Assembly?!?

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Posted by Tony.

Student on team #292, PantherTech, from Western High School and DaimlerChrysler.

Posted on 10/13/99 4:11 PM MST



Would I be correct in saying that we need to learn assembly to program the new IIsx chips for 2000? Thanks!

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Posted by Joe Johnson.   [PICTURE: SAME | NEW | HELP]


Engineer on team #47, Chief Delphi, from Pontiac Central High School and Delphi Automotive Systems.

Posted on 10/13/99 6:17 PM MST


In Reply to: Assembly?!? posted by Tony on 10/13/99 4:11 PM MST:



PBASIC is the language you will need to know.

It is sort of like basic only with less powerful branches, variable types, and math functions.

It sort of grows on you.

The biggest hassle is that all calculations are done in UNSIGNED 16-bit arithmetic.

No, on second thought the biggest hassle is that there are only 32 bytes of RAM for variable space.

No, on third thought the biggest hassle is that there is not an IF THEN ELSE structure built in.

No, on fourth thought the biggest hassle is that the command A = B MAX C sets A equal to the LESSER of B and C.

No, on fifth thought the biggest hassle is that while it is doing one thing, it cannot do anything else (i.e. no time based interrupt service routines).

No, on sixth thought the biggest hassle is that a typical equation ends up having about 20 parentheses in order to have the result reflect the intended calculation.

No, on seventh thought the biggest hassle is the lack of easy subroutine implementation.

No, on eighth thought...

It is an easy language, but it has a number of significant limitations if you try to do anything trickier than reading switches, scaling pots and sequencing relays.

But... It is a lot better than having to deal with assembly language or, even worse, having no programmability at all.

Joe J.

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Posted by Mike King.

Other on team #88, TJ², from Bridgewater Raynham and Johnson & Johnson Professional.

Posted on 10/24/99 7:56 PM MST


In Reply to: No Assembly Required! posted by Joe Johnson on 10/13/99 6:17 PM MST:



Now being in my 4th year of Computer Science classes at college. I've got 2 things to say:

Number 1: NO IF THEN ELSE! ARRRRRRRGGGG!!!!