★ LITTÉRATURE ★ ENGLISH ★ Assembly Language Programming for the Amstrad CPC 464, 664 & 6128 ★ |
| Assembly Language Programming For the Amstrad CPC 464 664 And 6128 (Amstrad Action) | Littérature English |
Assembly language programming books for the beginner abound, but there are few that go further than the introductory stage. Although this book by A and D Stephenson introduces you to the concept of assembler, most of its pages describe practical programming applications and how to achieve certain tasks. It starts with the pros and cons of Basic, the differences between Basic and assembler, and why it would be a good idea to learn assembler - in short, why you should read the book. Before you get down to the nitty-gritty of bits, bytes, peeks and pokes. Assembly Language Programming takes you on a guided tour of the Amstrad's hardware. Binary and hexadecimal numeral systems are handled admirably, but could have been improved with the addition of problems. The authors redeem themselves by ending each chapter with a comprehensive summary. Although the authors claim that you can get by without an assembler, they do make several references to Hisoft's Devpac. Perhaps a few pages donated to a Basic assembler listing wouldn't have gone amiss? Some of the most useful chapters - especially if you've got a fundamental knowledge of assembly programming - include those that deal with conditional branching or jumping. Listed are the correct methods for testing for certain conditions and then jumping. Very handy if you're not too strong with jp, z, jr c, jp nc and so on There are numérous assembly listings, explanations of what they do and how they could be altered The routines include keyboard input, text output, sorts, printing, addition and other mathematical functions, loops and simple graphical animation The book also delves into CPC-specific topics like the screen layout. RSX (bar) commands and passing parameters to machine code. Assembly Language Programming is probably the best aid to learning assembler at present It is packed with useful information and example programs. If you want to program, this is the book.
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