On 8/19/2011 10:55 AM, Martin Trübner wrote:
While I am happy with the L.R. I like to comment on Kens'
The "assembler" manual I would like to see rewritten is the "Principles
of Opeertations"
Absolutly.... while POP (the way it is) may have its place- I have a
hard time reading about a certain instruction (when I need to).
It is IMHO more than counterproductive (I dare to say confusing)
for the reader (but time saving for the authors of the hardware/micro-code)
to have identical instructions with only variations in a-mode and/or targets in
one
paragraph- this results in very subtle changes in the wording
for the various flavours. I would prefer (even if this would
create a manual three times as big) every instruction in a
separate text.
For illustration look at TRxx (xx="OT/OO/TT/TO") - or (for a simpler
sample) look at AH/AHY/AH/AGHI.
It would make life easier for everyone using this book if each of
these instructions would be explained in a different chapter. The way
it is now is that the reader is challenged to read all the fine print.
To me it means reading the instructions at least twice (if not more).
(and all the AH is explained in different text.
It is an inherently complex topic. It takes work to 'get it'. And
even then, subtleties are easily missed. Who on this list has not
written an Assembler program and then five years (or even six months)
later wondered how they could write this crap? :-)
It takes practice and experience. I'm not sure the authors can do
much better without skimming over points that come back to bite
the unsuspecting programmer later.
Of course, a class can help speed the process. :-)
--
Martin
Pi_cap_CPU - all you ever need around MWLC/SCRT/CMT in z/VSE
more at http://www.picapcpu.de
--
Kind regards,
-Steve Comstock
The Trainer's Friend, Inc.
303-393-8716
http://www.trainersfriend.com
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