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JCSM Shareware Collection 1996 September
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JCSM Shareware Collection (JCS Distribution) (September 1996).ISO
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tutorial
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trac.zip
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INTRO
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1990-02-09
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ELEMENTARY COMPUTER PROGRAMMING
AN INTRODUCTION TO MACHINE LANGUAGE AND ASSEMBLY LANGUAGE CODING
Copyright 1990
CASTLE OAKS COMPUTER SERVICES
Post Office Box 36082
Indianapolis, IN 46236-0082
(317) 823-6366
This is a shareware software package. If you use it, you are ex-
pected to register. You may register by sending $10.00 to the above
address. Registered users will be sent the latest version of this
package and will also receive the Castle Oaks coding of the exer-
cises and their answers. Furthermore, registered users may avail
themselves of a limited amount of free consulting on this package by
phone or mail.
The purpose of this software package is to provide an introduction
to machine language and assembly language coding. Each computer has
its own machine and assembly languages. They are usually difficult
to master. The author has learned several machine languages and of
these, the coding of the IBM PC and compatibles is the most diffi-
cult. Therefore, it is recommended that you not try to learn it as
your first machine language. Actually, hardly anyone ever writes
any significant amount of code in machine language. Often a person
may say that a program was written in machine code when it was
actually written in assembly language. (In Lesson 3, assembly
languages will be discussed.)
For this course, a pseudo computer is used to provide a simplified
machine to practice on. With this approach, the student may find it
easier to progress to the assembly language of a real computer. It
may also dissuade some from continuing. This is good also because
the student will not have wasted a lot of time in trying to master a
difficult assembly language.
Most computer users do not need to know any programming languages.
Those that do can usually satisfy their requirements by using a high
level language. However, even if you do not progress to a real
assembly language, it is the aim of this package to give you an
appreciation of what assembly language programmers do; and it will
also give you an appreciation of what a higher level language com-
piler must be capable of in order to create machine code.
This course consists of this file, 4 lesson files, 2 executable
programs, and several programs to use for practice. Make printed
copies of the lessons. It is recommended that you print them in
draft mode (if you have that option) as the flow charts look better
in a draft font than in other fonts. The lessons have been paginat-
ed to be printed at 6 lines per inch on 11 inch paper, however, the
flow charts look best if they are printed in draft mode at 10 char-
acters per inch horizontally and 8 lines per inch vertically. You
should make copies of the program files for safe keeping because, as
you progress through the course, you are encouraged to change these
programs to try out alternative coding.
Intro-1
There are four lesson files. They have the following content.
Lesson1 - In this lesson, the instruction repertoire and machine
architecture of the pseudo computer, TRAC, are given. Example
programs are included and there is an exercise for you to use to try
your hand at TRAC coding.
Lesson2 - More examples of TRAC coding are given in this lesson and
the student is introduced to the techniques of how to actually run
and trace a program. You are encouraged to execute the exercise
from lesson1 and a second exercise is included for coding and execu-
tion.
Lesson3 - TRAP, the assembly program for TRAC is introduced in this
lesson. Instructions on its use and its limitations are given.
Examples of TRAP coding are included and an exercise is given for
you to code in TRAP.
Lesson4 - This lesson describes how to assemble a TRAP program into
a TRAC program. Examples are given as well as two exercises for you
to use for practice.
Registered users will be informed of updates to this package and any
other software that Castle Oaks distributes. At the present time,
Castle Oaks also distributes the following packages:
WORDFIND - a system to assist in solving word puzzles such as cross-
words, acrostics, cryptograms, etc. Registration is $15.00.
UNAGRAM - a program to unscramble anagrams. Provided free with
WORDFIND.
TO - FROM Utilities - A system for converting binary files to ASCII
and back to binary. This provides you the means of sending a binary
file to a destination via a host that can only accept ASCII charac-
ters. Registration is $10.00.
CRYPT-O-SEARCH (TM) - A program that creates word search puzzles.
An added feature is that the word list may be encrypted, if desired.
Registration fee is $10.00.
Other products are under development.
Intro-2