Machine Language For Beginners

2

The Fundamentals

The difficulty of learning ML has sometimes been exaggerated. There are some new rules to learn and some new habits to acquire. But most ML programmers would probably agree that ML is not inherently more difficult to understand than BASIC. More of a challenge to debug in many cases, but it’s not worlds beyond BASIC in complexity. In fact, many of the first home computerists in the 1970’s learned ML before they learned BASIC. This is because an average version of the BASIC language used in microcomputers takes up around 12,000 bytes of memory, and early personal computers (KIM, AIM, etc.) were severely restricted by containing only a small amount of available memory. These early machines were unable to offer BASIC, so everyone programmed in ML.

Interestingly, some of these pioneers reportedly found BASIC to be just as difficult to grasp as ML. In both cases, the problem seems to be that the rules of a new language simply are “obscure” until you know them. In general, though, learning either language probably requires roughly the same amount of effort.

The first thing to learn about ML is that it reflects the construction of computers. It most often uses a number system (hexadecimal) which is not based on ten. You will find a table in Appendix E which makes it easy to look up hex, decimal, or binary numbers.

We count by tens because it is a familiar (though arbitrary) grouping for us. Humans have ten fingers. If we had eleven fingers, the odds are that we would be counting by elevens.

What’s a Natural Number?

Computers count in groups of twos. It is a fact of electronics that the easiest way to store and manipulate information is by ON-OFF states. A light bulb is either on or off. This is a two-group, it’s binary, and so the powers of two become the natural groupings for electronic counters. 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256. Finger counters (us) have been using tens so long that we have come to think of ten as natural, like thunder in April. Tens isn’t natural at all. What’s more, twos is a more efficient way to count.

To see how the powers of two relate to computers, we can run a short BASIC program which will give us some of these powers. Powers of a number are the number multiplied by itself. Two to the power of two (2²) means 2 times 2 (4). Two to the power of three (2³) means 2 times 2 times 2 (8).

10 FOR I=0 to 16
20 PRINT 2^I
30 NEXT I

ML programming can be done in decimal (based on ten-groupings), but usually is not. Most ML programming involves hex numbers. This means groups of 16 rather than 10.

Why not just program in the familiar decimal numbers (as BASIC does)? Because 16 is one of the powers of two. It is a convenient grouping (or base) for ML because it organizes numbers the way the computer does. For example, all computers work, at the most elementary level, with bits. A bit is the smallest piece of information possible: something is either on or off, yes or no, plus or minus, true or false. This two-state condition (binary) can be remembered by a computer’s smallest single memory cell. This single cell is called a bit. The computer can turn each bit “on” or “off” as if it were a light bulb or a flag raised or lowered.

It’s interesting that the word bit is frequently explained as a shortening of the phrase BInary digiT. In fact, the word bit goes back several centuries. There was a coin which was soft enough to be cut with a knife into eight pieces. Hence, pieces of eight. A single piece of this coin was called a bit and, as with computer memories, it meant that you couldn’t slice it any further. We still use the word bit today as in the phrase two bits, meaning 25 cents.

Whatever it’s called, the bit is a small, essential aspect of computing. Imagine that we wanted to remember the result of a subtraction. When two numbers are subtracted, they are actually being compared with each other. The result of the subtraction tells us which number is the larger or if they are equal. ML has an instruction, like a command in BASIC, which compares two numbers by subtraction. It is called CMP (for compare). This instruction sets “flags” in the CPU (Central Processing Unit), and one of the flags always remembers whether or not the result of the most recent action taken by the computer was a zero. We’ll go into this again later. What we need to realize now is that each flag – like the flag on a mailbox – has two possible conditions: up or down. In other words, this information (zero result or not-zero) is binary and can be stored within a single bit. Each of the flags is a bit. Together they make up one byte. That byte is called the Status Register.

Byte Assignments

Our computers group these bits into units of eight, called bytes. This relationship between bits and bytes is easy to remember if you think of a bit as one of the “pieces of eight.” Eight is a power of two also (two, to the third power). Eight is a convenient number of bits to work with as a group because we can count from zero to 255 using only eight bits.

This gives us enough room to assign all 26 letters of the alphabet (and the uppercase letters and punctuation marks, etc.) so that each printed character will have its particular number. The letter “A” (uppercase) has been assigned the number 65. “B” is 66, and so on. Throughout this book, examples will follow the ASCII code for letters of the alphabet. Most microcomputers, however, do not adhere strictly to the ASCII code. If you get unexpected results when trying the example programs, check your BASIC manual to see if POKEing to the screen RAM uses a different code than ASCII. If that is the case, substitute your screen POKE code for the values given in the examples.

These “assignments” form the convention called the ASCII code by which computers worldwide can communicate with each other. Text can be sent via modems and telephone lines and arrive meaning the same thing to a different computer. It’s important to visualize each byte, then, as being eight bits ganged together and able to represent 256 different things. As you might have guessed, 256 is a power of two also (two, to the power of eight).

So, these groupings of eight, these bytes, are a key aspect of computing. But we also want to simplify our counting from 0 to 255. We want the numbers to line up in a column on the screen or on paper. Obviously, the decimal number five takes up one space and the number 230 takes up three spaces.

Also, hex is easier to think about in terms of binary numbers – the on-off, single-bit way that the computer handles numbers:

Decimal	Hex	Binary
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17	01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 (note new digits) ⇒ 0A 0B 0C 0D 0E 0F (note new column in the hex) ⇒ 10 11	00000001 00000010 00000011 (1 and 2) 00000100 00000101 (4 and 1) 00000110 (4 and 2) 00000111 (4+2+1) 00001000 00001001 00001010 00001011 00001100 00001101 00001110 00001111 00010000 00010001

See how hex $10 (hex numbers are usually preceded by a dollar sign to show that they are not decimal) looks like binary? If you split a hex number into two parts, 1 and 0, and the binary (it’s an eight-bit group, a byte) into two parts, 0001 and 0000 – you can see the relationship.

The Rationale For Hex Numbers

ML programmers often handle numbers as hexadecimal digits, meaning groups of sixteen instead of ten. It is usually just called hex. You should read over the instructions to the Simple Assembler and remember that you can choose between working in hex or decimal with that assembler. You can know right from the start if you’re working with hex or decimal, so the dollar sign isn’t used with the Simple Assembler.

DECIMAL 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 then you start over with 10
HEX 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 0A 0B 0C 0D 0E 0F then you start over with 10

Program 2-1. Microsoft Hex-Decimal Converter.

1 HE$="0123456789ABCDEF"
2 PRINT"{CLEAR}{03 DOWN}PLEASE CHOOSE:
4 PRINT"{03 DOWN}{03 RIGHT}1-INPUT HEX & GET DECIMAL BACK.
5 REM NEW LINE HERE
6 PRINT"{02 DOWN}    2-INPUT DECIMAL TO GET HEX BACK.
7 GETK:IFK=0THEN7
9 PRINT"{CLEAR}":ON K-GOTO200,400
100 H$="":FORM=3TO0STEP-1:N%=DE/(16^M):DE=DE-N%*16^M:H$=H$+MID$(HE$,N%+1,1):NEXT
101 RETURN
102 D=0:Q=3:FORM=1TO4:FORW=0TO15:IFMID$(H$,M,1)=MID$(HE$,W+1,1)THEN104
103 NEXTW
104 D1=W*(16^(Q)):D=D+D1:Q=Q-1:NEXTM
105 DE=INT(D):RETURN
200 INPUT"{02 DOWN}HEX";H$:GOSUB102:PRINTSPC(11)"{UP}= {REV}"DE"{LEFT} "
210 GOTO200
400 INPUT"{02 DOWN}DECIMAL";DE:GOSUB100:PRINTSPC(14)"{UP}= {REV} "H$" "
410 GOTO400

Program 2-2. Atari Hex-Decimal Converter.

100 DIM H$(23),N$(9):OPEN#1,4,0,"K:"
130 GRAPHICS 0
140 PRINT "PLEASE CHOOSE:"
150 PRINT "1- INPUT HEX AND GET DECIMAL BACK."
160 PRINT "2- INPUT DECIMAL AND GET HEX BACK."
170 PRINT:PRINT "==>";:GET#1,K
180 IF K<49 OR K>50 THEN 170
190 PRINT CHR$(K):ON K-48 GOTO 300,400
300 H$="@ABCDEFGHI!!!!!!!JKLMNO"
310 PRINT "HEX";:INPUT N$:N=0
320 FOR I=1 TO LEN(N$)
330 N=N*16+ASC(H$(ASC(N$(I))-47))-64:NEXT I
340 PRINT "$";N$;"=";N:PRINT:PRINT:GOTO 140
400 H$="0123456789ABCDEF"
410 PRINT "DECIMAL";:INPUT N:M=4096
420 PRINT N;"=$";
430 FOR I=1 TO 4:J=INT(N/M)
440 PRINT H$(J+1,J+1);:N=N-M*J:M=M/16
450 NEXT I:PRINT:PRINT:GOTO 140

The first thing to notice is that instead of the familiar decimal symbol 10, hex uses the letter “A” because this is where decimal numbers run out of symbols and start over again with a one and a zero. Zero always reappears at the start of each new grouping in any number system: 0, 10, 20, etc. The same thing happens with the groupings in hex: 0, 10, 20, 30, etc. The difference is that, in hex, the 1 in the “tens” column equals a decimal 16. The second column is now a “sixteens” column. 11 means 17, and 21 means 33 (2 times 16 plus one). Learning hex is probably the single biggest hurdle to get over when getting to know ML. Don’t be discouraged if it’s not immediately clear what’s going on. (It probably never will be totally clear – it is, after all, unnatural.) You might want to practice the exercises at the end of this chapter. As you work with ML, hex will gradually seem less and less alien.

To figure out a hex number, multiply the second column by 16 and add the other number to it. So, 1A would be one times 16 plus 10 (recall that A stands for ten).

Hex does seem impossibly confusing when you come upon it for the first time. It will never become second nature, but it should be at least generally understood. What is more, you can program in ML quite easily by looking up the hex numbers in the table at the end of this book. You need not memorize them beyond learning to count from 1 to 16 – learning the symbols. Be able to count from 00 up to 0F. (By convention, even the smallest hex number is listed as two digits as in 03 or 0B. The other distinguishing characteristic is that dollar sign that is usually placed in front of them: $05 or $0E.) It is enough to know what they look like and be able to find them when you need them.

The First 255

Also, most ML programming involves working with hex numbers only between 0 and 255. This is because a single byte (eight bits) can hold no number larger than 255. Manipulating numbers larger than 255 is of no real importance in ML programming until you are ready to work with more advanced ML programs. This comes later in the book. For example, all 6502 ML instructions are coded into one byte, all the “flags” are held in one byte, and many “addressing modes” use one byte to hold their argument.

To learn all we need know about hex for now, we can try some problems and look at some ML code to see how hex is used in the majority of ML work. But first, let’s take an imaginary flight over computer memory. Let’s get a visual sense of what bits and bytes and the inner workings of the computer’s RAM look like.

The City Of Bytes

Imagine a city with a single long row of houses. It’s night. Each house has a peculiar Christmas display: on the roof is a line of eight lights. The houses represent bytes; each light is a single bit. (See Figure 2-1.) If we fly over the city of bytes, at first we see only darkness. Each byte contains nothing (zero), so all eight of its bulbs are off. (On the horizon we can see a glow, however, because the computer has memory up there, called ROM memory, which is very active and contains built-in programs.) But we are down in RAM, our free user-memory, and there are no programs now in RAM, so every house is dark. Let’s observe what happens to an individual byte when different numbers are stored there; we can randomly choose byte 1504. We hover over that house to see what information is “contained” in the light display. (See Figure 2-2.)

Figure 2-1.

Figure 2-2.

Like all the rest, this byte is dark. Each bulb is off. Observing this, we know that the byte here is “holding” or representing a zero. If someone at the computer types in POKE 1504,1 – suddenly the rightmost light bulb goes on and the byte holds a one instead of a zero:

Figure 2-3.

This rightmost bulb is in the 1’s column (just as it would be in our usual way of counting by tens, our familiar decimal system). But the next bulb is in a 2’s column, so POKE 1504,2 would be:

Figure 2-4.

And three would be one and two:

Figure 2-5.

In this way – by checking which bits are turned on and then adding them together – the computer can look at a byte and know what number is there. Each light bulb, each bit, is in its own special position in the row of eight and has a value twice the value of the one just before it:

Figure 2-6.

Eight bits together make a byte. A byte can “hold” a number from 0 through 255 decimal. We can think of bytes, though, in any number system we wish – in hex, decimal, or binary. The computer uses binary, so it’s useful to be able to visualize it. Hex has its uses in ML programming. And decimal is familiar. But a number is still a number, no matter what we call it. After all, five trees are going to be five trees whether you symbolize them by 5, $05, or 00000101.

A Binary Quiz

BASIC doesn’t understand numbers expressed in hex or binary. The Simple Assembler contains two subroutines to translate a number from decimal to hex or vice versa. You might want to take a look at how it’s done as a way of getting a better feel for these different numbers systems. The subroutines are located at lines 4000 and 5000. Binary, for humans, is very visual. It forms patterns out of zeros and ones. The following program will let you quiz yourself on these patterns.

Here is a game, for all computers, which will show you a byte as it looks in binary. You then try to give the number in decimal:

Program 2-3. Binary Quiz for All Computers.

100 REM BINARY QUIZ
110 C1=20:C0=111: REM FOR ATARI ONLY
120 C1=88:C0=79:  REM FOR APPLE ONLY
130 C1=209:C0=215:REM FOR COMMODORE ONLY
140 X=INT(256*RND(1)):D=X:P=128
150 PRINT CHR$(125);: REM ATARI ONLY
160 PRINT CHR$(147);: REM COMMODORE ONLY
170 HOME: REM APPLE ONLY
180 FOR I=1 TO 8
190 IF INT(D/P)=1 THEN PRINT CHR$(C1);:D=D-P:GOTO 210
200 PRINT CHR$(C0);
210 P=P/2:NEXT I:PRINT
220 PRINT "WHAT IS THIS IN DECIMAL?"
230 INPUT Q:IF Q=X THEN PRINT "CORRECT":GOTO 250
240 PRINT "SORRY, IT WAS ";X
250 FOR T=1 TO 1000:NEXT T
260 GOTO 140

This program will print out the entire table of binary numbers from 0 to 255:

Program 2-4.

100 REM Complete Binary Table
110 L=8:B=2:C=1
120 FOR X=0 TO 255:PRINT X;": ";
140 IF X AND C THEN K(C)=49:GOTO 160
150 K(C)=48
160 C=C+1:IF B AND X THEN K(C)=49:GOTO 180
170 K(C)=48
180 B=B*2:IF C>8 THEN 200
190 GOTO 160
200 FOR I=0 TO 7:PRINT STR$(K(L)-48);:L=L-1
210 NEXT
220 C=0:PRINT
260 L=8:B=2:C=1:NEXT X

Examples And Practice

Here are several ordinary decimal numbers. Try to work out the hex equivalent:

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

10
15
5
16
17
32
128
129
255
254

______
______
______
______
______
______
______
______
______
______

We are not making an issue of learning hex or binary. If you needed to look up the answers in the table at the end of the book, fine. As you work with ML, you will familiarize yourself with some of the common hex numbers. You can write most ML programs without needing to worry about binary. For now, we only want to be able to recognize what hex is. There are even some pocket “programmer” calculators which change decimal to hex for you and vice versa. Another way to go about “hexing” is to use a BASIC program which does the translation. A problem with BASIC is that you will be working in ML and your computer will be tied up. It is often inconvenient to crank up a BASIC program each time you need to work out a hex number. However, the Simple Assembler will do the translations for you any time you need them.

One other reason that we are not stressing hex too much is that ML is generally not programmed without the help of an assembler. The Simple Assembler provided in this book will handle most of your input automatically. It allows you to choose whether you prefer to program in hex or decimal. You make this decision by changing line 10 before starting to assemble. After that, you can put in hex or decimal without worrying that there will be any confusion about your intentions.

This little BASIC program is good for practicing hex, but also shows how to change a small part and make it work for two-byte hex numbers. It will take decimal in and give back the correct hex. It is designed for Microsoft BASIC computers, so it will not work on the Atari.

10 H$="0123456789ABCDEF"
20 PRINT "ENTER DECIMAL NUMBER";:INPUT X
30 IF X > 255 GOTO 20: REM NO NUMBERS BIGGER THAN 255 ALLOWED
40 FOR I=1 TO 0 STEP -1
50 N%=X/(16^I):X=X-N%*16^I
60 HE$=HE$+MID$(H$,N%+1,1)
70 NEXT
80 PRINT HE$
90 GOTO 20

For larger hex numbers (up to two, to the power of 16 – which is 65536), we can just change the above program. Eliminate line 30 and change line 40 to: FOR I=3 TO 0 STEP -1. This will give us four-place hex numbers (used only as addresses) but which will also become recognizable after some ML practice.

65535 is an interesting number because it represents the limit of our computers’ memories. In special cases, with additional hardware, memory can be expanded beyond this. But this is the normal upper limit because the 6502 chip is designed to be able to address (put bytes in or take them out of memory cells) up to $FFFF.

Ganging Two Bytes Together To Form An Address

The 6502 often sets up an address by attaching two bytes together and looking at them as if they formed a unit. An address is most commonly a two-byte number. $FFFF (65535) is the largest number that two bytes can represent, and $FF (255) is the most that one byte can hold. Three-byte addressing is not possible for the 6502 chip. “Machine language” means programming which is understood directly by the 6502 chip itself. There are other CPU (Central Processing Unit) chips, but the 6502 is the CPU for VIC, Apple, 64, PET/CBM, and Atari. It’s the one covered in this book.

Reading A Machine Language Program

Before getting into an in-depth look at “monitors,” those bridges between you and your machine’s language – we should first learn how to read ML program listings. You’ve probably seen them often enough in magazines. Usually, these commented, labeled, but very strange-looking programs are called source code. They can be examined and translated by an assembler program into an ML program. When you have an assembler program run through source code, it looks at the key words and numbers and then POKEs a series of numbers into the computer. This series is then called the object code.

Source programs contain a great deal of information which is of interest to the programmer. The computer only needs a list of numbers which it can execute in order. But for most people, lists of numbers are only slightly more understandable than Morse code. The solution is to replace numbers with words. The primary job of an assembler is to recognize an ML instruction. These instructions are called mnemonics, which means “memory aids.” They are like BASIC words, except that they are always three letters long.

If you type the mnemonic JMP, the assembler POKEs a 76 into RAM memory. It’s easier to remember JMP than 76. The 76 is the number that clues the computer that it’s supposed to perform a JMP. The 76 is called an opcode, for “operation code.” The three-letter words we use in ML programming, the mnemonics, were designed to sound like what they do. JMP does a JUMP (like a GOTO in BASIC). Some deluxe assemblers also let you use labels instead of numbers – as long as you define your labels at the start of the source code. These labels can refer to individual memory locations, special values like the score in a game, or entire subroutines.

Four Ways To List A Program

Labeled, commented source code listings are the most elaborate kind of ML program representation. There are also three other kinds of ML listings. We can use a simple addition example program to show how it looks when represented in each of the four ML program listing styles. The first two styles are simply ways for you to type a program into the computer. The last two styles show you what to type in, but also illustrate what is going on in the ML program. First let’s look at the most elementary kind of ML found in books and magazines: the BASIC loader.

Program 2-6. BASIC Loader.

10 FOR ADDRESS = 4096 TO 4103
20 READ BYTE
30 POKE ADDRESS,BYTE
40 NEXT ADDRESS
50 DATA 169,2,105,5,141,160,15,96

This is a series of decimal numbers in DATA statements which is POKEd into memory starting at decimal address 4096. When these numbers arrive in RAM, they form a little routine which puts the number 2 into the accumulator – a special location in the computer that we’ll get to later – and then adds 5. The result of the addition is then moved from the accumulator to decimal address 4000. If you try this program out, you can SYS 4096 to execute ML program and then ? PEEK(4000) and you’ll see the answer: seven. BASIC loaders are convenient because the user doesn’t need to know how to enter ML programs. The loader POKEs them in and all the user has to do is SYS or USR or CALL to the right address and the ML transfers control back to BASIC when its job is done.

Getting even closer to the machine level is the second way you might see ML printed in books or magazines: the hex dump. On some computers (PET, Apple) there is a special “monitor” program in ROM which lets you list memory addresses and their contents as hex numbers. More than that, you can usually type over the existing values on the screen and change them. That’s what a hex dump listing is for. You copy it into your computer’s RAM by using your computer’s monitor. How you enter the monitor mode differs on each computer and we’ll get to monitors in the next chapter.

The hex dump, like the BASIC loader, tells you nothing about the functions or strategies employed within an ML program. Here’s the hex dump version of the same 2+5 addition program:

Program 2-7.

1000 A9 02 69 05 8D A0 0F 60

The third type of listing is called a disassembly. It’s the opposite of an assembly because another program called a disassembler takes machine language (the series of numbers, the opcodes in the computer’s memory) and translates it into the words, the mnemonics, which ML programmers use. The instruction you use when you want to load the accumulator is called LDA, and you can store what’s in the accumulator by using an STA. We’ll get to them later. In this version of our example addition routine, it’s a bit clearer what’s going on and how the program works. Notice that on the left we have the hex numbers and, on the right, the translation into ML instructions. ADC means ADd with Carry and RTS means ReTurn from Subroutine.

Program 2-8.

