DASM needs full word/phrase support.

[supercat]

Nobody's yet mentioned the joy of labels. In DASM, the small set of predefined mnemonics means that one may define macros and labels to be anything else. If many English words have specific meanings in the language, it will be hard to come up with natural-looking labels that don't conflict. Labels that are English words but don't appear (yet) in the language could also create massive confusion. Further, the distinction between labels that represent numerical quantities and labels that represent addresses could muddle things further.

[roland p]

1+2

= 3

 

to:

 

Add the number one to the number two

The new value is three

 

I think that's the whole point.

mnemonics do things that are just too low level to give long names to it. even macro's do things that are low level/generic and are just called 'ADD_16_BIT' or 'CMP_16_BIT'.

Only at the level when you start creating routines that really do something more complex you can give names to it like 'draw_screen', 'player_jumps' or 'check_joy_up'

 

Even in a high-level language like Java the following code doesn't make sense:

public int addTwoNumbers(int numberOne, int numberTwo) {
return numberOne + numberTwo;
}

 

 

I think not all mnemonics make sense. The mnemonic for bitwise AND with accumulator is called 'AND'. But the mnemonic for bitwise OR isn't called 'OR' but 'ORA'. I found that really stupid because AND isn't called ANDA too. But of course keeping all mnemonics 3 letters made assemblers back in those days a lot faster because they did not have to check for the length of a mnemonic.

Edited October 2, 2008 by roland p

[+grafixbmp]

Actually, I think that it's more like:

 

Loop - steps to door:

Raise right foot up

Move right foot forward

Set right foot down

Raise left foot up

Move left foot forward

Set left foot down

End loop

 

Door reached:

Open right palm

Extend right hand to doorknob

Close right palm

Rotate right hand 30 degrees

 

Et cetera...et cetera...

 

When really all you are trying to do is go to the store for some milk. It just doesn't need to be spelled out when you put it in practice. Difficult to read. Difficult to follow along what the intended goal is.

This kind of makes me wonder if this might be similar to how programing an android might be. That's going to be a wonder of the mind in 15 years or so.

Edited October 2, 2008 by grafixbmp