[comp.sys.cbm] Commodore Macro Assembler

eravin@dasys1.UUCP (Ed Ravin) (08/24/87)

You don't need to use shifted spaces in the Commie Macro Assembler
text editor: only one space for indentation is needed.  Just use the
FORMAT command to display your text instead of LIST.  FORMAT will 
add the appropriate indentations for text that begins with a space.
It also has the added advantage of accepting the spacebar as a pause
control.

Another minor disadvantage in the Commie Macro Assembler is that the
macro facility cannot generate any directives in the macro.  I found
a few ways of fooling it into doing so, but then I got flaky assembly
errors occuring elsewhere at perfectly good code.

I've used the CMA to assemble a 10k terminal emulator program and a 7k
BBS I/O driver, and I concur with the previously posted opinion: it's an
OK assembler that does the job, without any fancy features.  The big
deficiency is the lack of any kind of linking of modules: this might be
gotten around by anyone who wants to write a linking loader (CMA's inter-
mediate object form is well documented) and can think of some conventions
for sharing entry points between modules (no "external" labels allowed in
CMA, you would probably have to fake it with a jump table).  Then again,
there are probably better assemblers out there that have module ability.
-- 
Ed Ravin                                  eravin@dasys1.uucp
Programmer-at-Large                      (a.k.a. cmcl2!cucard!dasys1!eravin)

Definitize what the procedural aspects of the American assumption should be.