1000 A9 02    LDA #$02
1002 69 05    ADC #$05
1004 8D A0 0F STA $0FA0
1007 60       RTS

The Deluxe Version

Finally we come to that full, luxurious, commented, labeled, deluxe source code we spoke of earlier. It includes the hex dump and the disassembly, but it also has labels and comments and line numbers added, to further clarify the purposes of things. Note that the numbers are all in hex. On the far left are the memory addresses where this routine is located. Next to them are the hex numbers of the instructions. (So far, it resembles the traditional hex dump.) Then come line numbers which can be used the way BASIC line numbers are: deleted, inserted, and so on. Next are the disassembled translations of the hex, but you can replace numbers with labels (see Program 2-10). You could still use numbers, but if you’ve defined the labels early on, they can serve as a useful reminder of what the numbers represent. Last, following the semicolons, are the comments. They are the same as REM statements. (See Programs 2-9 and 2-10.)

Program 2-9. A Full Assembly Listing.

                                ┌────── Source Code ─────┐
                                │                        │
Memory   Object  Line        Disassembly              Comments
Address  Code   Number

                0005            .BA $1000      ; START ADDR $1000 (4096)
1000- A9 02     0100            LDA #$02       ; LOAD A WITH 2
1002- 69 05     0110            ADC #$05       ; ADD 5
1004- 8D A0 0F  0120            STA $0FA0      ; STORE AT DECIMAL 4000
1007- 60        0130            RTS            ; RETURN
                0140            .EN            ; END OF ASSEMBLY

Program 2-10. Labelled Assembly.

                0005            .BA $1000    ; START ADDR $1000 (4096)
                0010 TWO        .DE 2        ;DEFINE LABEL "TWO" AS 2.
                0020 ADDER      .DE 5        ;DEFINE "ADDER" AS A 5.
                0030 STORAGE    .DE $0FA0    ;DEFINE STORAGE ADDR.
                0040 ;
1000- A9 02     0100 START      LDA #TWO     ; LOAD A WITH 2
1002- 69 05     0110            ADC #ADDER   ; ADD 5
1004- 8D A0 0F  0120            STA STORAGE  ; STORE AT DECIMAL 4000
1007- 60        0130            RTS          ; RETURN
                0140            .EN          ; END OF ASSEMBLY

--- LABEL   FILE: ---

ADDER =0005             START =1000             STORAGE=0FA0
TWO =0002

Program 2-11. The Source Code By Itself.

           .BA      $1000      ; START ADDR $1000 (4096)
TWO        .DE      2          ;DEFINE LABLE "TWO" AS 2.
ADDER      .DE      5          ;DEFINE "ADDER" AS A 5.
STORAGE    .DE      $0FA0      ;DEFINE STORAGE ADDR.
;
START      LDA      #TWO       ; LOAD A WITH 2
           ADC      #ADDER     ; ADD 5
           STA      STORAGE    ; STORE AT DECIMAL 4000
           RTS                 ; RETURN
           .EN                 ; END OF ASSEMBLY

Program 2-11 illustrates just the source code part. The object code has not yet been generated from this source code. The code has not been assembled yet. You can save or load source code via an assembler in the same way that you can save or load programs via BASIC. When 2-11 is in the computer, you could type “ASSEMBLE” and the assembler would translate the instructions, print them on the screen, and POKE them into memory.

The Simple Assembler operates differently. It translates, prints, and POKEs after you hit RETURN on each line of code. You can save and load the object, but not the source code.

Before we get into the heart of ML programming, a study of the instruction mnemonics and the various ways of moving information around (called addressing), we should look at a major ML programming aid: the monitor. It deserves its own chapter.

ANSWERS to quiz: 0A, 0F, 05, 10, 11, 20, 80, 81, FF, FE

3

The Monitor

A monitor is a program which allows you to work directly with your computer’s memory cells. When the computer “falls below” BASIC into the monitor mode, BASIC is no longer active. If you type RUN, it will not execute anything. BASIC commands are not recognized. The computer waits, as usual, for you to type in some instructions. There are only a few instructions to give to a monitor. When you’re working with it, you’re pretty close to talking directly to the machine in machine language.

The PET and Apple II have monitors in ROM. This means that you do not need to load the monitor program into the computer; it’s always available to you. (PETs with Original ROM sets do not have a ROM monitor; you must load in the monitor from a tape or disk.) Atari and VIC computers have a monitor as part of a larger “Assembler Editor” plug-in cartridge. The monitor on the Atari cartridge is called the “Debugger.” That’s a good name for it: debugging is the main purpose of a monitor. You use it to check your ML code, to find errors.

The various computers have different sets of instructions which their monitors recognize. However, the main functions are similar, so it is worth reading through all of the following descriptions, even if the discussion is not specifically about the monitor for your computer. On the PET/CBM, VIC, and 64 you can add many of these functions with a monitor “extension” program called Micromon or Supermon (about which more later). These monitors are included in Appendix F. The monitors on the Apple II and available in the Atari Assembler Editor Cartridge do not need “extending.” They contain most of the significant features required of a monitor. However, the special extensions in Appendix F for the Commodore computers add considerably to the Commodore ML programmer’s repertoire.

The Apple II

You enter the Apple monitor by typing CALL -151. You will see the “*” monitor prompt and the cursor immediately after it. Here are the monitor instructions:

1. Typing an address (in hex) will show you the number contained in that memory cell. *2000 (hit RETURN) will show 2000 - FF (if, in fact, 255 decimal ($FF, hex) is in that location).

2. You can examine a larger amount of memory in hex (this is called a memory dump or a hex dump). The Apple monitor remembers the address of the last number displayed. This can be used as a starting address for the dump. If you type the instruction in number one above, and then type *.2010, you will see a dump of memory between 2001 and 2010. The only difference between this and instruction one is the period (.) before the requested address.

3. You can directly cause a dump by putting the period between two addresses: *2000.2010 combines the actions of instructions one and two above.

4. Hitting RETURN will continue a dump, one line at a time.

5. The last displayed memory location can be changed by using the colon (:). This is the equivalent of BASIC’s POKE. If *2000 results in FF on the screen, you can change this FF to zero by typing *:00. To see the change, type *2000 again. Or you could type *2000:00 and make the change directly.

The Apple II reference manual contains excellent descriptions of the monitor instructions. We will list the rest of them only briefly here:

6. Change a series of locations at once: *2000: 00 69 15 65 12.

7. Move (transfer) a section of memory: *4000 < 2000.2010M will copy what’s between 2000 and 2010 up to address 4000. (All these addresses are hex.)

8. Compare two sections of memory: *4000 < 2000.2010V. This looks like Move, but its job is to see if there are any differences between the numbers in the memory cells from 2000-2010 and those from 4000-4010. If differences are found, the address where the difference occurs appears on screen. If the two memory ranges are identical, nothing is printed on the screen.

9. Saving (writing) a section of ML to tape: *2000.2010W. This is how you would save an ML program. You specify the addresses of the start and end of your program.

10. Loading (reading) a section of memory (or an ML program) back into the computer from tape: *2000.2010R will put the bytes saved, in instruction nine, above, back where they were when you saved them.

An interesting additional feature is that you could send the bytes to any address in the computer. To put them at 4000, you would just type *4000.4010R. This gives you another way to relocate subroutines or entire ML programs (in addition to the Move instruction, number seven above). If you move an ML program to reside at a different address from the one it was originally intended during assembly, any JMP or JSR (Jump To Subroutine, like BASIC’s GOSUB) instructions which point to within your program must be adjusted to point to the new addresses. If your subroutine contained an instruction such as 2000 JSR 2005, and you loaded at 4000, it would still say 4000 JSR 2005. You would have to change it to read 4000 JSR 4005. All the BNE, BPL, BEQ, branching instructions, though, will make the move without damage. They are relative addresses (as opposed to the absolute addressing of JSR 2005). They will not need any adjusting. We’ll go into this in detail later.

11. Run (go): *2000G will start executing the ML program which begins at address 2000. There had better be a program there or the machine is likely to lock up, performing some nonsense, an endless loop, until you turn off the power or press a RESET key. The program or subroutine will finish and return control of the computer to the monitor when it encounters an RTS. This is like BASIC’s SYS command, except the computer returns to the monitor mode.

12. Disassemble (list): *2000L will list 20 lines of ML on the screen. It will contain three fields (a field is a “zone” of information). The first field will contain the address of an instruction (in hex). The address field is somewhat comparable to BASIC’s line numbers. It defines the order in which instructions will normally be carried out.

Here’s a brief review of disassembly listings. The second field shows the hex numbers for the instruction, and the third field is where a disassembly differs from a “memory” or “hex” dump (see numbers one and two, above). This third field translates the hex numbers of the second field back into a mnemonic and its argument. Here’s an example of a disassembly:

2000    A9 41       LDA    #$41
2002    8D 23 32    STA    $3223
2005    A4 99       LDY    $99

Recall that a dollar sign ($) shows that a number is in hexadecimal. The pound sign (#) means “immediate” addressing (put the number itself into the A register at 2000 above). Confusing these two symbols is a major source of errors for beginning ML programmers. You should pay careful attention to the distinction between LDA #$41 and LDA $41. The second instruction (without the pound sign) means to load A with whatever number is found in address $41 hex. LDA #$41 means put the actual number 41 itself into the accumulator. If you are debugging a routine, check to see that you’ve got these two types of numbers straight, that you’ve loaded from addresses where you meant to (and, vice versa, you’ve loaded immediately where you intended).

13. Mini-assembler. This is an assembler program, though it is not part of the monitor ROM. It is in the Integer BASIC ROM, so systems using firmware Applesoft II cannot use it although the Apple II Plus can, in the INT mode. Like the Simple Assembler, this mini-assembler cannot use labels or calculate forward branches. (The Simple Assembler can be used for forward branches, however, as we’ll see later.) You enter the Apple mini-assembler by typing the address, mnemonic, and argument of your first instruction. The ! is printed by the computer:

 !2000:LDA #15

This will be disassembled, and then you type in the next line, using spaces between each field:

 ! LDY #01

14. Step and Trace. These are very useful ways to isolate and fix errors. Remember that ML does not have much in the way of error messages. In fact, unless you are using a very complex assembler program, the only error that an assembler can usually detect is an impossible mnemonic. If you mistyped LDA as LDDA, your assembler would print ??? or, in the Apple, sound a beep and put a circumflex (^) near the error. In any case, you are not going to get elaborate SYNTAX ERROR messages. The Simple Assembler will type the word ERROR on the screen. Try it.

We’ll examine step and trace debugging methods under numbers 10 and 11 of the discussion of the Atari cartridge below. The Atari Assembler Cartridge and the Commodore Monitor Extension programs both allow step and trace, too.

15. Changing registers. *(CONTROL) E will display the contents of the Accumulator, the X and Y registers, the status register (P) and the stack pointer (S). You can then change the contents of these registers by typing them in on screen, following a colon. Note that to change the Y register, you must type in the A and X registers as well:

*(CONTROL) E

You’ll see: A=01 X=05 Y=FF P=30 S=FE (whatever’s in the registers at the time).

To change the Y register to 00, you type in the A, X, and then the new version of Y:

*:01 05 00 (and hit RETURN)

16. Going back to BASIC. You can use * (CONTROL) B to go to BASIC (but it will wipe out any BASIC program that might have been there). Or you can use * (CONTROL) C to go back to BASIC, non-destructively.

The Atari Monitor

To enter the monitor on the Atari, you put the assembler cartridge into the left slot. The Atari does not have a monitor in ROM; you need the cartridge. As mentioned at the start of this chapter, the monitor mode in Atari is called DEBUG and is a part of the larger program within the assembler cartridge. There are three parts (or modes) within the cartridge: EDIT, ASM (assembler), and DEBUG. Before looking at the commands available in the DEBUG mode, let’s briefly explore how an ML program is created using the EDIT mode followed by ASM. The cartridge provides the Atari with a more advanced assembler than the Simple Assembler or the mini-assemblers available within the Apple II monitor or the Commodore monitor extension programs. The cartridge allows labels, comments, and line numbers.

Until now, we’ve discussed ML programming which uses three fields (zones). Here’s an example program which shows these three simple fields. We will print ten “A’s” on the screen (the numbers are decimal):

Address Field	Instruction Field	Argument (Operand) Field
2000	LDY	#10
2002	LDA	#33
2004	STA	(88),Y (The screen location is remembered by the Atari in addresses 88 and 89.)
2007	DEY
2008	BNE	2004
2010	RTS (or BRK)

When you are in Atari’s EDIT mode, you construct a program somewhat differently than you do with the Simple Assembler (or with mini-assemblers). Here’s the same program using the Atari’s additional fields:

  Line #  Label Instruction   Argument  Comments
   100    START    LDY        #10       Set up counter for loop
   110             LDA        #33       "A" in ATASCII
   120    LOOP     STA       (88),Y
   130             DEY
   140             BNE        LOOP      Loop until zero

Notice that labels allow us to use the word LOOP instead of the specific address we want to loop back to. In addition to all this, there are pseudo-ops which are instructions to the assembler to perform some task. A pseudo-op does not become part of the ML program (it’s not a 6502 instruction), but it affects the assembly process in some way. We would need two pseudo-ops in the above program to allow it to be assembled properly. Add these lines:

10 *= $0600 (tells the assembler that this program should be assembled starting at address $0600. The $ means hexadecimal.)
160 .END (tells the assembler that it should stop assembling here.)

The example above with line numbers and labels is called source code because it is the source from which the assembler gets its information when it assembles object code (object code is an actual ML program which could be run, or executed). You cannot run the program above as is. It must first be assembled into 6502 ML. For one thing, the label LOOP has to be replaced with the correct branch back to line 120. Source code does not put bytes into memory as you write it (as a more elementary assembler like the Simple Assembler does).

More Than A Monitor

To make this into object code which you can actually execute, you type ASM (for assemble), and the computer will put the program together and POKE the bytes into memory, showing you on screen what it looks like.

To test the program, type BUG to enter the DEBUG mode, clear the screen, and RUN it by typing G600 (for GO $0600). You’ll see AAAAAAAAAA on screen. It works!

All this isn’t, strictly speaking, a monitor. It’s a full assembler. The part of the assembler cartridge program which is equivalent to the monitor programs on Apple II and PET is the DEBUG mode. There are a number of commands in DEBUG with which you can examine, test, and correct ML code. As on the other computers, the DEBUG (monitor) mode allows you to work closely with single bytes at a time, to see the registers, to trace program flow. All numbers you see on screen (or use to enter into the computer) are in hex. You enter the DEBUG mode by typing BUG when the Assembler Cartridge is in the Atari. (To go back to EDIT mode, type X.) Here are the commands of DEBUG:

1. Display the registers: type DR (RETURN) and you will see whatever is in the various registers.

A=01 X=05 Y=0F P=30 S=FE (P is the status register and S is the stack pointer.)

2. Change the registers: type CR < 6,2 (RETURN) and you will have put a six into the accumulator and a two into the X register. To put a five into the status register, you must show how far to go by using commas: CR<,,,5 would do it. CR<5 would put five into the accumulator.

3. Dump memory: type D2000 and you will see the eight hex numbers which start at address 2000 in memory.

D2000

2000 FF 02 60 20 FF D2 00 00

D2000,2020

(would dump out memory between these two addresses)

4. Change memory: type C2000 < 00,00 to put zeros into the first two bytes following address 2000.

5. Transfer (move) memory: type M1000 < 2000,2010 and you will non-destructively copy what’s between 2000-2010 down into 1000-1010.

6. Compare (verify) memory: type V1000 < 2000,2010 and any mismatches will be printed out.

7. Disassemble (list): type L2000 and you will see 20 lines of instructions displayed, the mnemonics and their arguments.

8. Mini-assemble: the DEBUG mode allows you to enter mnemonics and arguments one at a time, but you cannot use labels. (The pseudo-ops BYTE, DBYTE, and WORD are available, though.) This is similar to the Simple Assembler and the mini-assemblers available to Apple II and PET monitor users.

You type 2000 < LDA $05 and the computer will show you the bytes as they assemble into this address. Subsequent instructions can be entered by simply using the less-than sign again: < INC $05. To return to the DEBUG mode, you can hit the RETURN key on a blank line.

9. Go (RUN a program): type G2000 and whatever program starts at address 2000 will run. Usually, you can stop the RUN by hitting the BREAK key. There are cases, though, (endless loops) which will require that you turn off the computer to regain control.

10. Trace: type T2000 and you will also RUN your program, but the registers, bytes of ML code, and the disassembled mnemonics and arguments are shown as each instruction is executed. This is especially useful since you can watch the changes taking place in the registers and discover errors. If you have an LDA $03 and you then expect to find the accumulator to have the number three in it – you’ll notice that you made that very common mistake we talked about earlier. Following LDA $03, you will see that the accumulator has, perhaps, a ten in it instead of the three you thought you’d get. Why? Because you wanted to write LDA #03 (immediate). Instead, you mistakenly loaded A with the value in address three, whatever it is.

Seeing unexpected things like this happen during trace allows you to isolate and fix your errors. Trace will stop when it lands on a BRK instruction or when you press the BREAK key.

11. Step: type S2000 and you will “step” through your program at 2000, one instruction at a time. It will look like trace, but you move slowly and you control the rate. To see the following instruction, you type the S key again. Typing S over and over will bring you through the program.

12. Return to EDIT mode: type X.

PET, VIC, And Commodore 64 Monitors

The resident monitor on the PET/CBM computer is the simplest of monitors. You enter it from BASIC by typing SYS 4 when no program is RUNning. This lands on a BReaK instruction; address 4 always contains a zero which is the opcode for BRK. You are then in monitor mode. Original ROM PETs, the earliest models, do not have a monitor in ROM, but one is available on tape, called TIM. Everything is done with hexadecimal numbers.

There are only six monitor commands:

1. Go (RUN): type G 2000 and the program starts at address 2000. It will continue until it lands on a BRK instruction. There is no key you can type to stop it.

2. LOAD (from tape or disk): type L "0:NAME",08 and a program called “name” on disk drive zero will be loaded at the address from which it was SAVEd. There is no provision to allow you to LOAD to a different address. L "NAME",01 will LOAD from tape.

3. SAVE (to a tape or disk): type S "0:NAME", 08,2000,2009 and the bytes between hex 2000 and 2008 will be saved to disk drive zero and called “name.” Important note: you should always be aware that a SAVE will not save the highest byte listed in your SAVE instruction. You always specify one byte more than you want to save. In our example here, we typed 2009 as our top address, but the monitor SAVEd only up to 2008. S "NAME",01,2000,2009 will SAVE to tape.

An interesting trick is to save the picture on your screen. Try this from the monitor (for a disk drive): S "0:SCREEN",08,8000,8400 (with a tape drive: S "SCREEN",01,8000,8400). Then, clear the screen and type: L "0:SCREEN",08 (tape: L "SCREEN",01). This illustrates that an ML SAVE or LOAD just takes bytes from within whatever range of memory you specify; it doesn’t care what those bytes contain or if they make ML sense as a program.

4. See memory (memory dump): type M 2000 2009 and the bytes between these addresses will be displayed on screen. To change them, you use the PET cursor controls to move to one of these hex numbers and type over it. Hitting the RETURN key makes the change in the computer’s memory (the same way you would change a line in BASIC).

Machine Language Registers

5. See the registers: type R and you will see something like this on screen (the particular numbers in each category will depend on what’s going on in your computer whenever you type R):

   PC  IRQ  SR AC XR YR SP
  2000 E62E 30 00 05 FF FE

The PC is the program counter: above, it means that the next instruction the computer would perform is found at address 2000. If you typed G (for RUN), this is where it would start executing. The IRQ is the interrupt request. The SR is the status register (the condition of the flags). The AC is the accumulator, the XR and YR are the X and Y registers. The SP is the stack pointer. We’ll get into all this later.

6. Exit to BASIC: type X.

That’s it. Obviously, you will want to add trace, step, transfer, disassemble, and other useful monitor aids. Fortunately, they are available. Two programs, Supermon and Micromon, can be LOADed into your Commodore computer and will automatically attach themselves to your “resident” monitor. That is, when you’re in the monitor mode, you can type additional monitor commands.

Both Micromon and Supermon are widely available through user groups (they are in the public domain, available to everyone for free). If there is no user group nearby, you can type them in yourself. Supermon appeared in COMPUTE! Magazine, December 1981, Issue #19, on page 134. Micromon appeared in COMPUTE!, January 1982, Issue #20, page 160. A Micromon for VIC can be found in COMPUTE!, November 1982. Because of their value, particularly when you are debugging or analyzing ML programs, you will want to add them to your program library. Several of these monitor extensions can be found in Appendix F.

Using The Monitors

You will make mistakes. Monitors are for checking and fixing ML programs. ML is an exacting programming process, and causing bugs is as unavoidable as mistyping when writing a letter. It will happen, be sure, and the only thing for it is to go back and try to locate and fix the slip-up. It is said that every Persian rug is made with a deliberate mistake somewhere in its pattern. The purpose of this is to show that only Allah is perfect. This isn’t our motivation when causing bugs in an ML program, but we’ll cause them nonetheless. The best you can do is try to get rid of them when they appear.

Probably the most effective tactic, especially when you are just starting out with ML, is to write very short sub-programs (subroutines). Because they are short, you can more easily check each one to make sure that it is functioning the way it should. Let’s assume that you want to write an ML subroutine to ask a question on the screen. (This is often called a prompt since it prompts the user to do something.)

