It's an architectural specification book, not a text book. I would prefer it stay that way.
There certainly is room for more, and better designed textbooks on this topic though. If someone wanted to take a POP like approach to writing one, and expand that to include more useful information for students that would be great. But the architectural specification book doesn't need to be modified to do that. Just my opinion :-) Joey -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Assembler List [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of MELVYN MALTZ Sent: Wednesday, November 12, 2014 5:59 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: Redesigning the Principles of Operation Manual Hi Joey, I think you miss the point. Conciseness is essential. What I am suggesting is that each instruction is concisely defined. Start with ADD in Chapter 7, where 15 instructions are concisely compressed into a meaningless hotchpotch of description. Do you think that a student after reading that section would know what ASI actually did ? Mel. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Capps, Joey" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, November 12, 2014 10:15 PM Subject: Re: Redesigning the Principles of Operation Manual > Personally I don't think it's design was to save paper. > I think it was to 'be concise'. > And that is what I think it needs to be. > > As for reorganizing it into different chapters, that might be useful. > But we cannot afford to have it lose its concise nature. > > Joey > > > -----Original Message----- > From: IBM Mainframe Assembler List > [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Melvyn Maltz > Sent: Wednesday, November 12, 2014 4:04 PM > To: [email protected] > Subject: Redesigning the Principles of Operation Manual > > One can see why the Principles of Operation manual (PoP) was designed in > its present format...to save paper. > > There is now no need to design this manual in a form that was suitable 30 > years ago. > > Now that I've restarted teaching Assembler I realise that the PoP neither > serves the professional learning new instructions or techniques nor the > student learning for the first time. > > The suggestions below have been compiled by myself and contacts and are > not in any priority order. I offer these in order to stimulate discussion. > I know IBM monitor this forum as I see names that I know. > IBM can join in as well. > > 1) Instruction descriptions > Every instruction must be individually described. No more bunching. > > 2) Two Manuals > ---PoP1 describes formats and techniques > ---PoP2 describes instructions and examples > > Hyperlinks to similar instructions and examples. > > 3) Classification > The current classification is inadequate, ie. CVD isn't a decimal > instruction...there are many others. > > If you have to classify, then here is a suggestion... > 1) Boolean...AND/OR/XOR > 2) Branch....BRANCH and PROGRAM > 3) Compare...COMPARE and TEST > a) Binary > b) Floating point > c) Decimal > 4) Conversion...CONVERT/TRANSLATE/UNPACK/EDIT/PACK > a) Character/Binary/Decimal > b) Floating point > 5) Cryptography...COMPRESSION/CIPHER/PERFORM > 6) I/O...CHANNEL > 7) Maths > a) Binary > b) Floating point > c) Decimal > 8) Move...PAGE/MOVE/LOAD/STORE/INSERT > 9) Trace..TRACE > 10) Transaction..TRANSACTION > 11) Trap...TRAP > 12) Others > > 4) An iPoP app that can display an individual instruction with multiple > cross-references for local use. > > 5) A Web app to do the same, but has the advantage of being international > and collective. > "People who looked up LG also looked up LLGF" > > Let the discourse begin. >
