block can be copied. Finally, I copy in the source block, and return. Some final comments... The COPY program is very fast, so play with it a little on a scratch program to convince yourself it is working. If you don't want to type in the source, you can just enter the hex codes from the monitor, and BSAVE it. Or, your can order the Quarterly AAL diskette, which will have the source, object, and a textfile to EXEC for BLOADing and patching the USR vector. Or, if you are very patient, you can wait till next August for Version 5.0 of the S-C ASSEMBLER II! 1000 *--------------------------------- 1010 * COPY L1,L2,L3 1020 * L1 = FIRST LINE OF RANGE TO COPY 1030 * L2 = LAST LINE OF RANGE TO COPY 1040 * L3 = LINE NUMBER BEFORE WHICH TO INSERT 1050 * THE COPIED LINES 1060 *--------------------------------- 1070 ZZ.BGN .EQ * 1080 *--------------------------------- 1090 SS .EQ $00,01 START OF SOURCE BLOCK 1100 SE .EQ $02,03 END OF SOURCE BLOCK 1110 SL .EQ $04,05 LENGTH OF SOURCE BLOCK 1120 NEWPP .EQ $06,07 NEW PROGRAM POINTER 1130 A0L .EQ $3A 1140 A0H .EQ $3B 1150 A1L .EQ $3C 1160 A1H .EQ $3D 1170 A2L .EQ $3E 1180 A2H .EQ $3F 1190 A4L .EQ $42 1200 A4H .EQ $43 1210 LOMEM .EQ $4A,4B 1220 PP .EQ $CA,CB 1230 *--------------------------------- 1240 SYNX .EQ $105E 1250 MFER .EQ $1128 1260 SCND .EQ $112D 1270 SERTXT .EQ $14F6 1280 MON.MOVE .EQ $FE2C 1290 *--------------------------------- 1300 JMP COPY 1310 *--------------------------------- 1320 ERR1 JMP SYNX 1330 ERR2 .EQ ERR1 1340 ERR3 JMP MFER 1350 ERR4 .EQ ERR1 1360 *--------------------------------- 1370 COPY 1380 JSR SCND GET THIRD PARAMETER 1390 CPX #6 BE SURE WE GOT THREE 1400 BCC ERR1 NOT ENOUGH PARAMETERS 1410 LDX #A0L FIND BEGINNING OF SOURCE 1420 JSR SERTXT 1430 LDA $E4 SAVE POINTER 1440 STA SS 1450 LDA $E5 1460 STA SS+1 1470 LDX #A1L FIND END OF SOURCE BLOCK 1480 JSR SERTXT 1490 SEC SAVE POINTER AND COMPUTE LENGTH 1500 LDA $E6 1510 STA SE 1520 SBC SS 1530 STA SL SOURCE LENGTH 1540 LDA $E7 1550 STA SE+1 1560 SBC SS+1 1570 STA SL+1 1580 BCC ERR2 RANGE BACKWARD 1590 BNE .4 1600 LDA SL 1610 BEQ ERR2 NOTHING TO MOVE 1620 *--------------------------------- 1630 .4 LDA PP COMPUTE NEW PP POINTER 1640 SBC SL 1650 STA NEWPP 1660 LDA PP+1 1670 SBC SL+1 1680 STA NEWPP+1 1690 *--------------------------------- 1700 LDA NEWPP SEE IF ROOM FOR THIS 1710 CMP LOMEM 1720 LDA NEWPP+1 1730 SBC LOMEM+1 1740 BCC ERR3 MEM FULL ERR 1750 *--------------------------------- 1760 LDX #A2L FIND TARGET LOCATION 1770 JSR SERTXT 1780 LDA SS BE SURE NOT INSIDE SOURCE BLOCK 1790 CMP $E4 1800 LDA SS+1 1810 SBC $E5 1820 BCS .1 BELOW SOURCE BLOCK 1830 LDA $E4 1840 CMP SE 1850 LDA $E5 1860 SBC SE+1 1870 BCC ERR4 INSIDE SOURCE BLOCK 1880 * TARGET IS ABOVE SOURCE BLOCK, SO WE HAVE TO 1890 * ADJUST SOURCE BLOCK POINTERS. 1900 SEC 1910 LDA SS 1920 SBC SL 1930 STA SS 1940 LDA SS+1 1950 SBC SL+1 1960 STA SS+1 1970 SEC 1980 LDA SE 1990 SBC SL 2000 STA SE 2010 LDA SE+1 2020 SBC SL+1 2030 STA SE+1 2040 *--------------------------------- 2050 .1 LDA PP SET UP MOVE TO MAKE HOLE 2060 STA A1L 2070 LDA PP+1 2080 STA A1H 2090 LDA NEWPP 2100 STA PP 2110 STA A4L 2120 LDA NEWPP+1 2130 STA PP+1 2140 STA A4H 2150 LDA $E5 2160 STA A2H 2170 LDA $E4 2180 STA A2L 2190 BNE .2 2200 DEC A2H 2210 .2 DEC A2L 2220 LDY #0 lda a2l cmp a1l lda a2h sbc a1h bcc .5 2230 JSR MON.MOVE 2240 *--------------------------------- 2250 .5 LDA SS MOVE IN SOURCE BLOCK 2260 STA A1L 2270 LDA SS+1 2280 STA A1H 2290 LDA SE+1 2300 STA A2H 2310 LDA SE 2320 STA A2L 2330 BNE .3 2340 DEC A2H 2350 .3 DEC A2L 2360 JSR MON.MOVE 2370 RTS 2380 *--------------------------------- 2390 ZZ.END .EQ *-1 2400 ZZ.SIZ .EQ ZZ.END-ZZ.BGN+1 Keeping Printer On After Error Message -------------------------------------- One customer wanted this, and maybe you would too. He needed the printer to stay enabled even if an editor or assembler error message was generated. S-C ASSEMBLER II Version 4.0 shuts off any printer after any error occurs, so he couldn't get his printer to stay on long enough to get a listing. Here is a patch that will leave a printer "hooked in". :$1756:F0 24 (address of patch area) :$24F0:A9 FF 85 D9 20 80 1F 4C 26 10 After making the patch, you can BSAVE using A$1000,L$14FB. The patch is put at $24F0; if you have already put some other patch there, be sure to put this one somewhere else! Be sure you TEST it before you clobber or delete the original! Be sure you really WANT it before you even bother to type it in! Handling 16-bit Comparisons --------------------------- It can be confusing enough in the 6502 to compare two single-byte values. Trying to remember that BCC means "branch if less than" (assuming that the values were considered to be unsigned values from 0-255), and that BCS means "branch if greater than or equal to" is enough to saturate my memory banks. I finally made a note on a card and tacked it up over my computer. Of course, if the values are considered to be signed values, in the range of -128 through +127, the problem is compounded, to say the least. But what about comparing two values of two-bytes each? Like comparing two address pointers, for instance? A last resort would be to subtract one from the other, in two-byte arithmetic, and then compare the difference to zero. At least that would be understandable! But let's try to do it a little better than that. There is an example of this kind of comparison in lines 1310 through 1350 of the PRETTY.LIST program elsewhere in this issue of the Apple Assembly Line. Here is the segment: 1310 .1 LDA SCRP 1320 CMP HIMEM 1330 LDA SRCP+1 1340 SBC HIMEM+1 1350 BCS .2 The object is to determine whether the value in PP,PP+1 is still less than the value in HIMEM,HIMEM+1 or not. The low-order byte of each value is stored in the first byte of each byte-pair, and the high-order byte is stored in the second byte. If all we needed to compare was the low-order bytes, we could do it with lines 1310 and 1320 above. Carry would be cleared by the CMP instruction if (SCRP) was less than (HIMEM). (I have just started using "(" and ")" to mean "the value stored in".) Now let's use that carry bit and continue the comparison by actually subtracting the two high-order bytes. If the result of the subtraction leaves carry clear, we know that (SCRP) is indeed less tha (HIMEM), all 16 bits of it. If you need to extend this to more than two bytes per value, you may. Just insert a pair of LDA-SBC instructions for each extra byte of precision, before the BCS instruction. For another example of this kind of comparison, you might look up the NXTA1 routine in the Apple Monitor listing, at $FCBA. This routine is used by the Monitor MOVE command, and several other routines.