The message can be: “press any key.” First, we’ll have to store the message in a data table. We’ll put it at hex $1500. That’s as good a place as anywhere else. Remember that your computer may be using a different screen RAM POKE code to display these letters. POKE the letter “A” into your screen RAM to see what number represents the start of your screen alphabet and use those numbers for any direct-to-screen messages in this book.

ASCII	ATARI
1500 80 P	48
1501 82 R	50
1502 69 E	37
1503 83 S	51
1504 83 S	51
1505 32	0
1506 65 A	33
1507 78 N	46
1508 89 Y	57
1509 32	0
150A 75 K	43
150B 69 E	37
150C 89 Y	57
150D 00	255 (the delimiter, the signal that the message is finished. Atari must use something beside zero which is used to represent the space character.)

We’ll put the subroutine at $1000, but be warned! This subroutine will not work as printed. There are two errors in this program. See if you can spot them:

1000 LDY #$00
1002 LDA $1500,Y
1005 CMP $00: (is it the delimiter?)
1007 BNE $100A: (if not, continue on)
1009 RTS: (it was zero, so quit and return to whatever JSRed, or called, this subroutine)
100A STA $8000,Y: (for PET)
100D INY
100E JMP $1000: (always JMP back to $1000)

Make the following substitutions if you use one of these machines:

Atari: 1005 CMP $FF (That’s hex for 255.)
Atari: 100A STA ($88),Y
Apple: 100A STA $0400,Y

Since we haven’t yet gone into addressing or instructions much, this is like learning to swim by the throw-them-in-the-water method. See if you can make out some of the meanings of these instructions anyway.

This subroutine will not work. There are two errors and they are two of the most common bugs in ML programming. Unfortunately, they are not obvious bugs. An obvious bug would be mistyping: LIDS when you mean LDA. That sort of bug would be caught by your assembler, and it would print an error message to let you know that no such instruction as LIDS exists in 6502 ML.

The bugs in this routine are mistakes in logic. If you disassemble this, it will also look fine to the disassembler, and no error messages will be printed there either. But, it will not work the way you wanted it to. Before reading on, see if you can spot the two errors. Also see if you can figure out how this routine would execute its instructions. Where does the computer go after the first pass through this code? When and how does it finish the job?

Two Common Errors

A very common bug, perhaps the most common ML bug, is caused by accidentally using zero page addressing when you mean to use immediate addressing. We mentioned this before, but it is the cause of so much puzzlement to the beginning ML programmer that we’ll go over it several times in this book. Zero page addressing looks very similar to immediate addressing. Zero page means that you are addressing one of the cells in the first 256 addresses. A page of memory is 256 bytes. The lowest page is called zero page and is the RAM cells from number zero through 255. Page one is from 256-511 (this is the location of the “stack” which we’ll get to later). Addresses 512-767 are page three and so on up to the top memory, page 255.

Immediate addressing means that the number is right within the ML code, that it’s the number which follows (which is the operand or the argument of) an instruction. LDA #13 is immediate. It puts the number 13 into the accumulator. LDA $13 is zero page and puts whatever number is in address 13 into the accumulator. It’s easy and very common to mix up these two, so you might look at these instructions first when debugging a faulty program. See that all your zero page addressing is supposed to be zero page and that all your immediate addressing is supposed to be immediate.

In the prompt example above, the LDY #00 is correct – we do want to set the Y register counter to zero to begin printing the message. So we want an immediate, the actual number zero. Take a good look, however, at the instruction at location $1005. Here we are not asking the computer to compare the number in the accumulator to zero. Instead, we are asking the computer to compare it to whatever might be in address zero – with unpredictable results. To fix this bug, the instruction should be changed to the immediate addressing mode with CMP #0.

The second bug is also a very common one. The subroutine, as written, can never leave itself. It is an endless loop. Loop structures are usually preceded by a short initialization phase. The counters have to be set up before the loop can begin. Just as in BASIC, where FOR I=1 TO 10 tells the loop to cycle ten times, in ML, we set the Y register to zero to let it act as our counter. It kills two birds with one stone in this subroutine. It is the offset (a pointer to the current position in a list or series) to load from the message in the data table and the offset to print to the screen. Without Y going up one (INY) each time through the loop, we would always print the first letter of the message, and always in the first position on the screen.

What’s the problem? It’s that JMP instruction at $100E. It sends us back to the LDY #0 address at 1000. We should be looping back to address 1002. As things stand, the Y register will always be reset to zero, and there will never be any chance to pick up the delimiter and exit the subroutine. An endless cycle of loading the “P” and printing it will occur. Y will never get beyond zero because each loop jumps back to 1000 and puts a zero back into Y. To see this, here’s the same bug in BASIC:

10 T=5
20 T=T+1
30 IF T=10 THEN 50
40 GOTO 10

Tracking Them Down

The monitor will let you discover these and other errors. You can replace an instruction with zero (BRK) and see what happens when you execute the program up to the BRK. Better yet, you can single step through the program and see that, for example, you are not really computing CMP #00 where you thought you were. It would also be easy to see that the Y register is being reset to zero each time through the loop. You are expecting to use it as a counter and it’s not cooperating, it’s not counting up each time through the loop. These and other errors are, if not obvious, at least discoverable from the monitor.

Also, the disassembler function of the monitor will permit you to study the program and look, deliberately, for correct use of #00 and $00. Since that mix-up between immediate and zero page addressing is so common an error, always check for it first.

Programming Tools

The single most significant quality of monitors which contributes to easing the ML programmer’s job is that monitors, like BASIC, are interactive. This means that you can make changes and test them right away, right then. In BASIC, you can find an error in line 120, make the correction, and RUN a test immediately.

It’s not always that easy to locate and fix bugs in ML: there are few, if any, error messages, so finding the location of a bug can be difficult. But a monitor does allow interactivity: you make changes and test them on the spot. This is one of the drawbacks of complex assemblers, especially those which have several steps between the writing of the source code and the final assembly of executable object code (ML which can be executed).

These assemblers often require several steps between writing an ML program and being able to test it. There are linkers, relocatable loaders, double-pass assembly, etc. All of these functions make it easier to rearrange ML subroutines, put them anywhere in memory without modification, etc. They make ML more modular (composed of small, self-sufficient modules or subroutines), but they also make it less interactive. You cannot easily make a change and see the effects at once.

However, using a mini-assembler or the Simple Assembler, you are right near the monitor level and fixes can easily and quickly be tested. In other words, the simpler assemblers sometimes gain in efficiency what they lose in flexibility. The simpler assemblers support a style of programming which involves less pre-planning, less forethought, less abstract analysis. If something goes awry, you can just try something else until it all works.

Plan Ahead Or Plunge In?

Some find such trial and error programming uncomfortable, even disgraceful. The more complicated assemblers discourage interactivity and expect careful preliminary planning, flowcharts, even writing out the program ahead of time on paper and debugging it there. In one sense, these large assemblers are a holdover from the early years of computing when computer time was extremely expensive. There was a clear advantage to coming to the terminal as prepared as possible. Interactivity was costly. But, like the increasingly outdated advice urging programmers to worry about saving computer memory space, it seems that strategies designed to conserve computer time are anachronistic. You can spend all the time you want on your personal computer.

Complex assemblers tend to downgrade the importance of a monitor, to reduce its function in the assembly process. Some programmers who’ve worked on IBM computers for 20 years do not use the word monitor in the sense we are using it. To them, monitors are CRT screens. The deluxe assembler on the SuperPet, for example, does have a monitor, but it has no single-step function and has no provision for SAVEing an ML program to disk or tape from the monitor.

Whether or not you are satisfied with the interactive style of simple, mini-assemblers and their greater reliance on the monitor mode and on trial and error programming is your decision. If you want to graduate to the more complicated assemblers, to move closer to high-level languages with labels and relocatable code, fine. The Atari assembler is fairly high-level already, but it does contain a full-featured monitor, the “debugger,” as well. The choice is ultimately a matter of personal style.

Some programmers are uncomfortable unless they have a fairly complete plan before they even get to the computer keyboard. Others are quickly bored by elaborate flowcharting, “dry computing” on paper, and can’t wait to get on the computer and see-what-happens-if. Perhaps a good analogy can be found in the various ways that people make telephone calls. When long-distance calls were extremely expensive, many people made lists of what they wanted to say and carefully planned the call before dialing. They would also watch the clock during the call. (Some still do this today.) As the costs of phoning came down, most people found that spontaneous conversation was more satisfying. It’s up to you.

Computer time, though, is now extremely cheap. If your computer uses 100 watts and your electric company charges five cents per KWH, leaving the computer on continuously costs about 12 cents a day.

4

Addressing

The 6502 processor is an electronic brain. It performs a variety of manipulations with numbers to allow us to write words, draw pictures, control outside machines such as tape recorders, calculate, and do many other things. Its manipulations were designed to be logical and fast. The computer has been designed to permit everything to be accomplished accurately and efficiently.

If you could peer down into the CPU (Central Processing Unit), the heart of the computer, you would see numbers being delivered and received from memory locations all over the computer. Sometimes the numbers arrive and are sent out, unchanged, to some other address. Other times they are compared, added, or otherwise modified, before being sent back to RAM or to a peripheral.

Writing an ML program can be compared to planning the activities of this message center. It can be illustrated by thinking of computer memory as a city of bytes and the CPU as the main post office. (See Figure 4-1.) The CPU does its job using several tools: three registers, a program counter, a stack pointer, and seven little one-bit flags contained in a byte called the Status Register. We will only concern ourselves with the “C” (carry) flag and the “Z” (it equals zero) flags. The rest of them are far less frequently needed for ML programming so we’ll only describe them briefly. (See Figure 4-1.)

Most monitors, after you BRK (like BASIC’s STOP) out of a program, will display the present status of these tools. It looks something like this:

Program 4-1. Current Status Of The Registers.

  PC  IRQ  SR AC XR YR SP
 0005 E455 30 00 5E 04 F8

The PC is the Program Counter and it is two bytes long so it can refer to a location anywhere in memory. The IRQ is also two bytes and points to a ROM ML routine which handles interrupts, special-priority actions. A beginning ML programmer will not be working with interrupts and need not worry about the IRQ. You can also more or less let the computer handle the SP on the end. It’s the stack pointer. The SP keeps track of numbers, usually return-from-subroutine addresses which are kept together in a list called the stack.

The computer will automatically handle the stack pointer for us. It will also deal with IRQ and the program counter. For example, each ML instruction we give it could be one, two, or three bytes long. TYA has no argument and is the instruction to transfer a number from the Y register to the accumulator. Since it has no argument, the PC can locate the next instruction to be carried out by raising itself by one. If the PC held $4000, it would hold $4001 after execution of a TYA. LDA #$01 is a two-byte instruction. It takes up two bytes in memory so the next instruction to be executed after LDA #$01 will be two bytes beyond it. In this case, the PC will raise itself from $4000 to $4002. But we can just let it work merrily away without worrying about it.

Figure 4-1.

The Accumulator: The Busiest Register

The SR, AC, XR, and YR, however, are our business. They are all eight bits (one byte) in size. They are not located in memory proper. You can’t PEEK them since they have no address like the rest of memory. They are zones of the CPU. The AC, or A register, but most often called the accumulator, is the busiest place in the computer. The great bulk of the mail comes to rest here, if only briefly, before being sent to another destination.

Any logical transformations (EOR,AND) or arithmetic operations leave their results in the accumulator. Most of the bytes streaming through the computer come through the accumulator. You can compare one byte against another using the accumulator. And nearly everything that happens which involves the accumulator will have an effect on the status register (SR, the flags).

The X and Y registers are similar to each other in that one of their main purposes is to assist the accumulator. They are used as addressing indexes. There are addressing modes that we’ll get to in a minute which add an index value to another number. For example, LDA $4000,X will load into A the number found in address $4005, if the X register is currently holding a five. The address is the number plus the index value. If X has a six, then we load from $4006. Why not just LDA $4006? It is far easier to raise or lower an index inside a loop structure than it would be to write in each specific address literally.

A second major use of X and Y is in counting and looping. We’ll go into this more in the chapter on the instruction set.

We’ll also have some things to learn later about the SR, the Status Register which holds some flags showing current conditions. The SR can tell a program or the CPU if there has been a zero, a carry, or a negative number as the result of some operation, among other things. Knowing about carry and zero flags is especially significant in ML.

For now, the task at hand is to explore the various “classes” of mail delivery, the 6502 addressing modes.

Aside from comparing things and so forth, the computer must have a logical way to pick up and send information. Rather like a postal service in a dream – everything should be picked up and delivered rapidly, and nothing should be lost, damaged, or delivered to the wrong address.

The 6502 accomplishes its important function of getting and sending bytes (GET and PRINT would be examples of this same thing in BASIC) by using several “addressing modes.” There are 13 different ways that a byte might be “mailed” either to or from the central processor.

When programming, in addition to picking an instruction (of the 56 available to you) to accomplish the job you are working on, you must also make one other decision. You must decide how you want to address the instruction – how, in other words, you want the mail sent or delivered. There is some room for maneuvering. You will probably not care if you accidentally choose a slower delivery method than you could have. Nevertheless, it is necessary to know what choices you have: most addressing modes are designed to aid a common programming activity.

Absolute And Zero

Let’s picture a postman’s dream city, a city so well planned from a postal-delivery point of view that no byte is ever lost, damaged, or sent to the wrong address. It’s the City of Bytes we first toured in Chapter 2. It has 65536 houses all lined up on one side of a street (a long street). Each house is clearly labeled with its number, starting with house zero and ending with house number 65535. When you want to get a byte from, or send a byte to, a house (each house holds one byte) – you must “address” the package. (See Figure 4-2.)

Figure 4-2.

Here’s an example of one mode of addressing. It’s quite popular and could be thought of as “First Class.” Called absolute addressing, it can send a number to, or receive one from, any house in the city. It’s what we normally think of first when the idea of “addressing” something comes up. You just put the number on the package and send it off. No indexing or special instructions. If it says 2500, then it means house 2500.

1000 STA $2500
or
1000 LDA $2500

These two, STore A and LoaD A, STA and LDA, are the instructions which get a byte from, or send it to, the accumulator. The address, though, is found in the numbers following the instruction. The items following an instruction are called the instruction’s argument. You could have written the address several ways. Writing it as $2500 tells your assembler to get it from, or send it directly to, hex $2500. This kind of addressing uses just a simple $ and a four-digit number. You can send the byte sitting in the accumulator to anywhere in RAM memory by this method. Remember that the byte value, although sent to memory, also remains in the accumulator. It’s more a copying than a literal sending.

To save time, if you are sending a byte down to address 0 through 255 (called the “zero page”), you can leave off the first two numbers: 1000 STA $07. This is only for the first 256 addresses, but they get more than their share of mail. Your machine’s BASIC and operating system (OS) use much of zero page for their own temporary flags and other things. Zero page is a busy place, and there is not much room down there for you to store your own ML pointers or flags (not to mention whole routines).

Heavy Traffic In Zero Page

This second way to address, using only two hex digits, any hex number between $00 and $FF or a decimal number between 0 and 255, is called, naturally enough, zero page addressing. It’s pretty fast mail service: the deliverer has to decide among only 256 instead of 65536 houses, and the computer is specially wired to service these special addresses. Think of them as being close to the post office. Things get in and out fast at zero page. This is why your BASIC and operating system tend to use it so often.

These two addressing modes – absolute and zero page – are very common ones. In your programming, you will probably not use zero page as much as you might like. You will notice, on a map of your computer’s flags and temporary storage areas, that zero page is heavily trafficked. You might cause a problem storing things in zero page in places used by the OS (operating system) or BASIC. Several maps of both zero page and BASIC in ROM can be found in Appendix B.

You can find safe areas to store your own programs’ pointers and flags in zero page. A buffer (temporary holding area) for the cassette drive or for BASIC’s floating point numbers might be used only during cassette loads and saves or during BASIC RUNs to calculate numbers. So, if your flags and pointers were stored in these addresses, things would be fine unless you involved cassette operations. In any case, zero page is a popular, busy neighborhood. Don’t put any ML programs in there. Your main use of zero page is for the very efficient “indirect Y” addressing we’ll get to in a minute. But you’ve always got to check your computer’s memory map for zero page to make sure that you aren’t using bytes which the computer itself uses.

By the way, don’t locate your ML programs in page one (256-511 decimal) either. That’s for the “stack,” about which more later. We’ll identify where you can safely store your ML programs in the various computers. It’s always OK to use RAM as long as you keep BASIC programs from putting their variables on top of ML, and keep ML from writing over your BASIC assembler program (such as the Simple Assembler).

Immediate

Another very common addressing mode is called immediate addressing – it deals directly with a number. Instead of sending out for a number, we can just shove it immediately into the accumulator by putting it right in the place where other addressing modes have an address. Let’s illustrate this:

1000 LDA $2500 (Absolute mode)
1000 LDA #$09 (Immediate mode)

The first example will load the accumulator with whatever number it finds at address $2500. In the second example, we simply wanted to put a 9 into the accumulator. We know that we want the number 9. So, instead of sending off for the 9, we just type a 9 in where we would normally type a memory address. And we tack on a # symbol to show that the 9 is the number we’re after. Without the #, the computer will load the accumulator with whatever it finds at address number 9 (LDA $09). That would be zero page addressing, instead of immediate addressing.

In any case, immediate addressing is very frequently used, since you often know already what number you are after and do not need to send for it at all. So, you just put it right in with a #. This is similar to BASIC where you define a variable (10 VARIABLE =9). In this case, we have a variable being given a known value. LDA #9 is the same idea. In other words, immediate addressing is used when you know what number you want to deal with; you’re not sending off for it. It’s put right into the ML code as a number, not as an address.

To illustrate immediate and absolute addressing modes working together, let’s imagine that we want to copy a 15 into address $4000. (See Program 4-2.)

Program 4-2. Putting An Immediate 15 Into Absolute Address 4000.

                0010            .BA $2000            ; STARTING ADDRESS OF THIS
                0020 ; ML PROGRAM IS $2000 ("BA" = "BEGINNING ADDRESS").
                0030 ;
2000- A9 0F     0040            LDA #15              ; LOAD A WITH LITERALLY 15
2002- 8D 00 40  0050            STA $4000            ; STORE IT IN ADDRESS 4000
                0060 ;
                0070 ; NOTE THAT IN SOME ASSEMBLERS YOU CAN
                0080 ; SWITCH BETWEEN HEX AND DECIMAL.  THE
                0090 ; 15 IS DECIMAL, THE 4000 IS HEX.  A
                0100 ; LITERAL HEX 15 WOULD BE WRITTEN #$15.
                0110            .EN

Implied

Here’s an easy one. You don’t use any address or argument with this one.

This is among the more obvious modes. It’s called implied, since the mnemonic itself implies what is being sent where: TXA means transfer X register’s contents to the Accumulator. Implied addressing means that you do not put an address after the instruction (mnemonic) the way you would with most other forms of addressing.

It’s like a self-addressed, stamped envelope. TYA and others are similar short-haul moves from one register to another. Included in this implied group are the SEC, CLC, SED, CLD instructions as well. They merely clear or set the flags in the status register, letting you and the computer keep track of whether an action resulted in a zero, if a “carry” has occurred during addition or subtraction, etc.

Also “implied” are such instructions as RTS (ReTurn from Subroutine), BRK (BReaK), PLP, PHP, PLA, PHA (which “push” or “pull” the processor status register or accumulator onto or off the stack). Such actions, and increasing by one (incrementing) the X or Y register’s number (INX, INY) or decreasing it (DEX, DEY), are also called “implied.” What all of these implied addresses have in common is the fact that you do not need to actually give any address. By comparison, an LDA $2500 mode (the absolute mode) must have that $2500 address to know where to pick up the package. TXA already says, in the instruction itself, that the address is the X register and that the destination will be the accumulator. Likewise, you do not put an address after RTS since the computer always memorizes its jump-off address when it does a JSR (Jump to SubRoutine). NOP (No OPeration) is, of course, implied mode too.

Relative

One particular addressing mode, the relative mode, used to be a real headache for programmers. Not so long ago, in the days when ML programming was done “by hand,” this was a frequent source of errors. Hand computing – entering each byte by flipping eight switches up or down and then pressing an ENTER key – meant that the programmer had to write his program out on paper, translate the mnemonics into their number equivalents, and then “key” the whole thing into the machine. It was a big advance when computers would accept hexadecimal numbers which permitted entering 0F instead of eight switches: 00001111. This reduced errors and fatigue.

An even greater advance was when the machines began having enough free memory to allow an assembler program to be in the computer while the ML program was being written. An assembler not only takes care of translating LDA $2500 into its three (eightswitch binary) numbers: 10101101 00000000 00100101, but it also does relative addressing. So, for the same reason that you can program in ML without knowing how to deal with binary numbers – you can also forget about relative addressing. The assembler will do it for you.

Relative addressing is used with eight instructions only: BVS, BVC, BCS, BCC, BEQ, BMI, BNE, BPL. They are all “branching” instructions. Branch on: overflow flag set (or cleared), carry flag set (or cleared), equal, minus, not-equal, or plus. Branch if Not-Equal, like the rest of this group, will jump up to 128 addresses forward or backward from where it is or 127 addresses backward (if the result of the most recent activity is “not equal”). Note that these jumps can be a distance of only 128, or 127 back, and they can go in either direction. You specify where the jump should go by giving an address within these boundaries. Here’s an example:

1000 LDX #$00
1002 INX
1003 BNE 1002
1005 BRK

(The X register will count up by ones until it hits 255 decimal and then it resets itself to zero.)

