Previous Next

After messing around with machine code for a few months I decided to buy an assembler program. An assembler/editor is a program which will allow you to enter and edit mnemonics and label names and then it will translate it into machine code.

I decided to buy the Editor/Assembler program from Picturesque. From the day I sent my order to the day the program bumped into my mailbox, two long weeks passed. Because the program now is compatible with the microdrives and because of some new facilities, the owner's manual are in two booklet. Reading the manuals from one end to another a few times gives you an idea of what the program can do, and which commands to use. You will have to jump from one manual to the other if you want to read it straightforward. Picturesque will hopefully mix the two manuals together into one in the nearest future.

The cassette contains the 16K version on one side and 48K on the other. When run, the program asks which printer you use, if you want to save it or not (and I will recommend you to save it on another tape and use that, when you are going to use the program and spare the original) and finally it asks you if it is a new program you'll produce or you want to continue with the one already stored in the Spectrum.

The program has AUTOmatic line numbers with start and step as you want, and it has RENUMBER. If you have to EDIT something, just type EDIT and line number, than you get that line down for editing. You can LIST in almost the usual way.

At the very beginning of a program you have to have an ORG command. ORG address gives the start address of the machine-code program. If you type ORG # the program will assemble in the right place - normally at 24014 - and you can run it from that point, inside the assembler program (a good way to test a new program).

You get a whole new character-set enabling you to have 40 characters in a line. They have a very good size - not too small.

Numbers may be in HEX or Decimal.

You can SAVE and VERIFY the text and/or the machine-code, and you can LOAD a saved text back into the program.

You cannot load a BASIC or a machine-code program into the assembler.

The assembling of a program is very fast. You can get the code printed on screen/paper - that will slow down the assembling a bit though.

Pointing out things I don't like I will start with the fact that the code only is printed in HEX. If you don't start the machine-code program from the beginning, you will have to translate the HEX address to decimal address.

Another thing I will point out, is that you cannot use graphic-characters in a message-string.

Generally I think this is a superb program and indeed very user-friendly (except the HEX-code). I have already made some good machine-code subroutines to add to my BASIC programs and learned very much how the Spectrum works. I will highly recommend this program to everyone.

The Editor/Assembler costs £8.50 inc. VAT and P&P.