Re: A86: Re: Re: Assembly
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Re: A86: Re: Re: Assembly
That's interesting, but it seems almost backwards. BASIC is in no way
similiar to asm, or even other lower-level languages. BASIC is merely a
interpreter that executes tokens, and allows for a few control tokens to
change the instruction that the interpreter will read next.
There are similarities, but only through functionality, not through method.
The similarity between <ld hl,string\puts string> and <Disp string> are only
that a string is written to the display. Though they seem the same, but are
very different. In BASIC, you are just printing a string. In asm, you are
pointing to a string and calling a routine to print it. There are many ways
to set the pointer to the string, calling the routine, etc. In basic, there
is only one way.
Now, this may seem trivial, but it's the thought process that is important.
Sure, knowing how to print a string is good. But knowing exactly what is
going on when you do print a string like that is absolutely necessary if you
want to do anything more than printing strings. And that is what I don't
know how to explain adequately. When you have a tutorial that just explains
commands that are similiar to basic programs, you end up with beginners who
can write programs that are equivalent to basic, yet don't understand or
have the capability to learn more about what is going on.
All of the understanding must be learned through hours of testing and
experimenting, until it is natural to the person. I don't know if that is
possible to teach.
That is why everyone should debug their own code, because that is
fundamental to understand how and why things work. Debugging is the same as
writing code. You don't understand it, so it doesn't work. If someone else
debugs the code, then they understand it and you don't. Hence, you haven't
learned anything, and you will make the same mistake again until you learn.
After spending an hour and a half on a simple bug, you will probably not
make the same mistake again, or will at least remember what it was the last
time. When you have more experience, you will not make nearly as many bugs
as when you are learning. This is because you understand exactly what your
program is doing, both on the assembly level and at the processor level.
I don't know to teach or learn that, other than practice...
> how about one that is aimed at people who know ti-basic? that would be
> easier b/c you could have certian asm funtions funtions supported by basic
> functions. (i.e. [ld hl,title][call puts] would be represented by a
basic
> Disp Variablename) depending on how many people are wanting to program
> games, someone could write one aimed at game programmers who know
ti-basic.
> any others input on this one?
>
> << Would a very basic tutorial for Assembly Studio 86 aimed at people who
know
> no programming help? >>
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