This is what you type in to create a ML FOR-NEXT loop. You are branching, relative to address 1003, which means that the assembler will calculate what address to place into the computer that will get you to 1002. You might wonder what’s wrong with the computer just accepting the number 1002 as the address to which you want to branch. Absolute addressing does give the computer the actual address, but the branching instructions all need addresses which are “offsets” of the starting address. The assembler puts the following into the computer:

The odd thing about this piece of code is that “FD” at 1004. How does FD tell the computer to Branch back to 1002? (Remember that X will increment up to 255, then reset to zero on the final increment.) $FD means 253 decimal. Now it begins to be clear why relative addressing is so messy. If you are curious, numbers larger than 127, when found as arguments of relative addressing instructions, tell the computer to go back down to lower addresses. What’s worse, the larger the number, the less far down it goes. It counts the address 1005 as zero and counts backwards thus:

Not a very pretty counting method! Luckily, all that we fortunate assembler users need do is to give the address (as if it were an absolute address), and the assembler will do the hard part. This strange counting method is the way that the computer can handle negative numbers. The reason it can only count to 128 is that the leftmost bit is no longer used as a 128th’s column. Instead, this bit is on or off to signify a positive or negative number.

When you are using one of the branch instructions, you sometimes branch forward. Let’s say that you want to have a different kind of FOR-NEXT loop:

1000 LDX #0
1002 INX
1003 BEQ 100A
1005 JMP 1002
1008 BRK
1009 BRK
100A BRK

When jumping forward, you often do not yet know the precise address you want to branch to. In the example above, we really wanted to go to 1008 when the loop was finished (when X was equal to zero), but we just entered an approximate address (100A) and made a note of the place where this guess appeared (1004). Then, using the POKE function on the assembler, we can POKE the correct offset when we know what it should be. Forward counting is easy. When we finally saw that we wanted to go to 1008, we would POKE 1004, 3. (The assembler would have written a five because that’s the correct offset to branch to 100A, our original guess.)

Remember that the zero address for these relative branches is the address immediately following the branch instructions. For example, a jump to 1008 is three because you count: 1005 a zero, 1006=1, 1007=2, 1008=3. All this confusion disappears after writing a few programs and practicing with estimated branch addresses. Luckily, the assembler does all the backwards branches. That’s lucky because they are much harder to calculate.

Unknown Forward Branches

Also, the Simple Assembler will do one forward (“not-yet-known”) branch calculation for you. If you look at the BASIC program listing of the Simple Assembler, you will see that the pseudo-ops (fake operations) are located from line 241 up. You could add additional forward-resolving pseudo-ops if you just give them new names like F1 resolved later by R1. Alternatively, you can type a guess in for the forward branches, as we just did in the example above. Then, when you find out the exact address, simply exit from the assembler, give 1004 as your starting address for assembly, and write in BEQ 1008 and let the assembler calculate for you. Either way, you will soon get the hang of forward branching.

We’ll get into pseudo-ops later. Essentially, they are instructions to the assembler (such as “please show me the decimal equivalent of the following hex number”), but which are not intended to be thought of as mnemonics which get translated into ML object code. Pseudo-ops are “false” operations, not part of the 6502 instruction set. They are requests to the assembler program to perform some extra service for the programmer.

Absolute,X And Absolute,Y

Another important addressing mode provides you with an easy way to manipulate lists or tables. This method looks like absolute addressing, but it attaches an X or a Y to the address. The X or Y stands for the X or Y registers, which are being used in this technique as offsets. That is, if the X register contains the number 3 and you type: LDA 1000,X, you will LoaD the Accumulator with the value (the number) which is in memory cell 1003. The register value is added to the absolute address.

Another method called Zero Page,X works the same way:

LDA 05,X. This means that you can easily transfer or search through messages, lists, or tables. Error messages can be sent to the screen using such a method. Assume that the words SYNTAX ERROR are held in some part of memory because you sometimes need to send them to the screen from your program. You might have a whole table of such messages. But we’ll say that the words SYNTAX ERROR are stored at address 3000. Assuming that your screen memory address is 32768 (8000 hex), here’s how you would send the message:

1000 LDX #$00: (set the counter register to zero)
1002 LDA $3000,X: (get a letter at 3000 + X)
1005 BEQ $100E: (if the character is a zero, we’ve reached the end of message, so we end the routine)
1007 STA $8000,X: (store a letter on the screen)
100A INX: (increment the counter so the next letter in the message, as well as the next screen position, are pointed to)
100B JMP $1002: (jump to the load instruction to fetch the next character)
100E BRK: (task completed, message transferred)

This sort of indexed looping is an extremely common ML programming device. It can be used to create delays (FOR T=1 TO 5000: NEXT T), to transfer any kind of memory to another place, to check the conditions of memory (to see, for example, if a particular word appears somewhere on the screen), and to perform many other applications. It is a fundamental, all-purpose machine language technique.

Here’s a fast way to fill your screen or any other area of memory. This example uses the Commodore 64 Screen RAM starting address. Just substitute your computer’s screen-start address. This is a full source code for the demonstration screen-fill we tried in Chapter 1. See if you can follow how this indexed addressing works. What bytes are filled in, and when? At ML speeds, it isn’t necessary to fill them in order – nobody would see an irregular filling pattern because it all happens too fast for the eye to see it, like magic. (See Program 4-3.)

Compare this to Program 1-2 to see the effects of using a different screen starting address and how source code is an expansion of a disassembly.

Program 4-3.

                0010          .BA 40000      ;(NOTICE IT’s DECIMAL)
                0020 ;
                0030 CHAR.A   .DE $41        ; CHARACTER "A"
                0040 ;
9C40- A0 00     0050          LDY #$00       ; SET COUNTER TO ZERO.
9C42- A9 41     0060          LDA #CHAR.A
9C44- 99 00 04  0070 LOOP     STA $0400,Y
9C47- 99 00 05  0080          STA $0500,Y
9C4A- 99 00 06  0090          STA $0600,Y
9C4D- 99 00 07  0100          STA $0700,Y
9C50- C8        0110          INY            ; RAISE Y BY 1.
9C51- D0 F1     0120          BNE LOOP       ; IF NOT ZERO, KEEP GOING.
9C53- 60        0130          RTS
                0140          .EN

Indirect Y

This one is a real workhorse; you’ll use it often. Several of the examples in this book refer to it and explain it in context. It isn’t so much an address in itself as it is a method of creating an address. It looks like this:

$4000 STA ($80),Y

Seems innocent enough. But watch out for the parentheses. They mean that $80 is not the real address we are trying to store A into. Instead, addresses $80 and $81 are holding the address we are really sending our byte in A to. We are not dealing directly with $0080 here; hence the name for this addressing mode: indirect Y.

If $80,81 have these numbers in them:

$0080 01
$0081 20

and Y is holding a five, then the byte in A will end up in address $2006! How did we get $2006?

First, we’ve got to mentally switch the numbers in $80,81. The 6502 requires that such “address pointers” be held in backwards order. So visualize $80,81 as forming $2001, a pointer. Then add the value in Y, which is five, and you get $2006.

This is a valuable tool and you should familiarize yourself with it. It lets you have easy access to many memory locations very quickly by just changing the Y register or the pointer. To go up a page, add one to the number in $0081. To go down four pages, subtract four from it. Combine this with the indexing that Y is doing for you and you’ve got great efficiency. The pointers for this addressing mode must be stored in zero page locations.

When an address is put into a pointer, you can see that it was split in half. The address $2001 was split in the example above. It’s a two-byte number and ML terminology distinguishes between the bytes by saying that one is the LSB (least significant byte) and the other is the MSB (most significant byte). The $01 is the least significant. To grasp what is meant by “significant,” imagine chopping a decimal number such as 5015 in half. Since the left half, 50, stands for fifty 100’s and the right half stands for 15 ones, obviously the leftmost half, the 100’s, is more significant. Likewise, the left half of a two-byte hex number like $2001 is the most significant byte. The $20 stands for 32 times 256 (in decimal terms). It’s easy to multiply double-byte numbers by decimal 256 by just adding one to the MSB. This would be a quick way of moving through the “pages” in memory.

The other thing to remember about MSB,LSB is that they are reversed when broken up and used as an address pointer: LSB,MSB.

Indirect X

Not often used, this mode makes it possible to set up a group of pointers (a table) in page zero. It’s like Indirect Y except the X register value is not added to the address pointer to form the ultimate address desired. Rather, it points to which of the pointers to use. Nothing is added to the address found in the pointer.

It looks like this:

$5000 STA ($90,X)

To see it in action, let’s assume that part of zero page has been set up to point to various parts of memory. A table of pointers, not just one:

$0090   $00   Pointer #1
$0091   $04   (it points to $0400)
$0092   $05   Pointer #2
$0093   $70   ($7005)
$0094   $EA   Pointer #3
$0095   $80   (pointing to $80EA)

If X holds a two when we STA $(90,X), then the byte in A will be sent to $7005. If X holds a four, the byte will go to $80EA.

All in all, this has relatively little merit. It would be useful in rare situations, but at least it’s there if you should find you need it.

Accumulator Mode

ASL, LSR, ROL, and ROR shift or manipulate the bits in the byte in the accumulator. We’ll touch on them in the chapter on the instruction set. They don’t have much to do with addressing, but they are always listed as a separate addressing mode.

Zero Page,Y

This can only be used with LDX and STX. Otherwise it operates just like Zero Page,X discussed above.

There you have them, thirteen addressing modes to choose from. The six you should focus on and practice are: Immediate, Absolute (plus Absolute,Y and ,X), Zero Page, and Indirect Y. The rest are either automatic (implied) or not really worth bothering with until you have full command of the six common and useful ones.

Now that we’ve surveyed the ways you can move numbers around, it’s time to see how to do arithmetic in ML.

5

Arithmetic

There’ll be many things you’ll want to do in ML, but complicated math is not one of them. Mathematics beyond simple addition and subtraction (and a very easy form of elementary division and multiplication) will not be covered in this book. For most games and other ML for personal computing, you will rarely need to program with any complex math. In this chapter we will cover what you are likely to want to know. BASIC is well-suited to mathematical programming and is far easier to program for such tasks.

Before we look at ML arithmetic, it is worth reviewing an important concept: how the computer tells the difference between addresses, numbers as such, and instructions. It is valuable to be able to visualize what the computer is going to do as it comes upon each byte in your ML routine.

Even when the computer is working with words, letters of the alphabet, graphics symbols and the like – it is still working with numbers. A computer works only with numbers. The ASCII code is a convention by which the computer understands that when the context is alphabetic, the number 65 means the letter A. At first this is confusing. How does it know when 65 is A and when it is just 65? The third possibility is that the 65 could represent the 65th cell in the computer’s memory.

It is important to remember that, like us, the computer means different things at different times when it uses a symbol (like 65). We can mean a street address by it, a temperature, the cost of a milk shake, or even a secret code. We could agree that whenever we used the symbol “65” we were ready to leave a party. The point is that symbols aren’t anything in themselves. They stand for other things, and what they stand for must be agreed upon in advance. There must be rules. A code is an agreement in advance that one thing symbolizes another.

The Computer’s Rules

Inside your machine, at the most basic level, there is a stream of input. The stream flows continually past a “gate” like a river through a canal. For 99 percent of the time, this input is zeros. (BASICs differ; some see continuous 255’s, but the idea is the same.) You turn it on and the computer sits there. What’s it doing? It might be updating a clock, if you have one, and it’s holding things coherent on the TV screen – but it mainly waits in an endless loop for you to press a key on your keyboard to let it know what it’s supposed to do. There is a memory cell inside (this, too, varies in its location) which the computer constantly checks. On some computers, this cell always has a 255 in it unless a key is pressed. If you press the RETURN key, a 13 will replace the 255. At last, after centuries (the computer’s sense of time differs from ours) here is something to work with! Something has come up to the gate at long last.

You notice the effect at once – everything on the screen moves up one line because 13 (in the ASCII code) stands for carriage return. How did it know that you were not intending to type the number 13 when it saw 13 in the keyboard sampling cell? Simple. The number 13, and any other keyboard input, is always read as an ASCII number.

In ASCII, the digits from 0 through 9 are the only number symbols. There is no single symbol for 13. So, when you type in a 1 followed immediately by a 3, the computer’s input-from-the-keyboard routine scans the line on the screen and notices that you have not pressed the “instant action” keys (the STOP, BREAK, ESC, TAB, cursor-control keys, etc.). Rather, you typed 1 and 3 and the keyboard sampling cell (the “which key pressed” address in zero page) received the ASCII value for one and then for three. ASCII digits are easy to remember in hex: zero is 30, 1 is 31, and up to 39 for nine. In decimal, they are 48 through 57.

The computer decides the “meaning” of the numbers which flow into and through it by the numbers’ context. If it is in “alphabetic” mode, the computer will see the number 65 as “a”; or if it has just received an “a,” it might see a subsequent number 65 as an address to store the “a”. It all depends on the events that surround a given number. We can illustrate this with a simple example:

2000    LDA #65    A9 (169) 41 (65)
2000    STA $65    85 (133) 41 (65)

This short ML program (the numbers in parentheses are the decimal values) shows how the computer can “expect” different meanings from the number 65 (or 41 hex). When it receives an instruction to perform an action, it is then prepared to act upon a number. The instruction comes first and, since it is the first thing the computer sees when it starts a job, it knows that the A9 (169) is not a number. It has to be one of the ML instructions from its set of instructions (see Appendix A).

Instructions And Their Arguments

The computer would no more think of this first 169 as the number 169 than you would seal an envelope before the letter was inside. If you are sending out a pile of Christmas cards, you perform instruction-argument just the way the computer does: you (1) fill the envelope (instruction) (2) with a card (argument or operand). All actions do something to something. A computer’s action is called an instruction (or, in its numeric form inside the computer’s memory it’s called an opcode for operation code). The target of the action is called the instruction’s argument (operand). In our program above, the computer must LoaD Accumulator with 65. The # symbol means “immediate”; the target is right there in the next memory cell following the mnemonic LDA, so it isn’t supposed to be fetched from a distant memory cell.

Then the action is complete, and the next number (the 133 which means STore Accumulator in zero page, the first 256 cells) is seen as the start of another complete action. The action of storing always signals that the number following the store instruction must be an address of a cell in memory to store to.

Think of the computer as completing each action and then looking for another instruction. Recall from the last chapter that the target can be “implied” in the sense that INX simply increases the X register by one. That “one” is “implied” by the instruction itself, so there is no target argument in these cases. The next cell in this case must also contain an instruction for a new instruction-argument cycle.

Some instructions call for a single-byte argument. LDA #65 is of this type. You cannot LoaD Accumulator with anything greater than 255. The accumulator is only one byte large, so anything that can be loaded into it can also be only a single byte large. Recall that $FF (255 decimal) is the largest number that can be represented by a single byte. STA $65 also has a one byte argument because the target address for the STore Accumulator is, in this case, in zero page. Storing to zero page or loading from it will need only a one byte argument – the address. Zero page addressing is a special case, but an assembler program will take care of it for you. It will pick the correct opcode for this addressing mode when you type LDA $65. LDA $0065 would create ML code that performs the same operation though it would use three bytes instead of two to do it.

The program counter is like a finger that keeps track of where the computer is located in its trip up a series of ML instructions. Each instruction takes up one, two, or three bytes, depending on what type of addressing is going on.

Context Defines Meaning

TXA uses only one byte so the program counter (PC) moves ahead one byte and stops and waits until the value in the X register is moved over to the accumulator. Then the computer asks the PC, “Where are we?” and the PC is pointing to the address of the next instruction. It never points to an argument. It skips over them because it knows how many bytes each addressing mode uses up in a program.

Say that the next addresses contain an LDA $15. This is two bytes long (zero page addressing). The PC is raised by two. The longest possible instruction would be using three bytes, such as LDA $5000 (absolute addressing). Here the argument takes up two bytes. Add that to the one byte used by any instruction and you have a total of three bytes for the PC to count off. Zero page LDA is represented by the number A5 and Absolute LDA is AD. Since the opcodes are different, even though the mnemonics are identical, the computer can know how many bytes the instruction will use up.

Having reviewed the way that your computer makes contextual sense out of the mass of seemingly similar numbers of which an ML program is composed, we can move on to see how elementary arithmetic is performed in ML.

Addition

Arithmetic is performed in the accumulator. The accumulator holds the first number, the target address holds the second number (but is not affected by the activities), and the result is left in the accumulator. So:

LDA #$40 (remember, the # means immediate, the $ means hex)
ADC #$01

will result in the number 41 being left in the accumulator. We could then STA that number wherever we wanted. Simple enough. The ADC means ADd with Carry. If this addition problem resulted in a number higher than 255 (if we added, say, 250+6), then there would have to be a way to show that the number left behind in the accumulator was not the correct result. What’s left behind is the carry. What would happen after adding 250+6 is that the accumulator would contain a 1. To show that the answer is really 256 (and not 1), the “carry flag” in the status register flips up. So, if that flag is up, we know that the real answer is 255 plus the 1 Left in the accumulator.

To make sure that things never get confused, always put in a CLC (CLear Carry) before any addition problems. Then the flag will go down before any addition and, if it is up afterward, we’ll know that we need to add 256 to whatever is in the accumulator. We’ll know that the accumulator holds the carry, not the total result.

One other point about the status register: there is another flag, the “decimal” flag. If you ever set this flag up (SED), all addition and subtraction is performed in a decimal mode in which the carry flag is set when addition exceeds 99. In this book, we are not going into the decimal mode at all, so it’s a good precaution to put a CLear Decimal mode (CLD) instruction as the first instruction of any ML program you write. After you type CLD, the flag will be put down and the assembler will move on to ask for your next instruction, but all the arithmetic from then on will be as we are describing it.

Adding Numbers Larger Than 255

We have already discussed the idea of setting aside some memory cells as a table for data. All we do is make a note to ourselves that, say, $80 and $81 are declared a zone for our personal use as a storage area. Using a familiar example, let’s think of this zone as the address that holds the address of a ball-like character for a game. As long as the addresses are not in ROM, or used by our program elsewhere, or used by the computer (see your computer’s memory map), it’s fine to declare any area a data zone. It is a good idea (especially with longer programs) to make notes on a piece of paper to show where you intend to have your subroutines, your main loop, your initialization, and all the miscellaneous data – names, messages for the screen, input from the keyboard, etc. This is one of those things that BASIC does for you automatically, but which you must do for yourself in ML.

When BASIC creates a string variable, it sets aside an area to store variables. This is what DIM does. In ML, you set aside your own areas by simply finding a safe and unused memory space and then not writing a part of your program into it. Part of your data zone can be special registers you declare to hold the results of addition or subtraction. You might make a note to yourself that $80 and $81 will hold the current address of the bouncing ball in your game. Since the ball is constantly in motion, this register will be changing all the time, depending on whether the ball hit a wall, a paddle, etc. Notice that you need two bytes for this register. That is because one byte could hold only a number from 0 to 255. Two bytes together, though, can hold a number up to 65535.

In fact, a two-byte register can address any cell in most microcomputers because most of us have machines with a total of 65536 memory cells (from zero to 65535). So if your ball is located (on your screen) at $8000 and you must move it down one, just change the ball-address register you have set up. If your screen has 40 columns, you would want to add 40 to this register.

The ball address register now looks like this: $0080 00 80 (remember that the higher, most significant byte, comes after the LSB, the least significant byte in the 6502’s way of looking at pointers). We want it to be: $0080 28 80. (The 28 is hex for 40.) In other words, we’re going to move the ball down one line on a 40-column screen.

Remember the “indirect Y” addressing mode described in the previous chapter? It lets us use an address in zero page as a pointer to another address in memory. The number in the Y register is added to whatever address sits in 80,81, so we don’t STA to $80 or $81, but rather to the address that they contain. STA ($80),Y or, using the simplified punctuation rules of the Simple Assembler: STA (80)Y.

Moving A Ball Down

How to add $28 to the ball address register? First of all, CLC, clear the carry to be sure that flag is down. To simplify our addition, we can set aside another special register which serves only to hold the $28 as a double-byte number all through the game: $4009 28 00. This is the size of one screen line in our 40-column computer and it won’t change. Since it moves the ball down one screen line, it can be used equally well for a subtraction that would move the ball up one screen line as well. Now to add them together:

1000 CLC (1000 is our “add 40 to ball address” subroutine)
1001 LDA $80 (we fetch the LSB of ball address)
1003 ADC $4009 (LSB of our permanent screen line size)
1006 STA $80 (put the new result into the ball address)
1008 LDA $81 (get the MSB of ball address)
100A ADC $400A (add with carry to the MSB of screen value)
100D STA $81 (update the ball address MSB)

That’s it. Any carry will automatically set the carry flag up during the ADC action on the LSB and will be added into the result when we ADC to the MSB. It’s all quite similar to the way that we add ordinary decimal numbers, putting a carry onto the next column when we get more than a 10 in the first column. And this carrying is why we always CLC (clear the carry flag, putting it down) just before additions. If the carry is set, we could get the wrong answer if our problem did not result in a carry. Did the addition above cause a carry?

Note that we need not check for any carries during the MSB+MSB addition. Any carries resulting in a screen address greater than $FFFF (65535) would be impossible on our machines. The 6502 is permitted to address $FFFF tops, under normal conditions.

