Machine code...or whatever it's called

Wookiee

Two questions

1) can anyone recommend a good (and ideally, simpleish) book/resource which would be a good starting point on trying to learn this stuff

2) what's a good system to use to build stuff in?

rich_chandler

Wookiee wrote: »

Two questions

1) can anyone recommend a good (and ideally, simpleish) book/resource which would be a good starting point on trying to learn this stuff

2) what's a good system to use to build stuff in?

1.MasteringMachineCodeOnYourZXSpectrum.pdf

2. SpecEmu, Crimson Editor & Pasmo.

Wookiee

karingal wrote: »

1.MasteringMachineCodeOnYourZXSpectrum.pdf

2. SpecEmu, Crimson Editor & Pasmo.

thanks dude :-D

Battle Bunny

If you find the book rather daunting (although it is rather good, perhaps its only faults being that it doesn't have an index and the contents section doesn't give the page numbers for each chapter, so trying to find paticular topics can be troublesome), a "byte-size" version "Mastering Machine Code" is also available, which was published in 8 parts in ZX Computing magazine. (As well as the articles, the ZIP file includes a TAP file where all the example routines have been typed in and tested.)

Gedlion

Ooh! This is where I tout Boriel's "ZX Basic" again isn't it? :P

Wookiee - if you want to write machine code, I have to recommend messing with this. You can write in sinclair basic (almost - there's a couple of small differences, most notably that an if statement has to have an END IF to close it off). You can write in something like tommygun pretty easily, and it compiles to fast machine code right away.

Then, you can start using some of the more advanced basic stuff, like separate subroutines and functions.

Then you can start writing subs and functions in assembly language - so rather than have to write the whole thing in assembly, you could try plugging in that assembly random number routine that someone suggested to you earlier, and test it with basic wrapped around it.

In the end, you could use the compiler just as an assembler. Perhaps with some pretty wrapping - but by then you'll be up to writing in assembly if you need to.

I'm still considering myself weak at assembly; but without messing with the compiler and seeing perhaps what assembly it generates to do things and replacing bits with my own code, I wouldn't be adding to the library on the wiki there with fast assembly routines like I am!

http://www.boriel.com/wiki/en/index.php/ZXBasic (documentation is getting better and better!)

There's a forum on there if you get stuck, too.

bigjon

Wookiee wrote: »

Two questions

1) can anyone recommend a good (and ideally, simpleish) book/resource which would be a good starting point on trying to learn this stuff

2) what's a good system to use to build stuff in?

1) The online tutorial in my sig is the simplest you'll ever get. As to whether it's good, opinions differ!

2) ZXspin version 0.666

Rebelstar without a cause

I'd recommend the tutorial on Jonathan Cauldwell's website.

http://jonathan6.fortunecity.com/egghead/

Wookiee

cheers all - will have a looksee at all that and see if I can get my head round it.....my inner geek is quite enjoying fiddling with Basic and whatnot again :lol:

Rebelstar without a cause

I've found trying to learn from books alone wasn't very helpful. They're a great place to start and explain the basics really well. But they don't seem to tell you how to do anything interesting like printing something on the screen. A combination of books and tutorials is the way to go. Not forgetting the clever bods on here of course.