🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <663@boulder.Colorado.EDU> cdash@boulder.Colorado.EDU (Charles Shub) writes:
>The biggest problem students, especially sophmores, face is that they
>need simplicity!!!! That means either some simple system calls like
>INCHWL on TOPS-20 assembler (input character, wait for line feed before
>returning) or macros (see almost any assembly text book) like read_w to
>read in word length integers. Students need to be able to write 20 to 30
>line programs that do something reasonably useful.
> [ deleted ]

Actually, INCHWL is a TOPS-10 monitor call. On TOPS-20 you would be better
off using a native TOPS-20 system call such as PBIN, TEXTI, or COMND.
Anyway, assembly language isn't different from any other language in that
a good programming environment makes a big difference. That includes a
good editor (EMACS), a good macro assembler (MIDAS or MACRO-10), a nice
and friendly operating system (TOPS-20), and a good debugger (DDT).
The processor architecture itself is of course also very important, and
the PDP-10 was indeed a well-designed processor (and the KL-10 still is,
except for a few kludges).

On Unix everything can be done in C, and that's a big improvement.
But when you *do* need assembly language, the right tools are missing.
"as" isn't a language processor, it's just a back-end for "cc".
And "DDT" isn't there when you need it.

-- 
Bjorn Danielsson, ZYX, +46 8 653205, ...mcvax!enea!zyx!bd