Subtraction

As you might expect, subtracting single-byte numbers is a snap:

LDA #$41
SBC #$01

results in a $40 being left in the accumulator. As before, though, it is good to make it a habit to deal with the carry flag before each calculation. When subtracting, however, you set the carry flag: SEC. Why is unimportant. Just always SEC before any subtractions, and your answers will be correct. Here’s double subtracting that will move the ball up the screen one line instead of down one line:

$1020 SEC ($1020 is our “take 40 from ball address” subroutine)
1021 LDA $80 (get the LSB of ball address)
1023 SBC $4009 (LSB of our permanent screen line value)
1026 STA $80 (put the new result into the ball address)
1028 LDA $81 (get the MSB of ball address)
102A SBC $400A (subtract the MSB of screen value)
102D STA $81 (update the ball address MSB)

Multiplication And Division

Multiplying could be done by repeated adding. To multiply 5 × 4, you could just add 4+4+4+4+4. One way would be to set up two registers like the ones we used above, both containing 04, and then loop through the addition process five times. For practical purposes, though, multiplying and dividing are much more easily accomplished in BASIC. They simply are often not worth the trouble of setting up in ML, especially if you will need results involving decimal points (floating point arithmetic). Perhaps surprisingly, for the games and personal computing tasks where creating ML routines is useful, there is little use either for negative numbers or arithmetic beyond simple addition and subtraction.

If you find that you need complicated mathematical structures, create the program in BASIC, adding ML where super speeds are necessary or desirable. Such hybrid programs are efficient and, in their way, elegant. One final note: an easy way to divide the number in the accumulator by two is to LSR it. Try it. Similarly, you can multiply by two with ASL. We’ll define LSR and ASL in the next chapter.

Double Comparison

One rather tricky technique is used fairly often in ML and should be learned. It is tricky because there are two branch instructions which seem to be worth using in this context, but they are best avoided. If you are trying to keep track of the location of a ball on the screen, it will have a two-byte address. If you need to compare those two bytes against another two-byte address, you need a “double compare” subroutine. You might have to see if the ball is out of bounds or if there has been a collision with some other item flying around on screen. Double compare is also valuable in other kinds of ML programming.

The problem is the BPL (Branch on PLus) and BMI (Branch on MInus) instructions. Don’t use them for comparisons. In any comparisons, single- or double-byte, use BEQ to test if two numbers are equal; BNE for not equal; BCS for equal or higher; and BCC for lower. You can remember BCS because its “S” is higher and BCC because its “C” is lower in the alphabet. To see how to perform a double-compare, here’s one easy way to do it. (See Program 5-1.)

Program 5-1. Double Compare.

                0005            .BA $1010
                0010 ; ------- STORAGE AREAS -------
                0020 TESTED     .DE $1000
                0030 SECOND     .DE $1002
                0040 TEMP       .DE $1008
                0050 ;
                0060 ; ------- LANDING PLACES ------
                0070 LOWER      .DE $1004
                0080 EQUAL      .DE $1005
                0090 HIGHER     .DE $1006
                0100 ;
1010- 38        0110 START      SEC
1011- AD 00 10  0120            LDA TESTED    ; COMPARE THE LOW BYTES
1014- ED 02 10  0130            SBC SECOND
1017- 8D 08 10  0140            STA TEMP
101A- AD 01 10  0150            LDA TESTED+1  ; COMPARE THE HIGH BYTES
101D- ED 03 10  0160            SBC SECOND+1
1020- 0D 08 10  0170            ORA TEMP
1023- F0 E0     0180            BEQ EQUAL     ; TESTED = SECOND
1025- 90 DD     0190            BCC LOWER     ; TESTED < SECOND
1027- B0 DD     0200            BCS HIGHER    ; TESTED > SECOND
                0210            .EN

This is a full-dress, luxurious assembler at work. With such assemblers you can use line numbers and labels, add numbers to labels (see TESTED +1 in line 150), add comments, and all the rest. To try this out, type in the hex bytes on the left, starting at address $1010, which make up the program itself. Then fill bytes $1000-100f with zeros – that’s your storage area for the numbers you are comparing as well as a simulated “landing place” where your computer will branch, demonstrating that the comparison worked correctly.

Now try putting different numbers into the two-byte zones called TESTED and SECOND. TESTED, at $1000, is the first, the tested, number. It’s being tested against the second number, called SECOND. As you can see, you’ve got to keep it straight in your mind which number is the primary number. There has to be a way to tag them so that it means something when you say that one is larger (or smaller) than the other.

When you’ve set up the numbers in their registers ($1000 to $1003), you can run this routine by starting at $1010. All that will happen is that you will land on a BRK instruction. Where you land tells you the result of the comparison. If the numbers are equal, you land at $1005. If the TESTED number is less than the SECOND number, you’ll end up at $1004. If all you needed to find out was whether they were unequal, you could use BNE. Or you could leave out branches that you weren’t interested in. Play around with this routine until you’ve understood the ideas involved.

In a real program, of course, you would be branching to the addresses of subroutines which do something if the numbers are equal or greater or whatever. This example sends the computer to $1004, $1005, or $1C06 just to let you see the effects of the double-compare subroutine. Above all, remember that comparing in ML is done with BCS and BCC (not BPL or BMI).

6

The Instruction Set

There are 56 instructions (commands) available in 6502 machine language. Most versions of BASIC have about 50 commands. Some BASIC instructions are rarely used by the majority of programmers: USR, END, SGN, TAN, etc. Some, such as END and LET, contribute nothing to a program and seem to have remained in the language for nostalgic reasons. Others, like TAN, have uses that are highly specialized. There are surplus commands in computer languages just as there are surplus words in English. People don’t often say culpability. They usually say guilt. The message gets across without using the entire dictionary. The simple, common words can do the job.

Machine language is the same as any other language in this respect. There are around 20 heavily used instructions. The 36 remaining ones are far less often used. Load the disassembler program in Appendix D and enter the starting address of your computer’s BASIC in ROM. You can then read the machine language routines which comprise it. You will quickly discover that the accumulator is heavily trafficked (LDA and STA appear frequently), but you will have to hunt to find an ROR, SED, CLV, RTI, or BVC.

ML, like BASIC, offers you many ways to accomplish a given job. Some programming solutions, of course, are better than others, but the main thing is to get the job done. An influence still lingers from the early days of computing when memory space was rare and expensive. This influence – that you should try to write programs using up as little memory as possible – is usually safely ignored. Efficient memory use will often be low on your list of objectives. It could hardly matter if you used up 25 instead of 15 bytes to print a message to your screen when your computer has space for programs which exceeds 30,000 bytes.

Rather than memorize each instruction individually, we will concentrate on the workhorses. Bizarre or arcane instructions will get only passing mention. Unless you are planning to work with ML for interfacing or complex mathematics and such, you will be able to write excellent machine language programs for nearly any application with the instructions we’ll focus on here.

For each instruction group, we will describe three things before getting down to the details about programming with them. 1. What the instructions accomplish. 2. The addressing modes you can use with them. 3. What they do, if anything, to the flags in the Status Register. All of this information is also found in Appendix A.

The Six Instruction Groups

The best way to approach the “instruction set” might be to break it down into the following six categories which group the instructions according to their functions: 1. The Transporters 2. The Arithmetic Group 3. The Decision-makers 4. The Loop Group 5. The Subroutine and Jump Group and 6. The Debuggers. We will deal with each group in order, pointing out similarities to BASIC and describing the major uses for each.

As always, the best way to learn is by doing. Move bytes around. Use each instruction, typing a BRK as the final instruction to see the effects. If you LDA #65, look in the A register to see what happened. Then STA $12 and check to see what was copied into address $12. If you send the byte in the accumulator (STA), what’s left behind in the accumulator? Is it better to think of bytes as being copied rather than being sent?

Play with each instruction to get a feel for it. Discover the effects, qualities, and limitations of these ML commands.

1. The Transporters:
LDA, LDX, LDY
STA, STX, STY
TAX, TAY
TXA, TYA

These instructions move a byte from one place in memory to another. To be more precise, they copy what is in a source location into a target location. The source location still contains the byte, but after a “transporter” instruction, a copy of the byte is also in the target. This does replace whatever was in the target.

All of them affect the N and Z flags, except STA, STX, and STY which do nothing to any flag.

There are a variety of addressing modes available to different instructions in this group. Check the chart in Appendix A for specifics.

Remember that the computer does things one at a time. Unlike the human brain which can carry out up to 1000 different instructions simultaneously (walk, talk, and smile, all at once) – the computer goes from one tiny job to the next. It works through a series of instructions, raising the program counter (PC) each time it handles an instruction.

If you do a TYA, the PC goes up by one to the next address and the computer looks at that next instruction. STA $80 is a two-byte long instruction, it’s zero page addressing, so the PC=PC+2. STA $8500 is a three-byte long absolute addressing mode and PC=PC+3.

Recall that there’s nothing larger than a three-byte increment of the PC. However, in each case, the PC is cranked up the right amount to make it point to the address for the next instruction. Things would get quickly out of control if the PC pointed to some argument, thinking it was an instruction. It would be incorrect (and soon disastrous) if the PC landed on the $15 in LDA $15.

If you type SYS 1024 (or USR or CALL), the program counter is loaded with $0400 and the computer “transfers control” to the ML instructions which are (we hope!) waiting there. It will then look at the byte in $0400, expecting it to be an ML instruction. It will do that job and then look for the next instruction. Since it does this very fast, it can seem to be keeping score, bouncing the ball, moving the paddle, and everything else – simultaneously. It’s not, though. It’s flashing from one task to another and doing it so fast that it creates the illusion of simultaneity much the way that 24 still pictures per second look like motion in movies.

The Programmer’s Time Warp

Movies are, of course, lots of still pictures flipping by in rapid succession. Computer programs are composed of lots of individual instructions performed in rapid succession.

Grasping this sequential, step-by-step activity makes our programming job easier: we can think of large programs as single steps, coordinated into meaningful, harmonious actions. Now the computer will put a blank over the ball at its current address, then add 40 to the ball’s address, then print a ball at the new address. The main single-step action is moving information, as single-byte numbers, from here to there, in memory. We are always creating, updating, modifying, moving and destroying single-byte variables. The moving is generally done from one double-byte address to another. But it all looks smooth to the player during a game.

Programming in ML can pull you into an eerie time warp. You might spend several hours constructing a program which executes in seconds. You are putting together instructions which will later be read and acted upon by coordinated electrons, moving at electron speeds. It’s as if you spent an afternoon slowly and carefully drawing up pathways and patterns which would later be a single bolt of lightning.

Registers

In ML there are three primary places where variables rest briefly on their way to memory cells: the X, the Y, and the A registers. And the A register (the accumulator) is the most frequently used. X and Y are used for looping and indexing. Each of these registers can grab a byte from anywhere in memory or can load the byte right after its own opcode (immediate addressing):

LDX $8000 (puts the number at hex address 8000 into X, without destroying it at $8000)
LDX #65 (puts the number 65 into X)
LDA and LDY work the same.

Be sure you understand what is happening here. LDX $1500 does not copy the “byte in the X register into address $1500.” It’s just the opposite. The number (or “value” as it’s sometimes called) in $1500 is copied into the X register.

To copy a byte from X, Y, or A, use STX, STY, or STA. For these “store-bytes” instructions, however, there is no immediate addressing mode. No STA #15. It would make no sense to have STA #15. That would be disruptive, for it would modify the ML program itself. It would put the number 15 into the next cell beyond the STA instruction within the ML program itself.

Another type of transporter moves bytes between registers – TAY, TAX, TYA, TXA. See the effect of writing the following. Look at the registers after executing this:

1000 LDA #65
     TAY
     TAX

The number 65 is placed into the accumulator, then transferred to the Y register, then sent from the accumulator to X. All the while, however, the A register (accumulator) is not being emptied. Sending bytes is not a “transfer” in the usual sense of the term “sending.” It’s more as if a Xerox copy were made of the number and then the copy is sent. The original stays behind after the copy is sent.

LDA #15 followed by TAY would leave the 15 in the accumulator, sending a copy of 15 into the Y register.

Notice that you cannot directly move a byte from the X to the Y register, or vice versa. There is no TXY or TYX.

Flags Up And Down

Another effect of moving bytes around is that it sometimes throws a flag up or down in the Status Register. LDA (or LDX or LDY) will affect the N and Z, negative and zero, flags.

We will ignore the N flag. It changes when you use “signed numbers,” a special technique to allow for negative numbers. For our purposes, the N flag will fly up and down all the time and we won’t care. If you’re curious, signed numbers are manipulated by allowing the seven bits on the right to hold the number and the leftmost bit stands for positive or negative. We normally use a byte to hold values from 0 through 255. If we were working with “signed” numbers, anything higher than 127 would be considered a negative number since the leftmost bit would be “on” – and an LDA #255 would be thought of as -1. This is another example of how the same things (the number 255 in this case) could signify several different things, depending on the context in which it is being interpreted.

The Z flag, on the other hand, is quite important. It shows whether or not some action during a program run resulted in a zero. The branching instructions and looping depend on this flag, and we’ll deal with the important zero-result effects below with the BNE, INX, etc., instructions.

No flags are affected by the STA, STX, or STY instructions.

The Stack Can Take Care Of Itself

There are some instructions which move bytes to and from the stack. These are for advanced ML programmers. PHA and PLA copy a byte from A to the stack, and vice versa. PHP and PLP move the status register to and from the stack. TSX and TXS move the stack pointer to or from the X register. Forget them. Unless you know precisely what you are doing, you can cause havoc with your program by fooling with the stack. The main job for the stack is to keep the return addresses pushed into it when you JSR (Jump To Subroutine). Then, when you come back from a subroutine (RTS), the computer pulls the addresses off the stack to find out where to go back to.

The one major exception to this warning about fiddling with the stack is Atari’s USR instruction. It is a worthwhile technique to master. Atari owners can move between BASIC and ML programs fairly easily, passing numbers to ML via the stack. The parameters (the passed numbers) must be pulled off the stack when the ML program first takes control of the computer.

For most ML programming, on the other hand, avoid stack manipulation until you are an advanced programmer. If you manipulate the stack without great care, you’ll give an RTS the wrong address and the computer will travel far, far beyond your control. If you are lucky, it sometimes lands on a BRK instruction and you fall into the monitor mode. The odds are that you would get lucky roughly once every 256 times. Don’t count on it. Since BRK is rare in your BASIC ROM, the chances are pretty low. If your monitor has a FILL instruction which lets you put a single number into large amounts of RAM memory, you might want to fill the RAM with “snow.” FILL 1000 8000 00 would put zeros into every address from 1000 to 8000. This greatly improves the odds that a crash will hit a BRK.

As an aside, there is another use for a blanket of “zero page snow.” Many Atari programs rely on the fact that the computer leaves page six ($0600-06FF) pretty much alone. The PET doesn’t make much use of the second cassette buffer. So, you can safely put an ML subroutine in these places to, for example, add a routine which customizes an ML word processor. Does your Atari’s ML word-processing program use any memory space in page six? Probably. What locations does it use? Fill page six with 00’s, put the word-processor through its paces, then look at the tracks, the non-zeros, in the snow.

2. The Arithmetic Group:
ADC, SBC, SEC, CLC

Here are the commands which add, subtract, and set or clear the carry flag. ADC and SBC affect the N, Z, C, and V (overflow) flags. CLC and SEC, needless to say, affect the C flag and their only addressing mode is Implied.

ADC and SBC can be used in eight addressing modes: Immediate, Absolute, Zero Page, (Indirect,X), (Indirect),Y, Zero Page,X, and Absolute,X and Y.

Arithmetic was covered in the previous chapter. To review, before any addition, the carry flag must be cleared with CLC. Before any subtraction, it must be set with SEC. The decimal mode should be cleared at the start of any program (the initialization): CLD. You can multiply by two with ASL and divide by two with LSR. Note that you can divide by four with LSR LSR or by eight with LSR LSR LSR. You could multiply a number by eight with ASL ASL ASL. What would this do to a number: ASL ASL ASL ASL? To multiply by numbers which aren’t powers of two, use addition plus multiplication. To multiply by ten, for example: copy the original number temporarily to a vacant area of memory. Then ASL ASL ASL to multiply it by eight. Then multiply the stored original by two with a single ASL. Then add them together.

If you’re wondering about the V flag, it is rarely used for anything. You can forget about the branch which depends on it, BVC, too. Only five instructions affect it and it relates to “twos complement” arithmetic which we have not touched on in this book. Like decimal mode or negative numbers, you will be able to construct your ML programs very effectively if you remain in complete ignorance of this mode. We have largely avoided discussion of most of the flags in the status register: N, V, B, D, and I. This avoidance has also removed several branch instructions from our consideration: BMI, BPL, BVC, and BVS. These flags and instructions are not usually found in standard ML programs and their use is confined to specialized mathematical or interfacing applications. They will not be of use or interest to the majority of ML programmers.

The two flags of interest to most ML programmers are the Carry flag and the Zero flag. That is why, in the following section, we will examine only the four branch instructions which test the C and Z flags. They are likely to be the only branching instructions that you’ll ever find occasion to use.

3. The Decision-Makers:
CMP, BNE, BEQ, BCC, BCS

The four “branchers” here – they all begin with a “B” – have only one addressing mode. In fact, it’s an interesting mode unique to the “B” instructions and created especially for them: relative addressing. They do not address a memory location as an absolute thing; rather, they address a location which is a certain distance from their position in the ML code. Put another way, the argument of the “B” instructions is an offset which is relative to their position. You never have to worry about relocating “B” instructions to another part of memory. You can copy them and they will work just as well in the new location. That’s because their argument just says “add five to the present address” or “subtract twenty-seven,” or whatever argument you give them. But they can’t branch further back than 127 or further forward than 128 bytes.

None of the brancher instructions have any effect whatsoever on any flags; instead, they are the instructions which look at the flags. They are the only instructions that base their activity on the condition of the status register and its flags. They are why the flags exist at all.

CMP is an exception. Many times it is the instruction that comes just before the branchers and sets flags for them to look at and make decisions about. Lots of instructions – LDA is one – will set or “clear” (put down) flags – but sometimes you need to use CMP to find out what’s going on with the flags. CMP affects the N, Z, and C flags. CMP has many addressing modes available to it: Immediate, Absolute, Zero Page, (Indirect,X), (Indirect),Y, Zero Page,X, and Absolute,X and Y.

The Foundations Of Computer Power

This decision-maker group and the following group (loops) are the basis of our computers’ enormous strength. The decision-makers allow the computer to decide among two or more possible courses of action. This decision is based on comparisons. If the ball hits a wall, then reverse its direction. In BASIC, we use IF-THEN and ON-GOTO structures to make decisions and to make appropriate responses to conditions as they arise during a program run.

Recall that most micros use memory mapped video, which means that you can treat the screen like an area of RAM memory. You can PEEK and POKE into it and create animation, text, or other visual events. In ML, you PEEK by LDA $VIDEO MEMORY and examine what you’ve PEEKed with CMP. You POKE via STA $VIDEO MEMORY.

CMP does comparisons. This tests the value at an address against what is in the accumulator. Less common are CPX and CPY. Assume that we have just added 40 to a register we set aside to hold the current address-location of a ball on our screen during a game. Before the ball can be POKEd into that address, we’d better make sure that something else (a wall, a paddle, etc.) is not sitting there. Otherwise the ball would pass right through walls.

Since we just increased the location register (this register, we said, was to be at $80,81), we can use it to find out if there is blank space (32) or something else (like a wall). Recall that the very useful “indirect Y” addressing mode allows us to use an address in zero page as a pointer to another address in memory. The number in the Y register is added to whatever address sits in 80,81; so we don’t LDA from 80 or 81, but rather from the address that they contain, plus Y’s value.

To see what’s in our potential ball location, we can do the following:

LDY #0: (we want to fetch from the ball address itself, so we don’t want to add anything to it. Y is set to zero.)
LDA (80),Y: (fetch whatever is sitting where we plan to next send the ball. To review Indirect,Y addressing once more: say that the address we are fetching from here is $1077. Address $80 would hold the LSB ($77) and address $81 would hold the MSB ($10). Notice that the argument of an Indirect,Y instruction only mentions the lower address of the two-byte pointer, the $80. The computer knows that it has to combine $80 and $81 to get the full address – and does this automatically.)

At this point in your game, there might be a 32 (ASCII for the space or blank character) or some other number which we would know indicated a wall, another player, a paddle, etc. Now that this questionable number sits in the accumulator, we will CMP it against a space. We could compare it with the number which means wall or the other possibilities – it doesn’t matter. The main thing is to compare it:

2000 CMP #32: (is it a space?)
2002 BNE 200A: (Branch if Not Equal [if not 32] to address 200A, which contains the first of a series of comparisons to see if it’s a wall, a paddle, etc. On the other hand, if the comparison worked, if it was a 32 (so we didn’t Branch Not Equal), then the next thing that happens is the instruction in address 2004. We “fall through” the BNE to an instruction which jumps to the subroutine (JSR), which moves the ball into this space and then returns to address 2007, which jumps over the series of comparisons for wall, paddle, etc.)
2004 JSR 3000: (the ball printing subroutine)
2007 JMP 2020: (jump over the rest of the comparisons)
200A CMP #128: (is it our paddle symbol?)
200C BNE 2014: (if not, continue to next comparison)
200E JSR 3050: (do the paddle-handling subroutine and ...)
2011 JMP 2020: (jump over the rest, as before in 2007)
2014 CMP #144: (is it a wall ... and so forth with as many comparisons as needed)

This structure is to ML what ON-GOTO or ON-GOSUB is to BASIC. It allows you to take multiple actions based on a single LDA. Doing the CMP only once would be comparable to BASIC’s IF-THEN.

Other Branching Instructions

In addition to the BNE we just looked at, there are BCC, BCS, BEQ, BMI, BPL, BVC, and BVS. Learn BCC, BCS, BEQ, and BNE and you can safely ignore the others.

