| ★ APPLICATIONS ★ PROGRAMMATION ★ MAXAM (ARNOR) ★ |
| MAXAM (Microstrad) | MAXAM: Really friendly assembler (Computing with the Amstrad) | MAXAM (Amstrad Computer User) | Maxam (Popular Computing Weekly) |
THE majority of programmers, myself included, start off by assembling their first few machine code programs by hand. This is fine for short, simple routines, but there comes a stage when the time spent assembling the code is simply unacceptable and some sort of tool is required to speed up program development.
If you have reached that stage then you will be taking a close look at the various assemblers available for the Amstrad. Look no further, Arnor's Z80 Assembler, Disassembler and Editor is the best I have seen. All assemblers have pretty much the same range of functions, and they come complete with an editor, disassembler and memory lister. The differences between them lie more in their ease of use and user friendliness. Arnor's is by far the easiest to use and most friendly that I have come across. There are two different methods of entering assembly language mnemonics. The first is using the editor. Typing in assembler using it is very similar to using a word processor and just as easy. Simply type in the mnemonics, labels and comments as you would a letter or document. The cursor keys enable you to move to any position in the text and Delete/Clr work as normal. As with a word processor there are search and replace, and block move or delete facilities. Whole lines can be deleted or space made for a new line, and the cursor can be sent to the start or end of each line. Each line of source code must be preceeded by a which is interpreted by Basic as a REM statement. However if ASSEMBLE is placed at the start then the assembler takes over, reading each line and compiling it. This means that the code can be quickly and easily altered using Basic's editor, and loading and saving involves fewer steps. The disassembler and memory lister is useful occasionally, either if you have lost the source code or if you want to have a look at someone else's program or the ROMs. Roland Waddilove, CWTA
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