Re: question

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Re: question

If you don't know what disassembler to use...

1. Find out if the code is for a stand-alone interpreter to run. That stuff
is so rare I have never even run across it, well, not really true.. macros
are a simple form of programming, and they are to be interpreted by their
appropriate program. ie: MS Word, MS Access, etc. However, this kind of
code is usually in direct source already, so you don't need a disassembler.
Furthermore, they aren't called disassemblers. Just readers.

2.If it isn't.. like most things, find out whatever system runs it. A mac?
a pc? a nintendo? a snes? a TurboGrafx? a sega gamegear? a lynx? an
atari2600? a c64? an msx? an amiga? a ti85? a ti86? a ti92? an snes
emulator on the pc? (which means it runs on a snes, of course, not on a
pc.).

3a. if you can't find anything, chances are it's a load of random bytes or
a document or something, not code at all.

3b. if you do find something, figure out what the processor is for the
system. ie: a motorola 68k or 6800, a Z80, an i486, etc.

4. get the appropriate disassembler for that processor.

See, every processor has one language. They can't have more than 1. Heh,
not quite true.. the i486, for example, knows 3. Real, V86, and protected.
But they are really all part of one: i486. (It just happends that i486
contains all the commands the i86 had..) So, a deassembler for the i486
will take it and disassemble it into the appropriate i486 Machine Code
language. The only thing it does is read the code and translate it into the
appropriate mnemonic. It iwll not translate a variable name, since they
aren't saved into an EXE unless you tell your compiler to, which only
happends during debugging. Only the physical memory location. So the code
will be hard to read :-). There is no such thing as 'this is compiled with
C, not some form of asm, so a disassembler will not decompile it.). It just
wont decompile to C, to asm. all disassemblers disassemble to asm. that's
why they are called disassemblers. if it's for the ti85, any Z80 code will
tackle at, provided you give it a critical point (ie: the disassembler
doesn't know the first few bytes is data- the prog name for Zshell/usgard
to display. therefore It could misalign, and so you need to give it at
least one instance of the start of the code so it knows that it must align
there.

Some specific ZShell disassemblers are out there.. they are nothing more
than A standard Z80 disassembler that 'knows' the first few bytes is data
until a 0 byte, which indicates the end of the name string. It might also
translate rom adresses, which is useful, but just equivalenting- VAR_NEW,
for example, is nothing more than a number that has been given a name to
make referencing it easier.

--
-R.Zwitserloot@BTInternet.com

The Petro's <sherwood@BRIGHT.NET> wrote in article
<199707120309.XAA00574@sparticus.bright.net>...
> Sorry, this isn't exactly a calculator question but i figured somebody
> might knw, or know where I might find soeone who does.
>
> Is there any way to find out what language a program is in if you don't
> know. I have a program that I cannot disassemble with anything I've
tried.
> If you want a go at it, just e-mail me at sherwood@bright.net. the file
is
> quite small.
> thanks in advance,
> gary
>
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