All of them are branching, IF-THEN, instructions. They work in the same way that BNE does. You write BEQ followed by the address you want to go to. If the result of the comparison is “yes, equal-to-zero is true,” then the ML program will jump to the address which is the argument of the BEQ. “True” here means that something EQuals zero. One example that would send up the Z flag (thereby triggering the BEQ) is: LDA #00. The action of loading a zero into A sets the Z flag up.

You are allowed to “branch” either forward or backward from the address that holds the “B—” instruction. However, you cannot branch any further than 128 bytes in either direction. If you want to go further, you must JMP (JuMP) or JSR (Jump to SubRoutine). For all practical purposes, you will usually be branching to instructions located within 30 bytes of your “B” instruction in either direction. You will be taking care of most things right near where a CoMPare, or other flag-setting event, takes place.

If you need to use an elaborate subroutine, simply JSR to it at the target address of your branch:

2000 LDA 65
2002 CMP 85: (is what was in address 65 equal to what was in address 85?)
2004 BNE 2009: (if Not Equal, branch over the next three bytes which perform some elaborate job)
2006 JSR 4000: (at 4000 sits an elaborate subroutine to take care of cases where addresses 65 and 85 turn out to be equal)
2009: (continue with the program here)

If you are branching backwards, you’ve written that part of your program, so you know the address to type in after a BNE or one of the other branches. But, if you are branching forward, to an address in part of the program not yet written – how do you know what to give as the address to branch to? In complicated two-pass assemblers, you can just use a word like “BRANCHTARGET”, and the assembler will “pass” twice through your program when it assembles it. The first “pass” simply notes that your BNE is supposed to branch to “BRANCHTARGET,” but it doesn’t yet know where that is.

When it finally finds the actual address of “BRANCHTARGET,” it makes a note of the correct address in a special label table. Then, it makes a second “pass” through the program and fills in (as the next byte after your BNE or whatever) the correct address of “BRANCHTARGET”. All of this is automatic, and the labels make the program you write (called the source code) look almost like English. In fact, complicated assemblers can contain so many special features that they can get close to the higher-level languages, such as BASIC:

(These initial definitions of labels	`TESTBYTE=80`
are sometimes called “equates.”)	`NEWBYTE=99`
`2004 LDA`	`TESTBYTE`
`2006 CMP`	`NEWBYTE`
`2008 BNE`	`BRANCHTARGET`
`200A JSR`	`SPECIALSUBROUTINE`
`BRANCHTARGET 200D` … etc.

Instead of using lots of numbers (as we do when using the Simple Assembler) for the target/argument of each instruction, these assemblers allow you to define (“equate”) the meanings of words like “TESTBYTE” and from then on you can use the word instead of the number. And they do somewhat simplify the problem of forward branching since you just give (as above) address 200D a name, “BRANCHTARGET,” and the word at address 2009 is later replaced with 200D when the assembler does its passes.

This is how the example above looks as the source code listing from a two-pass, deluxe assembler:

Program 6-1.

                0010                   .BA $2004
                0020 TESTBYTE          .DE $80
                0030 NEWBYTE           .DE $99
                0040 ;
2004- A9 80     0050 START             LDA #TESTBYTE         ; (IMMEDIATE ADDRE
2006- C5 99     0060                   CMP *NEWBYTE  ; (ZERO PAGE ADDRESSING)
2008- D0 03     0070                   BNE BRANCHTARGET      ; (RELATIVE ADDRES
200A- 20 10 20  0080                   JSR SPECIALSUBROUTINE
200D- AD 00 04  0090 BRANCHTARGET      LDA $400     ; YOU CAN FREELY MIX
                0100 ; LABLES AND SUBROUTINES. ALSO, COMMENTS
                0110 ; WILL BE IGNORED BY THE ASSEMBLER AND CAN
                0120 ; BE STUCK ANYWHERE, AS YOU SEE.
                0130 ;
2010- AD 21 00  0140 SPECIALSUBROUTINE LDA 33
                0150 ; ETC. ETC.
                0160                   .EN

Actually, we should note in passing that a 200D will not be the number which finally appears at address 2009 to replace “BRANCHTARGET”. To save space, all branches are indicated as an “offset” from the address of the branch. The number which will finally replace “BRANCHTARGET” at 2009 above will be three. This is similar to the way that the value of the Y register is added to an address in zero page during indirect Y addressing (also called “indirect indexed”). The number given as an argument of a branch instruction is added to the address of the next instruction. So, 200A+3=200D. Our Simple Assembler will take care of all this for you. All you need do is give it the 200D and it will compute and put the 3 in place for you.

Forward Branch Solutions

There is one responsibility that you do have, though. When you are writing 2008 BNE 200D, how do you know to write in 200D? You can’t yet know to exactly which address up ahead you want to branch. There are two ways to deal with this. Perhaps easiest is to just put in BNE 2008 (have it branch to itself). This will result in a FE being temporarily left as the target of your BNE. Then, you can make a note on paper to later change the byte at 2009 to point to the correct address, 200D. You’ve got to remember to “resolve” that FE to POKE in the number to the target address, or you will leave a little bomb in your program – an endless loop. The Simple Assembler has a POKE function. When you type POKE, you will be asked for the address and value you want POKEd. So, by the time you have finished coding 200D, you could just type POKE and then POKE 2009,3.

The other, even simpler, way to deal with forward branch addresses will come after you are familiar with which instructions use one, two, or three bytes. This BNE-JSR-TARGET construction is common and will always be six away from the present address, an offset of 6. If the branch instruction is at 2008, you just count off three: 200A, 200B, 200C and write BNE 200D. Other, more complex branches such as ON-GOTO constructions will also become easy to count off when you’re familiar with the instruction byte-lengths. In any case, it’s simple enough to make a note of any unsolved branches and correct them before running the program.

Alternatively, you can use a single “unresolved” forward branch in the Simple Assembler; see its instructions. You just type BNE FORWARD.

Recall our previous warning about staying away from the infamous BPL and BMI instructions? BPL (Branch on PLus) and BMI (Branch on MInus) sound good, but should be avoided. To test for less-than or more-than situations, use BCC and BCS respectively. (Recall that BCC is alphabetically less-than BCS – an easy way to remember which to use.) The reasons for this are exotic. We don’t need to go into them. Just be warned that BPL and BMI, which sound so logical and useful, are not. They can fail you and neither one lives up to its name. Stick with the always trustworthy BCC, BCS.

Also remember that BNE and the other three main “B” group branching instructions often don’t need to have a CMP come in front of them to set a flag they can test. Many actions of many opcodes will automatically set flags during their operations. For example, LDA $80 will affect the Z flag so you can tell if the number in address $80 was or wasn’t zero by that flag. LDA $80 followed by BNE would branch away if there were anything besides a zero in address $80. If in doubt, check the chart of instructions in Appendix A to see which flags are set by which instructions. You’ll soon get to know the common ones. If you are really in doubt, go ahead and use CMP.

4. The Loop Group:
DEY, DEX, INY, INX, INC, DEC

INY and INX raise the Y and X register values by one each time they are used. If Y is a 17 and you INY, Y becomes an 18. Likewise, DEY and DEX decrease the value in these registers by one. There is no such increment or decrement instruction for the accumulator.

Similarly, INC and DEC will raise or lower a memory address by one. You can give arguments to them in four addressing modes: Absolute, Zero Page, Zero Page,X and Absolute,X. These instructions affect the N and Z flags.

The Loop Group are usually used to set up FOR-NEXT structures. The X register is used most often as a counter to allow a certain number of events to take place. In the structure FOR I=1 TO 10: NEXT I, the value of the variable I goes up by one each time the loop cycles around. The same effect is created by:

2000 LDX #10
2002 DEX (“DEcrement” or “DEcrease X” by 1)
2003 BNE 2002 (Branch if Not Equal [to zero] back up to address 2002)

Notice that DEX is tested by BNE (which sees if the Z flag, the zero flag, is up). DEX sets the Z flag up when X finally gets down to zero after ten cycles of this loop. (The only other flag affected by this loop group is the N [negative] flag for signed arithmetic.)

Why didn’t we use INX, INcrease X by 1? This would parallel exactly the FOR I=1 TO 10, but it would be clumsy since our starting count which is #10 above would have to be #245. This is because X will not become a zero going up until it hits 255. So, for clarity and simplicity, it is customary to set the count of X and then DEX it downward to zero. The following program will accomplish the same thing as the one above, and allow us to INX, but it too is somewhat clumsy:

2000 LDX  #0
2002 INX
2003 CPX  #10
2005 BNE 2002

Here we had to use zero to start the loop because, right off the bat, the number in X is INXed to one by the instruction at 2002. In any case, it is a good idea to just memorize the simple loop structure in the first example. It is easy and obvious and works very well.

Big Loops

How would you create a loop which has to be larger than 256 cycles? When we examined the technique for adding large numbers, we simply used two-byte units instead of single-byte units to hold our information. Likewise, to do large loops, you can count down in two bytes, rather than one. In fact, this is quite similar to the idea of “nested” loops (loops within loops) in BASIC.

2000 LDX #10: (start of 1st loop)
2002 LDY #0: (start of 2nd loop)
2004 DEY
2005 BNE 2004: (if Y isn’t yet zero, loop back to DEcrease Y again – this is the inner loop)
2007 DEX: (reduce the outer loop by one)
2008 BNE 2002: (if X isn’t yet zero, go through the entire DEY loop again)
200A: (continue with the rest of the program ...)

One thing to watch out for: be sure that a loop BNE’s back up to one address after the start of its loop. The start of the loop sets a number into a register and, if you keep looping up to it, you’ll always be putting the same number into it. The DEcrement (decrease by one) instruction would then never bring it down to zero to end the looping. You’ll have created an endless loop.

The example above could be used for a “timing loop” similarly to the way that BASIC creates delays with: FOR T=1 TO 2000: NEXT T. Also, sometimes you do want to create an endless loop (the BEGIN... UNTIL in “structured programming”). A popular “endless” loop structure in BASIC waits until the user hits any key: 10 GET K$: IF K$ = “ ” THEN 10.

10 IF PEEK(764)=255 THEN 10 is the way to accomplish this on the Atari; it will cycle endlessly unless a key is pressed. The simplest way to accomplish this in ML is to look on the map of your computer to find which byte holds the “last key pressed” number. On Upgrade and 4.0 CBM/PET, it’s address 151. On Atari, it’s 764. On Apple II, it’s -16384. On VIC and Commodore 64, it’s 203 with a 64 in that location if no key is pressed. In any event, when a key is pressed, it deposits its special numerical value into this cell. If no key is pressed, some standard value stays there all the time. We’ll use the CBM as our model here. If no key is pressed, location 151 will hold a 255:

2000 LDA 151
2002 CMP #255
2004 BEQ 2000

If the CMP is EQual, this means that the LDA pulled a 255 out of address 151 and, thus, no key is pressed. So, we keep looping until the value of address 151 is something other than 255. This setup is like GET in BASIC because not only does it wait until a key is pressed, but it also leaves the value of the key in the accumulator when it’s finished.

Recall that a CMP performs a subtraction. It subtracts the number in its argument from whatever number sits in the accumulator at the time. LDA #12 CMP $15 would subtract a 5 from 12 if 5 is the number “held” in address 15. This is how it can leave flags set for testing by BEQ or BNE. The key difference between this “subtraction” and SBC is that neither the accumulator nor the argument is affected at all by it. They stay what they were. The result of the subtraction is “thrown away,” and all that happens is that the status flags go up or down in response to the result. If the CMP subtraction causes an answer of zero, the Z flag flips up. If the answer is not zero, the Z flag flips down. Then, BNE or BEQ can do their job – checking flags.

Dealing With Strings

You’ve probably been wondering how ML handles strings. It’s pretty straightforward. There are essentially two ways: known-length and zero-delimit. If you know how many characters there are in a message, you can store this number at the very start of the text: “5ERROR.” (The number 5 will fit into one byte, at the start of the text of the message.) If this little message is stored in your “message zone” – some arbitrary area of free memory you’ve set aside to hold all of your messages – you would make a note of the particular address of the “ERROR” message. Say it’s stored at 4070. To print it out, you have to know where you “are” on your screen (cursor position). Usually, the cursor address is held in two bytes in zero page so you can use Indirect,Y addressing.

Alternatively, you could simply set up your own zero-page pointers to the screen. For Apple II and Commodore 64, the screen memory starts at 1024; for CBM/PET it’s 32768. In any case, you’ll be able to set up a “cursor management” system for yourself. To simplify, we’ll send our message to the beginning of the Apple’s screen:

2000 LDX 4070: (remember, we put the length of the message as the first byte of the message, so we load our counter with the length)
2003 LDY #0: (Y will be our message offset)
2005 LDA 4071,Y: (gets the character at the address plus Y. Y is zero the first time through the loop, so the “e” from here lands in the accumulator. It also stays in 4071. It’s just being copied into the accumulator.)
2008 STA 1024,Y: (we can make Y do double duty as the offset for both the stored message and the screen-printout. Y is still zero the first time through this loop, so the “e” goes to 1024.)
2011 INY: (prepare to add one to the message-storage location and to the screen-print location)
2012 DEX: (lower the counter by one)
2013 BNE 2005: (if X isn’t used up yet, go back and get-and-print the next character, the “r”)

If The Length Is Not Known

The alternative to knowing the length of a string is to put a special character (usually zero) at the end of each message to show its limit. This is called a delimiter. Note that Atari users cannot make zero the delimiter because zero is used to represent the space character. A zero works well for other computers because, in ASCII, the value 0 has no character or function (such as carriage return) coded to it. Consequently, any time the computer loads a zero into the accumulator (which will flip up the Z flag), it will then know that it is at the end of your message. At 4070, we might have a couple of error messages: “Ball out of range0Time nearly up!0”. (These are numeric, not ASCII, zeros. ASCII zero has a value of 48.)

To print the time warning message to the top of the CBM/PET screen (this is in decimal):

2000 LDY #0
2002 LDA 4088,Y: (get the “T”)
2005 BEQ 2005: (the LDA just above will flip the zero flag up if it loads a zero, so we forward branch out of our message-printing loop. “BEQ 2005” is a dummy target, used until we know the actual target and can POKE it into 2006.)
2007 STA 32768,Y: (we’re using the Y as a double-duty offset again)
2010 INY
2011 JMP 2002: (in this loop, we always jump back. Our exit from the loop is not here, at the end. Rather, it is the Branch if EQual which is within the loop.)
2014: (continue with another part of the program)

By the way, you should notice that the Simple Assembler will reject the commas in this example and, if you’ve forgotten to set line 10 to accept decimal, it will not accept the single zero in LDY #0. Also, if you get unpredictable results, maybe decimal 2000 is not a safe address to store your ML. You might need to use some other practice area.

Now that we know the address which follows the loop (2014), we can POKE that address into the “false forward branch” we left in address 2006. What number do we POKE into 2006? Just subtract 2007 from 2014, which is seven. Using the Simple Assembler, type POKE and you can take care of this while you remember it. The assembler will perform the POKE and then return to wait for your next instruction.

Both of these ways of handling messages are effective, but you must make a list on paper of the starting addresses of each message. In ML, you have the responsibility for some of the tasks that BASIC (at an expense of speed) does for you. Also, no message can be larger than 255 using the methods above because the offset and counter registers count only that high before starting over at zero again. Printing two strings back-to-back gives a longer, but still under 255 byte, message:

2000 LDY #0
2002 LDX #2: (in this example, we use X as a counter which represents the number of messages we are printing)
2004 LDA 4000,Y: (get the “B” from “Ball out of . . . ”)
2007 BEQ 2016: (go to reduce [and check] the value of X)
2009 STA 32768,Y: (we’re using the Y as a double-duty offset again)
2012 INY
2013 JMP 2004
2016 INY: (we need to raise Y since we skipped that step when we branched out of the loop)
2017 DEX: (at the end of the first message, X will be a “1”; at the end of the second message, it will be zero)
2018 BNE 2004: (if X isn’t down to zero yet, re-enter the loop to print out the second message)

To fill your screen with instructions instantly (say at the start of a game), you can use the following mass-move. We’ll assume that the instructions go from 5000 to 5400 in memory and you want to transfer them to the PET screen (at $8000). If your computer’s screen RAM moves around (adding memory to VIC will move the screen RAM address), you will need to know and substitute the correct address for your computer in these examples which print to the screen. This is in hex:

2000 LDY #0
2002 LDA 5000,Y
2005 STA 8000,Y
2008 LDA 5100,Y
200B STA 8100,Y
200E LDA 5200,Y
2011 STA 8200,Y
2014 LDA 5300,Y
2017 STA 8300,Y
201A INY
201B BNE 2002: (if Y hasn’t counted up to zero – which comes just above 255 – go back and load-store the next character in each quarter of the large message )

This technique is fast and easy any time you want to mass-move one area of memory to another. It makes a copy and does not disturb the original memory. To mass-clear a memory zone (to clear the screen, for example), you can use a similar loop, but instead of loading the accumulator each time with a different character, you load it at the start with the character your computer uses to blank the screen. (Commodore including VIC and Apple=decimal 32; Atari=0):

2000 LDA #20 (this example, in hex, blanks the PET screen)

2002 LDY #0

2004 STA 8000,Y

2007 STA 5100,Y

200A STA 8200,Y

200D STA 8300,Y

2010 DEY

2011 BNE 2004

Of course, you could simply JSR to the routine which already exists in your BASIC to clear the screen. In Chapter 7 we will explore the techniques of using parts of BASIC as examples to learn from and also as a collection of ready-made ML subroutines. Now, though, we can look at how subroutines are handled in ML.

5. The Subroutine and Jump Group:
JMP, JSR, RTS

JMP has only one useful addressing mode: Absolute. You give it a firm, two-byte argument and it goes there. The argument is put into the Program Counter and control of the computer is transferred to this new address where an instruction there is acted upon. (There is a second addressing mode, JMP Indirect, which, you will recall, has a bug and is best left unused.)

JSR can only use Absolute addressing.

RTS’s addressing mode is Implied. The address is on the stack, put there during the JSR.

None of these instructions has any effect on the flags.

JSR (Jump to SubRoutine) is the same as GOSUB in BASIC, but instead of giving a line number, you give an address in memory where the subroutine sits. RTS (ReTurn from Subroutine) is the same as RETURN in BASIC, but instead of returning to the next BASIC command, you return to the address following the JSR instruction (it’s a three-byte-long ML instruction containing JSR and the two-byte target address). JMP (JuMP) is GOTO. Again, you JMP to an address, not a line number. As in BASIC, there is no RETURN from a JMP.

Some Further Cautions About The Stack

The stack is like a pile of coins. The last one you put on top of the pile is the first one pulled off later. The main reason that the 6502 sets aside an entire page of memory especially for the stack is that it has to know where to go back to after GOSUBs and JSRs.

A JSR instruction pushes the correct return address onto the “stack” and, later, the next RTS “pulls” the top two numbers off the stack to use as its argument (target address) for the return. Some programmers, as we noted before, like to play with the stack and use it as a temporary register to PHA (PusH Accumulator onto the stack). This sort of thing is best avoided until you are an advanced ML programmer. Stack manipulations often result in a very confusing program. Handling the stack is one of the few things that the computer does for you in ML. Let it.

The main function of the stack (as far as we’re concerned) is to hold return addresses. It’s done automatically for us by “pushes” with the JSR and, later, “pulls” (sometimes called pops) with the RTS. If we don’t bother the stack, it will serve us well. There are thousands upon thousands of cells where you could temporarily leave the accumulator – or any other value – without fouling up the orderly arrangement of your return addresses.

Subroutines are extremely important in ML programming. ML programs are designed around them, as we’ll see. There are times when you’ll be several subroutines deep (one will call another which calls another); this is not as confusing as it sounds. Your main Player-input routine might call a print-message subroutine which itself calls a wait-until-key-is-pressed subroutine. If any of these routines PHA (PusH the Accumulator onto the stack), they then disturb the addresses on the stack. If the extra number on top of the stack isn’t PLA-ed off (Pull, Accumulator), the next RTS will pull off the number that was PHA’ed and half of the correct address. It will then merrily return to what it thinks is the correct address: it might land somewhere in the RAM, it might go to an address at the outer reaches of your operating system – but it certainly won’t go where it should.

Some programmers like to change a GOSUB into a GOTO (in the middle of the action of a program) by PLA PLA. Pulling the two top stack values off has the effect of eliminating the most recent RTS address. It does leave a clean stack, but why bother to JSR at all if you later want to change it to a GOTO? Why not use JMP in the first place?

There are cases, too, when the stack has been used to hold the current condition of the flags (the Status Register byte). This is pushed/pulled from the stack with PHP (PusH Processor status) and PLP (PulL Processor status). If you should need to “remember” the condition of the status flags, why not just PHP PLA STA $NN? (“NN” means the address is your choice.) Set aside a byte somewhere that can hold the flags (they are always changing inside the Status Register) for later and keep the stack clean. Leave stack acrobatics to FORTH programmers. The stack, except for advanced ML, should be inviolate.

FORTH, an interesting language, requires frequent stack manipulations. But in the FORTH environment, the reasons for this and its protocol make excellent sense. In ML, though, stack manipulations are a sticky business.

