ix408@sdcc6.UUCP (Cris Rys) (03/05/85)
I am interested in learning 68000 assembly language. I know assembly language for other machines (apple, PDP11) so I am not in an infintile stage of computer programming. So what in your opinions are the best books to read in order to learn 68000. You might give me a first book to read and then a second one which goes more in depth. Also what is the standard manual for the 68000? I have seen many around but I don't want to buy one that is just trash. thanks Cris Rys
jans@mako.UUCP (Jan Steinman) (03/09/85)
In article <1944@sdcc6.UUCP> ix408@sdcc6.UUCP (Cris Rys) writes: >... what in your opinions are the best books to read in order to learn 68000. >Also what is the standard manual for the 68000? The 68000 Bible: "M68000 16/32-Bit Microprocessor Programmer's Reference Manual, Fourth Edition". Also covers M68008 and M68010. I prefer the Third Edition, sans the newer chips, but it may be out of print. Contact a local Motorola distributer, such as Schweber or Hamilton-Avnet and be prepared to wait if you're an individual, or if you're employed by a sizable company which uses Motorola parts, talk to your purchasing department -- they can probably get you one free. >You might give me a first book to read and then a second one which goes more >in depth. As for more depth, my favorite is "68000 Assembly Language Programming", Leventhal, et. al, McGraw-Hill, 1981. Lots of diagrams, with about 1/2 page ENGLISH! describing each instruction. About %80 of the book is devoted to assembly language techniques, using M68000 code sequences as examples, with the other 20% describing the instruction set. Their examples are generally not very good assembly language style (non-reentrant, non-position- independent, embedded literals and absolute addresses, etc.) but the 20% of the book describing the instruction set is quite good. -- :::::: Jan Steinman Box 1000, MS 61-161 (w)503/685-2843 :::::: :::::: tektronix!tekecs!jans Wilsonville, OR 97070 (h)503/657-7703 ::::::
jww@bonnie.UUCP (Joel West) (03/20/85)
Message-ID: <629@mako.UUCP> Date: 8 Mar 85 21:31:32 GMT Date-Received: 11 Mar 85 04:40:35 GMT References: <1944@sdcc6.UUCP> Reply-To: jans@mako.UUCP (Jan Steinman) Organization: Tektronix, Wilsonville OR Lines: 26 Summary: In article <629@mako.UUCP> jans@mako.UUCP writes >As for more depth, my favorite is "68000 Assembly Language Programming", >Leventhal, et. al, McGraw-Hill, 1981. Lots of diagrams, with about 1/2 page >ENGLISH! describing each instruction. About %80 of the book is devoted to >assembly language techniques, using M68000 code sequences as examples, with >the other 20% describing the instruction set. Their examples are generally >not very good assembly language style (non-reentrant, non-position- >independent, embedded literals and absolute addresses, etc.) but the 20% of >the book describing the instruction set is quite good. I won't attack someone for his/her personal opinions, but my own reaction is THIS BOOK IS ABSOLUTE UNADULTERATED JUNK! and I would not recommend it to my mother-in-law. My own bias is that I never read any technical book, either skim it or flip to the index when I have a question. This book has 80% useless material as far as I'm concerned (translation: "boilerplate", which is why there are very similar books from Osbonre/McGraw-Hill for the 6052, 8080, etc. etc.) and I would be ashamed to have my name on the cover. In fact, if I had the time, I would write my own. As far as I'm concerned, a good book would introduce the instructions in reference form one group per chapter. It would list all the possible variations and spell out all assumptions. New concepts could be explained at the beginning of the chapter. For example, in the 68000 world I get confused by the optional ".b" ".w" ".l" -- I come from a VAX where you look at the instruction ("MOVZBL" "CASEL") and you know exactly what the operand size is. As a reference book to be used by people who don't know the 68000 (that's why they bought the book, remember?) all assumptions should be spelled out, even if it seems repetitive. I tried to figure out whether a "dbf" used a 8, 16, or 32 bit data value. I couldn't find it in the McGraw-Hill, but my Motorola 68020 User's Manual said: DBcc .... Attributes: Size=(Word) as part of its 1.5 page description. Now is this too much to ask? -- Joel West (619) 457-9681 CACI, Inc. - Federal 3344 N. Torrey Pines Ct La Jolla 92037 jww@bonnie.UUCP (ihnp4!bonnie!jww) westjw@nosc.ARPA "The best is the enemy of the good" - A. Mullarney