On Wed, 12 Nov 2014 17:04:18 -0500, Melvyn Maltz wrote: >Now that I've restarted teaching Assembler I realise that the PoP neither >serves the professional learning new instructions or techniques
I am a professional Assembler programmer and I find that the POO serves me very well for learning new instructions, thank you very much. I use the POO frequently enough that I routinely open it every time I boot my PC. >nor the student learning for the first time. That is not the purpose of the POO, but of an assembler textbook. Why aren't you using one of the many available textbooks to teach your classes? >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. As John Gilmore wrote, if the available textbooks are not suitable to your needs, perhaps you should write one that is, rather than complaining that the POO is not the textbook that you desire. >IBM can join in as well. Of course they can. This is a public forum. >1) Instruction descriptions > Every instruction must be individually described. No more bunching. I disagree strongly. The "bunching" that you describe is valuable. To eliminate it would increase the redundancy and would also require that extensive cross-references be added to the manual to make it useful. This in turn would require considerable jumping around in order to read what is needed. It would likely double the size of the manual at a minimum. >2) Two Manuals > ---PoP1 describes formats and techniques Formats? that's 5 pages. Techniques? What do you mean by that? > ---PoP2 describes instructions and examples While instructions might be the largest part of the POO, there is a _LOT_ of other architectural information that doesn't fall into either of these classifications. Once again, you are describing something very different from what the POO is intended to be. > Hyperlinks to similar instructions and examples. > >3) Classification > The current classification is inadequate, ie. CVD isn't a decimal > instruction...there are many others. CVD is part of the Decimal Feature. That may not be important any more, but IMO, the chapter on (packed) decimal instructions is an appropriate place for the instruction. Perhaps the most appropriate place. > 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 The above is a useful organization for a text book. I would not like to see the POO organized this way. >Let the discourse begin. Knock yourself out. I see no value in your proposals. -- Tom Marchant