Saving The Current Environment

There is one exception to our leave-the-stack-alone rule. Sometimes (especially when you are “borrowing” a routine from BASIC) you will want to take up with your own program from where it left off. That is, you might not want to write a “clear the screen” subroutine because you find the address of such a routine on your map of BASIC. However, you don’t know what sorts of things BASIC will do in the meantime to your registers or your flags, etc. In other words, you just want to clear the screen without disturbing the flow of your program by unpredictable effects on your X, Y, A, and status registers. In such a case, you can use the following “Save the state of things” routine:

2000 PHP: (push the status register onto the stack)
2001 PHA
2002 TXA
2003 PHA
2004 TYA
2005 PHA
2006 JSR: (to the clear-the-screen routine in BASIC. The RTS will remove the return address [2009], and you’ll have a mirror image of the things you had pushed onto the stack. They are pulled out in reverse order, as you can see below. This is because the first pull from the stack will get the most recently pushed number. If you make a little stack of coins, the first one you pull off will be the last one you put onto the stack.)
2009 PLA: (now we reverse the order to get them back)
2010 TAY
2011 PLA
2012 TAX
2013 PLA: (this one stays in A)
2014 PLP: (the status register)

Saving the current state of things before visiting an uncharted, unpredictable subroutine is probably the only valid excuse for playing with the stack as a beginner in ML. The routine above is constructed to leave the stack intact. Everything that was pushed on has been pulled back off.

The Significance Of Subroutines

Maybe the best way to approach ML program writing – especially a large program – is to think of it as a collection of subroutines. Each of these subroutines should be small. It should be listed on a piece of paper followed by a note on what it needs as input and what it gives back as parameters. “Parameter passing” simply means that a subroutine needs to know things from the main program (parameters) which are handed to it (passed) in some way.

The current position of the ball on the screen is a parameter which has its own “register” (we set aside a register for it at the start when we were assigning memory space on paper). So, the “send the ball down one space” subroutine is a double-adder which adds 40 or whatever to the “current position register.” This value always sits in the register to be used any time any subroutine needs this information. The “send the ball down one” subroutine sends the current-position parameter by passing it to the current-position register.

This is one way that parameters are passed. Another illustration might be when you are telling a delay loop how long to delay. Ideally, your delay subroutine will be multi-purpose. That is, it can delay for anywhere from ½ second to 60 seconds or something. This means that the subroutine itself isn’t locked into a particular length of delay. The main program will “pass” the amount of delay to the subroutine.

3000 LDY #0
3002 INY
3003 BNE 3002
3005 DEX
3006 BNE 3000
3008 RTS

Notice that X never is initialized (set up) here with any particular value. This is because the value of X is passed to this subroutine from the main program. If you want a short delay, you would:

2000 LDX #5 (decimal)
2002 JSR 3000

And for a delay which is twice as long as that:

2000 LDX #10
2002 JSR 3000

In some ways, the less a subroutine does, the better. If it’s not entirely self-sufficient, and the shorter and simpler it is, the more versatile it will be. For example, our delay above could function to time responses, to hold sounds for specific durations, etc. When you make notes, write something like this: 3000 DELAY LOOP (Expects duration in X. Returns 0 in X.). The longest duration would be LDX #0. This is because the first thing that happens to X in the delay subroutine is DEX. If you DEX a zero, you get 255. If you need longer delays than the maximum value of X, simply:

3000 LDX #0
3002 JSR 3000
3005 JSR 3000: (notice that we don’t need to set X to zero this second time. It returns from the subroutine with a zeroed X.)

You could even make a loop of the JSR’s above for extremely long delays. The point to notice here is that it helps to document each subroutine in your library: what parameters it expects, what registers, flags, etc., it changes, and what it leaves behind as a result. This documentation – a single sheet of paper will do – helps you remember each routine’s address and lets you know what effects and preconditions are involved.

JMP

Like BASIC’s GOTO, JMP is easy to understand. It goes to an address: JMP 5000 leaps from wherever it is to start carrying out the instructions which start at 5000. It doesn’t affect any flags. It doesn’t do anything to the stack. It’s clean and simple. Yet some advocates of “structured programming” suggest avoiding JMP (and GOTO in BASIC). Their reasoning is that JMP is a shortcut and a poor programming habit.

For one thing, they argue, using GOTO makes programs confusing. If you drew lines to show a program’s “flow” (the order in which instructions are carried out), a program with lots of GOTO’s would look like boiled spaghetti. Many programmers feel, however, that JMP has its uses. Clearly, you should not overdo it and lean heavily on JMP. In fact, you might see if there isn’t a better way to accomplish something if you find yourself using it all the time and your programs are becoming impossibly awkward. But JMP is convenient, often necessary in ML.

A 6502 Bug

On the other hand, there is another, rather peculiar JMP form which is hardly ever used in ML: JMP (5000). This is an indirect jump which works like the indirect addressing we’ve seen before. Remember that in Indirect,Y addressing (LDA (81),Y), the number in Y is added to the address found in 81 and 82. This address is the real place we are LDAing from, sometimes called the effective address. If 81 holds a 00, 82 holds a 40, and Y holds a 2, the address we LDA from is going to be 4002. Similarly (but without adding Y), the effective address formed by the two bytes at the address inside the parentheses becomes the place we JMP to in JMP (5000).

There are no necessary uses for this instruction. Best avoid it the same way you avoid playing around with the stack until you’re an ML expert. If you find it in your computer’s BASIC ROM code, it will probably be involved in an “indirect jump table,” a series of registers which are dynamic. That is, they can be changed as the program progresses. Such a technique is very close to a self-altering program and would have few uses for the beginner in ML programming. Above all, there is a bug in the 6502 itself which causes indirect JMP to malfunction under certain circumstances. Put JMP ($NNNN) into the same category as BPL and BMI. Avoid all three.

If you decide you must use indirect JMP, be sure to avoid the edge of pages: JMP ($NNFF). The “NN” means “any number.” Whenever the low byte is right on the edge, if $FF is ready to reset to 00, this instruction will correctly use the low byte (LSB) found in address $NNFF, but it will not pick up the high byte (MSB) from $NNFF plus one, as it should. It gets the MSB from NN00!

Here’s how the error would look if you had set up a pointer to address $5043 at location $40FF:

$40FF 43
$4100 50

Your intention would be to JMP to $5043 by bouncing off this pointer. You would write JMP ($40FF) and expect that the next instruction the computer would follow would be whatever is written at $5043. Unfortunately, you would land at $0043 instead (if address $4000 held a zero). It would get its MSB from $4000.

6. Debuggers:
BRK and NOP

BRK and NOP have no argument and are therefore members of that class of instructions which use only the Implied addressing mode. They also affect no flags in any way with which we would be concerned. BRK does affect the I and B flags, but since it is a rare situation which would require testing those flags, we can ignore this flag activity altogether.

After you’ve assembled your program and it doesn’t work as expected (few do), you start debugging. Some studies have shown that debugging takes up more than fifty percent of programming time. Such surveys might be somewhat misleading, however, because “making improvements and adding options” frequently takes place after the program is allegedly finished, and would be thereby categorized as part of the debugging process.

In ML, debugging is facilitated by setting breakpoints with BRK and then seeing what’s happening in the registers or memory. If you insert a BRK, it has the effect of halting the program and sending you into your monitor where you can examine, say, the Y register to see if it contains what you would expect it to at this point in the program. It’s similar to BASIC’s STOP instruction:

2000 LDA #15
2002 TAY
2003 BRK

If you run the above, it will carry out the instructions until it gets to BRK when it will put the program counter plus two on the stack, put the status register on the stack, and load the program counter with whatever is in addresses $FFFE, $FFFF. These are the two highest addresses in your computer and they contain the vector (a pointer) for an interrupt request (IRQ).

These addresses will point to a general interrupt handler and, if your computer has a monitor, its address might normally be found here. Remember, though, that when you get ready to CONT, the address on the top of the stack will be the BRK address plus two. Check the program counter (it will appear when your monitor displays the registers) to see if you need to modify it to point to the next instruction instead of pointing, as it might be, to an argument. Some monitors adjust the program counter when they are BRKed to so that you can type g (go) in the same way that you would type CONT in BASIC. See the instructions for your particular monitor.

Debugging Methods

In effect, you debug whenever your program runs merrily along and then does something unexpected. It might crash and lock you out. You look for a likely place where you think it is failing and just insert a BRK right over some other instruction. Remember that in the monitor mode you can display a hex dump and type over the hex numbers on screen, hitting RETURN to change them. In the example above, imagine that we put the BRK over an STY 8000. Make a note of the hex number of the instruction you covered over with the BRK so you can restore it later. After checking the registers and memory, you might find something wrong. Then you can fix the error.

If nothing seems wrong at this point, restore the original STY over the BRK, and insert a BRK in somewhere further on. By this process, you can isolate the cause of an oddity in your program. Setting breakpoints (like putting STOP into BASIC programs) is an effective way to run part of a program and then examine the variables.

If your monitor or assembler allows single-stepping, this can be an excellent way to debug, too. Your computer performs each instruction in your program one step at a time. This is like having BRK between each instruction in the program. You can control the speed of the stepping from the keyboard. Single-stepping automates breakpoint checking. It is the equivalent of the TRACE command sometimes used to debug BASIC programs.

Like BRK ($00), the hex number of NOP ($EA) is worth memorizing. If you’re working within your monitor, it will want you to work in hex numbers. These two are particularly worth knowing. NOP means No OPeration. The computer slides over NOP’s without taking any action other than increasing the program counter. There are two ways in which NOP can be effectively used.

First, it can be an eraser. If you suspect that STY 8000 is causing all the trouble, try running your program with everything else the same, but with STY 8000 erased. Simply put three EA’s over the instruction and argument. (Make a note, though, of what was under the EA’s so you can restore it.) Then, the program will run without this instruction and you can watch the effects.

Second, it is sometimes useful to use EA to temporarily hold open some space. If you don’t know something (an address, a graphics value) during assembly, EA can mark that this space needs to be filled in later before the program is run. As an instruction, it will let the program slide by. But, remember, as an address or a number, EA will be thought of as 234. In any case, EA could become your “fill this in” alert within programs in the way that we use self-branching (leaving a zero after a BNE or other branch instruction) to show that we need to put in a forward branch’s address.

When the time comes for you to “tidy up” your program, use your monitor’s “find” command, if it has one. This is a search routine: you tell it where to start and end and what to look for, and it prints out the addresses of any matches it finds. It’s a useful utility; if your monitor does not have a search function, you might consider writing one as your first large ML project. You can use some of the ideas in Chapter 8 as a starting point.

Less Common Instructions

The following instructions are not often necessary for beginning applications, but we can briefly touch on their main uses. There are several “logical” instructions which can manipulate or test individual bits within each byte. This is most often necessary when interfacing. If you need to test what’s coming in from a disk drive, or translate on a bit-by-bit level for I/O (input/output), you might work with the “logical” group.

In general, this is handled for you by your machine’s operating system and is well beyond beginning ML programming. I/O is perhaps the most difficult, or at least the most complicated, aspect of ML programming. When putting things on the screen, programming is fairly straightforward, but handling the data stream into and out of a disk is pretty involved. Timing must be precise, and the preconditions which need to be established are complex.

For example, if you need to “mask” a byte by changing some of its bits to zero, you can use the AND instruction. After an AND, both numbers must have contained a 1 in any particular bit position for it to result in a 1 in the answer. This lets you set up a mask: 00001111 will zero any bits within the left four positions. So, 00001111 AND 11001100 result in 00001100. The unmasked bits remained unchanged, but the four high bits were all masked and zeroed. The ORA instruction is the same, except it lets you mask to set bits (make them a 1). 11110000 ORA 11001100 results in 11111100. The accumulator will hold the results of these instructions.

EOR (Exclusive OR) permits you to “toggle” bits. If a bit is one it will go to zero. If it’s zero, it will flip to one. EOR is sometimes useful in games. If you are heading in one direction and you want to go back when bouncing a ball off a wall, you could “toggle.” Let’s say that you use a register to show direction: when the ball’s going up, the byte contains the number 1 (00000001), but down is zero (00000000). To toggle this least significant bit, you would EOR with 00000001. This would flip 1 to zero and zero to 1. This action results in the complement of a number. 11111111 EOR 11001100 results in 00110011.

To know the effects of these logical operators, we can look them up in “truth tables” which give the results of all possible combinations of zeros and ones:

AND	OR	EOR
0 AND 0=0	0 OR 0=0	0 EOR 0=0
0 AND 1=0	0 OR 1=1	0 EOR 1=1
1 AND 0=0	1 OR 0=1	1 EOR 0=1
1 AND 1=1	1 OR 1=1	1 EOR 1=0

BIT Tests

Another instruction, BIT, also tests (it does an AND), but, like CMP, it does not affect the number in the accumulator – it merely sets flags in the status register. The N flag is set (has a 1) if bit seven has a 1 (and vice versa). The V flag responds similarly to the value in the sixth bit. The Z flag shows if the AND resulted in zero or not. Instructions, like BIT, which do not affect the numbers being tested are called non-destructive.

We discussed LSR and ASL in the chapter on arithmetic: they can conveniently divide and multiply by two. ROL and ROR rotate the bits left or right in a byte but, unlike with the Logical Shift Right or Arithmetic Shift Left, no bits are dropped during the shift. ROL will leave the 7th (most significant) bit in the carry flag, leave the carry flag in the 0th (least significant bit), and move every other bit one space to the left:

ROL 11001100 (with the carry flag set) results in
10011001 (carry is still set, it got the leftmost 1)

If you disassemble your computer’s BASIC, you may well look in vain for an example of ROL, but it and ROR are available in the 6502 instruction set if you should ever find a use for them. Should you go into advanced ML arithmetic, they can be used for multiplication and division routines.

Three other instructions remain: SEI (SEt Interrupt), RTI (ReTurn from Interrupt), and CLI (CLear Interrupt). These operations are, also, beyond the scope of a book on beginning ML programming, but we’ll briefly note their effects. Your computer gets busy as soon as the power goes on. Things are always happening: timing registers are being updated; the keyboard, the video, and the peripheral connectors are being refreshed or examined for signals. To “interrupt” all this activity, you can SEI, perform some task, and then CLI to let things pick up where they left off.

SEI sets the interrupt flag. Following this, all maskable interruptions (things which can be blocked from interrupting when the interrupt status flag is up) are no longer possible. There are also non-maskable interrupts which, as you might guess, will jump in anytime, ignoring the status register.

The RTI instruction (ReTurn from Interrupt) restores the program counter and status register (takes them from the stack), but the X, Y, etc., registers might have been changed during the interrupt. Recall that our discussion of the BRK involved the above actions. The key difference is that BRK stores the program counter plus two on the stack and sets the B flag on the status register. CLI puts the interrupt flag down and lets all interrupts take place.

If these last instructions are confusing to you, it doesn’t matter. They are essentially hardware and interface related. You can do nearly everything you will want to do in ML without them. How often have you used WAIT in BASIC?

8

Building A Program

Using what we’ve learned so far, and adding a couple of new techniques, let’s build a useful program. This example will demonstrate many of the techniques we’ve discussed and will also show some of the thought processes involved in writing ML.

Among the computer’s more impressive talents is searching. It can run through a mass of information and find something very quickly. We can write an ML routine which looks through any area of memory to find matches with anything else. If your BASIC doesn’t have a FIND command or its equivalent, this could come in handy. Based on an idea by Michael Erperstorfer published in COMPUTE! Magazine, this ML program will report the line numbers of all the matches it finds.

Safe Havens

Before we go through some typical ML program-building methods, let’s clear up the “where do I put it?” question. ML can’t just be dropped anywhere in memory. When the Simple Assembler asks “Starting Address?”, you can’t give it any address you want to. RAM is used in many ways. There is always the possibility that a BASIC program might be residing in part of it (if you are combining ML with a BASIC program). Or BASIC might use part of RAM to store arrays or variables. During execution, these variables might write (POKE) into the area that you placed your ML program, destroying it. Also, the operating system, the disk operating system, cassette/disk loads, printers – they all use parts of RAM for their activities. There are other things going on in the computer beside your hard-won ML program.

Obviously, you can’t put your ML into ROM addresses. That’s impossible. Nothing can be POKEd into those addresses. The 64 is an exception to this. You can POKE into ROM areas because a RAM exists beneath the ROM. Refer to the Programmer’s Reference Guide or see Jim Butterfield’s article on 64 architecture (COMPUTE! Magazine, January 1983) for details.

Where to put ML? There are some fairly safe areas.

If you are using Applesoft in ROM, 768 to 1023 ($0300 to $03FF) is safe. Atari’s page six, 1536 to 1791 ($0600 to $06FF) is good. The 64 and VIC’s cassette buffer at 828 to 1019 ($033C to $03FB) are good if you are not LOADing or SAVEing from tape.

The PET/CBM makes provision for a second cassette unit. In theory, it would be attached to the computer to allow you to update files or make copies of programs from Cassette #1 to Cassette #2. In practice, no one has mentioned finding a use for a second cassette drive. It is just as easy to use a single cassette for anything that a second cassette could do. As a result, the buffer (temporary holding area) for bytes streaming in from the second cassette unit is very safe indeed. No bytes ever flow in from the phantom unit so it is a perfect place to put ML.

The “storage problem” can be solved by knowing the free zones, or creating space by changing the computer’s understanding of the start or end of BASIC programs. When BASIC is running, it will set up arrays and strings in RAM memory. Knowing where a BASIC program ends is not enough. It will use additional RAM. Sometimes it puts the strings just after the program itself. Sometimes it builds them down from the “top of memory,” the highest RAM address. Where are you going to hide your ML routine if you want to use it along with a BASIC program? How are you going to keep BASIC from overwriting the ML code?

Misleading The Computer

If the ML is a short program you can stash it into the safe areas listed above. Because these safe areas are only a couple of hundred bytes long, and because so many ML routines want to use that area, it can become crowded. Worse yet, we’ve been putting the word “safe” in quotes because it just isn’t all that reliable. Apple uses the “safe” place for high-res work, for example. The alternative is to deceive the computer into thinking that its RAM is smaller than it really is. This is the real solution.

Your ML will be truly safe if your computer doesn’t even suspect the existence of set-aside RAM. It will leave the safe area alone because you’ve told it that it has less RAM than it really does. Nothing can overwrite your ML program after you misdirect your computer’s operating system about the size of its RAM memory. There are two bytes in zero page which tell the computer the highest RAM address. You just change those bytes to point to a lower address.

These crucial bytes are 55 and 56 ($37,38) in the 64 and VIC. They are 52,53 ($34,35) in PET/CBM Upgrade and 4.0 BASIC. In the PET with Original ROM BASIC, they are 134,135 ($86,87). The Apple uses 115,116 ($73,74), and you lower the Top-of-BASIC pointer just as you do in Commodore machines.

The Atari does something similar, but with the bottom of RAM. It is easier with the Atari to store ML just below BASIC than above it. Bump up the “lomem” pointer to make some space for your ML. It’s convenient to start ML programs which are too long to fit into page six ($0600-06FF) at $11700 and then put this address into lomem. The LSB and MSB are reversed, of course, as the 6502 requires its pointers to be like this:

$02E7 00
$02E8 1F

$02E7,8 is Atari’s low memory pointer. You should set up this pointer (LDA $00, STA $02E7, LDA #$117, STA $02E8) as part of your ML program. Following that pointer setup, JMP $A000 which initializes BASIC. If you are not combining ML with a BASIC program, these preliminary steps are not necessary.

Safe Atari zero page locations include $00-04, $CB-D0, $D4-D9 (if floating point numbers are not being used); $0400 (the printer and cassette buffer), $0500-05717 (free), $0580-05FF (if floating point and the Editor are not being used), $0600-06FF (free) are also safe. No other RAM from $0700 (Disk Operating System) to $9FFF or $BFFF is protected from BASIC.

To repeat: address pointers such as these are stored in LSB, MSB order. That is, the more significant byte comes second (this is the reverse of normal, but the 6502 requires it of address pointers). For example, $8000, divided between two bytes in a pointer, would look like this:

0073 00
0074 80

As we mentioned earlier, this odd reversal is a peculiarity of the 6502 that you just have to get used to. Anyway, you can lower the computer’s opinion of the top-of-RAM-memory, thereby making a safe place for your ML, by changing the MSB. If you need one page (256 bytes): POKE 116, PEEK(116)-1 (Apple). For four pages (1024 bytes) on the Upgrade and 4.0 PETs: POKE 53, PEEK(53)-4. Then your BA or start of assembling could begin at (Top-of-RAM-255 or Top-of-RAM-1023, respectively. You don’t have to worry much about the LSB here. It’s usually zero. If not, take that into account when planning where to begin storage of your object code.

Program 8-1. PET Search (4.0 BASIC Version).

                0010 ; SEARCH THROUGH BASIC
                0015 ; PET 4.0 VERSION
                0016 ;-----------------------------------------------------
                0017 ; -0-    DEFINE VARIABLES BY GIVING THEM LABELS.
                0018 ;
                0020 L1L        .DE $BA            ;STORE THESE IN
                0030 L2L        .DE $BC            ;UNUSED ZERO PG AREA
                0040 FOUND      .DE $36
                0050 BASIC      .DE $0400
                0060 PRINT      .DE $FFD2          ; PRINT A CHAR.
                0070 PLINE      .DE $CF7F          ; PRINT LINE#
                0100            .BA $0360          ; 2ND CASSETTE BUFFER
                0110            .OS
                0120 ;------------------------------------------------------
                0121 ; -0- INITIALIZE POINTERS.
                0130 ;
                0140 ;
0360- AD 01 04  0150            LDA BASIC+1         ;GET ADDR OF NEXT
0363- 85 BA     0160            STA *L1L            ;BASIC LINE
0365- AD 02 04  0170            LDA BASIC+2
0368- 85 BB     0180            STA *L1L+1
                0181 ;------------------------------------------------------
                0182 ; -0- SUBROUTINE TO CHECK FOR 2 ZEROS.  IF WE DON'T
                0183 ; FIND THEM, WE ARE NOT AT THE END OF THE PROGRAM.
                0184 ;
036A- A0 00     0190 READLINE   LDY #$00
036C- B1 BA     0200            LDA (L1L),Y
036E- D0 06     0210            BNE GO.ON            ; NOT END OF LINE
0370- C8        0220            INY
0371- B1 BA     0230            LDA (L1L),Y          ; 00 00 = END OF PROG.
0373- D0 01     0240            BNE GO.ON
0375- 60        0250 END        RTS                  ;RETURN TO BASIC
                0251 ;------------------------------------------------------
                0252 ; -0- SUBROUTINE TO UPDATE POINTERS TO THE NEXT LINE
                0253 ;    AND STORE THE CURRENT LINE NUMBER IN CASE WE
                0254 ;    FIND A MATCH AND NEED TO PRINT THE LINE #.
                0255 ;    ALSO, WE ADD 4 TO THE CURRENT LINE POINTER SO THAT
                0256 ;    WE ARE PAST THE LINE # AND "POINTER-TO-NEXT-LINE"
                0257 ;    INFORMATION. WE ARE THEN POINTING AT THE 1ST CHAR.
                0258 ;    IN THE CURRENT LINE AND CAN COMPARE IT TO THE SAMPLE.
                0259 ;
0376- A0 00     0260 GO.ON      LDY #$00
0378- B1 BA     0270            LDA (L1L),Y          ; GET NEXT LINE
037A- 85 BC     0280            STA *L2L             ; ADDRESS AND
037C- C8        0290            INY                  ; STORE IT IN L2L
037D- B1 BA     0300            LDA (L1L),Y
037F- 85 BD     0310            STA *L2L+1
0381- C8        0320            INY
0382- B1 BA     0330            LDA (L1L),Y          ; PUT LINE #
0384- 85 36     0340            STA *FOUND           ; IN STORAGE TOO
0386- C8        0350            INY                  ; IN CASE IT
0387- B1 BA     0360            LDA (L1L),Y          ; NEEDS TO BE
0389- 85 37     0370            STA *FOUND+1         ;PRINTED OUT LATER
038B- A5 BA     0380            LDA *L1L
038D- 18        0390            CLC                  ; MOVE FORWARD TO 1ST
038E- 69 04     0400            ADC #$04             ; PART OF BASIC TEXT
0390- 85 BA     0410            STA *L1L             ; (PAST LINE # AND
0392- A5 BB     0420            LDA *L1L+1           ; OF NEXT LINE)
0394- 69 00     0430            ADC #$00
0396- 85 BB     0440            STA *L1L+1
                0441 ;------------------------------------------------------
                0442 ; -0- SUBROUTINE TO CHECK FOR ZERO (LINE IS FINISHED?)
                0443 ;     AND THEN CHECK 1ST CHARACTER IN BASIC LINE AGAINST
                0444 ;    1ST CHARACTER IN SAMPLE STRING AT LINE 0:. IF THE
                0445 ;    1ST CHARACTERS MATCH, WE MOVE TO A FULL STRING
                0446 ;    COMPARISON IN THE SUBROUTINE CALLED "SAME." IF 1ST
                0447 ;    CHARS. DON'T MATCH, WE RAISE THE "Y" COUNTER AND
                0448 ;    CHECK FOR A MATCH IN THE 2ND CHAR. OF THE CURRENT
                0449 ;    BASIC LINE'S TEXT.
                0450 ;
0398- A0 00     0451            LDY #$00
039A- B1 BA     0460 LOOP       LDA (L1L),Y
039C- F0 1C     0470            BEQ STOPLINE         ; ZERO = LINE FINISHED
039E- CD 06 04  0480            CMP BASIC+6          ; SAME AS 1ST SAMPLE CHAR?
03A1- F0 04     0490            BEQ SAME             ; YES? CHECK WHOLE STRING
03A3- C8        0500            INY                  ; NO? CONTINUE SEARCH
03A4- 4C 9A 03  0510            JMP LOOP
                0511 ;------------------------------------------------------
                0512 ; -0- SUBROUTINE TO LOOK AT EACH CHARACTER IN BOTH THE
                0513 ;   SAMPLE (LINE 0) AND THE TARGET (CURRENT LINE) TO
                0514 ;   SEE IF THERE IS A PERFECT MATCH. Y KEEPS TRACK OF
                0515 ;   TARGET. X INDEXES SAMPLE. IF WE FIND A MISMATCH
                0516 ;   BEFORE A LINE-END ZERO, WE FALL THROUGH TO LINE
                0517 ;   590 AND JUMP BACK UP TO 460 WHERE WE CONTINUE ON
                0518 ;   LOOKING FOR 1ST CHAR MATCHES IN THE CURRENT LINE.
                0519 ;
03A7- A2 00     0520 SAME       LDX #$00             ; COMPARE SAMPLE TO
03A9- E8        0530 COMPARE    INX                  ; TARGET
03AA- C8        0540            INY
03AB- BD 06 04  0550            LDA BASIC+6,X
03AE- F0 07     0560            BEQ PERFECT          ; LINE ENDS SO PRINT
03B0- D1 BA     0570            CMP (L1L),Y
03B2- F0 F5     0580            BEQ COMPARE          ; CONTINUE COMPARE
03B4- 4C 9A     0590            JMP LOOP             ; NO MATCH
03B7- 20 C5 03  0600 PERFECT    JSR PRINTOUT
                0601 ;------------------------------------------------------
                0602 ; -0- SUBROUTINE TO REPLACE "CURRENT LINE" POINTER
                0603 ;    WITH THE "NEXT LINE" POINTER WE SAVED IN THE SUBROUT
                0604 ;    STARTING AT LINE 260.
                0605 ;    THEN JUMP BACK. TO THE START WITH THE CHECK FOR THE
                0606 ;    END-OF-PROGRAM DOUBLE ZERO. THIS IS THE LAST SUBROUT
                0607 ;    IN THE MAIN LOOP OF THE PROGRAM
                0608 ;
03BA- A5 BC     0610 STOPLINE   LDA *L2L             ; TRANSFER NEXT LINE
03BC- 85 BA     0620            STA *L1L             ; ADDRESS POINTER TO
03BE- A5 BD     0630            LDA *L2L+1           ; CURRENT LINE POINTER
03C0- 85 BB     0640            STA *L1L+1           ; TO GET READY TO READ
03C2- 4C 6A 03  0650            JMP READLINE         ; THE NEXT LINE.
                0651 ;------------------------------------------------------
                0652 ; -0- SUBROUTINE TO PRINT OUT A BASIC LINE NUMBER.
                0653 ;   IN MICROSOFT IT TAKES THE NUMBER STORED IN $36,37
                0654 ;   AND THE ROM ROUTINE PRINTS THE NUMBER AT THE NEXT
                0655 ;   CURSOR POSITION ON SCREEN. THEN WE PRINT A BLANK
                0656 ;   SPACE AND RETURN TO LINE 610 TO CONTINUE ON WITH
                0657 ;   THE MAIN LOOP AND FIND MORE MATCHES.
                0658 ;
03C5- 20 7F CF  0660 PRINTOUT   JSR PLINE     ; ROM ROUTINE PRINTS
                0661 ; A LINE NUMBER FROM THE VALUES FOUND
                0662 ; IN "FOUND" ($36,37)
03C8- A9 20     0670            LDA #$20      ;PRINT A BLANK
03CA- 20 D2 FF  0680            JSR PRINT     ; SPACE BETWEEN #S
03CD- 60        0690            RTS
                0691 ;------------------------------------------------------
                0692 ;
                0700            .EN

--- LABEL FILE: ---

BASIC =0400         COMPARE =03A9           END =0375
FOUND =0036         GO.ON =0376             L1L =00BA
L2L =00BC           LOOP =039A              PERFECT =03B7
PLINE =CF7F         PRINT =FFD2             PRINTOUT =03C5
READLINE =036A      SAME =03A7              STOPLINE =03BA

Building The Code

Now we return to the subject at hand – building an ML program. Some people find it easiest to mentally break a task down into several smaller problems and then weave them into a complete program. That’s how we’ll look at our search program. (See Program 8-1.)

For this exercise, we can follow the PET/CBM 4.0 BASIC version to see how it is constructed. All the versions (except Atari’s) are essentially the same, as we will see in a minute. The only differences are in the locations in zero page where addresses are temporarily stored, the “start-of-BASIC RAM” address, the routines to print a character and to print a line number, and the RAM where it’s safe to store the ML program itself. In other words, change the defined variables between lines 20 and 100 in Program 8-1 and you can use the program on another computer.

We will build our ML program in pieces and then tie them all together at the end. The first phase, as always, is the initialization. We set up the variables and fill in the pointers. Lines 20 and 30 define two, two-byte zero page pointers. L1L is going to point at the address of the BASIC line we are currently searching through. L2L points to the starting address of the line following it.

Microsoft BASIC stores four important bytes just prior to the start of the code in a BASIC line. Take a look at Figure 8-1. The first two bytes contain the address of the next line in the BASIC program. The second two bytes hold the line number. The end of a BASIC line is signaled by a zero. Zero does not stand for anything in the ASCII code or for any BASIC command. If there are three zeros in a row, this means that we have located the “top,” the end of the BASIC program. (The structure of Atari BASIC is significantly different. See Figure 8-2.)

But back to our examination of the ML program. In line 40 is a definition of the zero page location which holds a two-byte number that Microsoft BASIC looks at when it is going to print a line number on the screen. We will want to store line numbers in this location as we come upon them during the execution of our ML search program. Each line number will temporarily sit waiting in case a match is found. If a match is found, the program will JSR to the BASIC ROM routine we’re calling “PLINE,” as defined in line 70. It will need the “current line number” to print to the screen.

Line 50 establishes that BASIC RAM starts at $0400 and line 60 gives the address of the “print the character in the accumulator” ROM routine. Line 100 says to put the object code into the PET’s (all BASIC versions) second cassette buffer, a traditional “safe” RAM area to store short ML programs. These safe areas are not used by BASIC, the operating system (OS), or, generally, by monitors or assemblers. If you are working with an assembler or monitor, however, and keep finding that your object code has been messed up – suspect that your ML creating program (the monitor or assembler) is using part of your “safe” place. They consider it safe too. If this should happen, you’ll have to find a better location.

Refer to Program 8-1 to follow the logic of constructing our Microsoft search program. The search is initiated by typing in line zero followed by the item we want to locate. It might be that we are interested in removing all REM statements from a program to shorten it. We would type 0:REM and hit RETURN to enter this into the BASIC program. Then we would start the search by a SYS to the starting address of the ML program. In the PET 4.0 version of Program 8-1, it would be SYS 864 (hex $0360).

By entering the “sample” string or command into the BASIC program as line zero, we solve two problems. First, if it is a string, it will be stored as the ASCII code for that string, just as BASIC stores strings. If it is a keyword like REM, it will be translated into the “tokenized,” one-byte representation of the keyword, just as BASIC stores keywords. The second problem this solves is that our sample is located in a known area of RAM. By looking at Figure 8-1, you can tell that the sample’s starting address is always the start of BASIC plus six. In Program 8-1 that means 0406 (see line 550).

Figure 8-1. A BASIC Program’s Structure

                                                   Nothing is Pointed to Now
         ┌─────────────────────────────────┐ ┌────────────────────────────────────┐
         │                                 │ │                                    │
         │                                 ▼ │                                    ▼
┌───┬─────────┬────────┬────────────┬───┬─────────┬────────┬────────────────┬───┬───┬───┐
│ 0 │ POINTER │ LINE # │ BASIC CODE │ 0 │ POINTER │ LINE # │ 2ND BASIC LINE │ 0 │ 0 │ 0 │
└───┴─────────┴────────┴────────────┴───┴─────────┴────────┴────────────────┴───┴───┴───┘
  │                                   │
  Start of                    End of Line                                     Program
  BASIC                                                                        Ends

  10 PRINT "HI"
  20 END

        0400                            040B              0411
        00 0B 04 0A 00 99 22 48 49 22 00 11 04 14 00 80 00 00 00
                 LINE  ?  "  H  I  "           LINE  END
                  10                           20

Figure 8-2. Atari Program’s Structure.
Single Statement Lines

   START P
  ┌────┬────┐
┌─│ LO │ HI │   Points to first line.
│ └────┴────┘
│  $88  $89
│
│ ┌──────────────┬─────────────┬──────────────────────────────┐    ┌─────────┬──────────┐
│ │              │             │                           End of  │         │          |
│ │              ▼             ▼                          Statement│         ▼          |
│ ┌────────┬─────────────┬─────────────┬────────────────┬─────┬────────┬─────────────┐  |
└>│ LINE # │ LINE OFFSET │ STMT OFFSET │ TOKENIZED CODE │ $16 │ LINE # │ LINE OFFSET │──┐
  └────────┴─────────────┴─────────────┴────────────────┴─────┴────────┴─────────────┘  │
                         FIRST BASIC LINE                                               │
                   ┌────────────┬───────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                   │            ▼                                     |
                   │     ┌─────────────┬────────────────┬─────┬───────┐  Line #32768
                   └──── │ STMT OFFSET │    TOKENS      │ $16 │ 32768 │  Means
                         └─────────────┴────────────────┴─────┴───────┘  End of Program
                             SECOND BASIC LINE

10 PRINT "HI"                                     EXAMPLE
20 END
                  10 BYTES                                     6 BYTES
   ┌─────────┬───┬──────────────────────────┐
   │         │   │         LIT.             │   ┌─────────┬────┬───────┐
   │         ▼   ▼   PRINT STRING H   I    EOL  │         ▼    ▼ END   │
 ┌─────────┬────┬────┬────┬────┬────┬────┬────┬─────────┬────┬────┬────┬──────────┐
 │ 0A   00 │ 0A │ 0A │ 20 │ 0F │ 48 │ 49 │ 16 │ 14   00 │ 06 │ 15 │ 16 │ 00    80 │
 └────┴────┴────┴────┴────┴────┴────┴────┴────┴────┴────┴────┴────┴────┴─────┴────┘
    LINE    LINE/STMT                           LINE                      LINE
     10      OFFSET                              20                       32768

  ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
  │                                MULTI─STATEMENT LINES                                 │
  │                                                    EOL                               │ EOL
 ┌────────┬─────────────┬─────────────┬─────────────────┐ ┌────────────┬─────────────────┐  │
 │ LINE # │ LINE OFFSET │ STMT OFFSET │ TOKENS 1ST STMT │ │ 2ND OFFSET │ TOKENS 2ND STMT │  │
 └────────┴─────────────┴─────────────┴─────────────────┘ └────────────┴─────────────────┘  │
  │ │                           ▲                      │         ▲                       │  16
  │ └───────────────────────────┴──────────────────────┘         │                       │
  │                                                              │                       │
  └──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┴───────────────────────┘

Set Up The Pointers

We will have to get the address of the next line in the BASIC program we are searching. And then we need to store it while we look through the current line. The way that BASIC lines are arranged, we come upon the link to the next line’s address and the line number before we see any BASIC code itself. Therefore, the first order of business is to put the address of the next line into LIL. Lines 150 through 180 take the link found in start-of-BASIC RAM (plus one) and move it to the storage pointer “L1L.”

Next, lines 190 to 250 check to see if we have reached the end of the BASIC program. It would be the end if we had found two zeros in a row as the pointer to the next line’s address. If it is the end, the RTS sends us back to BASIC mode.

The subroutine in lines 260 through 440 saves the pointer to the following line’s address and also the current line number. Note the double-byte addition in lines 390-440. Recall that we CLC before any addition. If adding four to the LSB (line 400) results in a carry, we want to be sure that the MSB goes up by one during the add-with-carry in line 430. It might seem to make no sense to add a zero in that line. What’s the point? The addition is with carry; in other words, if the carry flag has been set up by the addition of four to the LSB in line 400, then the MSB will go up by one. The carry will make this happen.

First Characters

It’s better to just compare the first character in a word against each byte in the searched memory than to try to compare the entire sample word. If you are looking for MEM, you don’t want to stop at each byte in memory and see if M-E-M starts there. Just look for M’s. When you come upon a M, then go through the full string comparison. If line 490 finds a first-character match, it transfers the program to “SAME” (line 520) which will do the entire comparison. On the other hand, if the routine starting at line 451 comes upon a zero (line 470), it knows that the BASIC line has ended (they all end with zero. It then goes down to “STOPLINE” (line 610) which puts the “next line” address pointer into the “current line” pointer and the whole process of reading a new BASIC line begins anew.

If, however, a perfect match was found (line 560 found a zero at the end of the 0:REM line, showing that we had come to the end of the sample string) – we go to “PERFECT” and it makes a JSR to print out the line number (line 660). That subroutine bounces back (RTS) to “STOPLINE” which replaces the “current line” (L1L) pointer with the “next line” pointer (L2L). Then we JMP back to “READLINE” which, once again, pays very close attention to zeros to see if the whole BASIC program has ended with double zeros. We have returned to the start of the main loop of this ML program.

This sounds more complicated than it is. If you’ve followed this so far, you can see that there is enormous flexibility in constructing ML programs. If you want to put the “STOPLINE” segment earlier than the “SAME” subroutine – go ahead. It is quite common to see a structure like this:

INITIALIZATION

LDA #15

STA $83

MAIN LOOP

START JSR 1

      JSR 2

      JSR 3

BEQ START

(until some index runs out)
RTS (to BASIC)

SUBROUTINES

1

2

(each ends with RTS back to the MAIN LOOP)

3

DATA

Table 1

Table 2

Table 3

The Atari FIND Utility

The second source listing, Program 8-2, adds a FIND command to Atari BASIC. You access it with the USR command. It is written to assemble in page six (1536 or $0600) and is an example of a full-blown assembly. You’ll need the assembler/ editor cartridge to type it in.

After you’ve entered it, enter “ASM” to assemble it into memory. After it is finished, use the SAVE command to store the object (executable ML) code on tape or disk. Use:

SAVE#C:>0600,067E for tape
SAVE#D:FIND.OBJ<0600 067E for disk

You can then put the BASIC cartridge in and enter the machine language with the BASIC loader program, or with the L command of DOS.

Using FIND from BASIC is simple. Say you want to search a master string, A$ for the substring “hello”. If B$ contains “hello”, the USR call would look like:

POS=USR(1536,ADR(A$),LEN(A$),ADR(B$),LEN(B$))

POS will contain the position of the match. It will be a memory location within the ADRress of A$. To get the character position within A$, just use POS-ADR(A$)+1. If the substring (B$) is not found, POS will be zero.

It’s easy to add commands like this to Atari BASIC. Also see “Getting The Most Out Of USR” in the November 1982 issue of COMPUTE! Magazine (p. 100).

64, Apple, & VIC Versions

Versions of the search routine for the Commodore 64 and VIC-20 and the Apple II are provided as BASIC loader programs. Remember from Chapter 2 that a loader is a BASIC program which POKEs a machine language program (stored in DATA statements) into memory. Once you have entered and run the BASIC programs, you can examine the ML programs using a disassembler. (See Appendix D.)

These versions are similar to the PET Version outlined in Program 8-1. The characters to be searched for are typed in line 0. To start the search in the 64 version (Program 8-3), type SYS 40800. Use CALL 768 to activate the Apple version (Program 8-4). The VIC version (Program 8-5) is activated with SYS 828.

As your skills improve, you will likely begin to appreciate, and finally embrace, the extraordinary freedom that ML confers on the programmer. Learning it can seem fraught with obscurity and rules. It can even look menacing. But there are flights you will soon be taking through your computer. Work at it. Try things. Learn how to find your errors. It’s not circular – there will be considerable advances in your understanding. One day, you might be able to sit down and say that you can combine BASIC with ML and do pretty much anything you want to do with your machine.

Program 8-2.

            0100 ;========================;
            0110 ; FIND Utility           ;
            0120 ; Substring Search       ;
            0130 ; for Atari BASIC        ;
            0140 ; Completely relocatable ;
            0150 ;========================;
            0160 ;
            0170 ;
            0180 ;Variables in zero page for speed
            0190 ;
00CB        0200 SADRL      =$CB        ;Address
00CC        0210 SADRH      =$CC        ;of search
00CD        0220 SLENL      =$CD        ;Length of
00CE        0230 SLENH      =$CE        ;search space
            0240 ;
00CF        0250 FNDL       =$CF        ;Search address
00D0        0260 FNDH       =$D0        ;and
00D1        0270 FNDLEN     =$D1        ;length
            0280 ;
00D2        0290 FIRSTCHAR  =$D2
00D3        0300 SINDEX     =$D3
00D4        0310 FR0        =$D4        ;Return
00D6        0320 FINDEX     =$D6        ;Source index
00D7        0330 TADRL      =$D7        ;Temp addr
00D8        0340 TADRH      =$D8
00D9        0350 ENDLOOP    =$D9
            0360 ;
            0370 ;Syntax documentation
            0380 ;
            0390 ;FIND:Find Text
            0400 ;X=USR(FIND,A,B,C,D)
            0410 ;FIND:Address of utility (1536)
            0420 ;A: Where to start search
            0430 ;B: Where to quit searching
            0440 ;C: Search string address
            0450 ;D: Length of search string
            0460 ;X: Position found (=0 if no match)
0000        0470        *=   $0600
            0480 ;------------------------------------
            0490 ;This portion sets up the parameters
            0500 ;for the search by pulling the values
            0510 ;passed by BASIC off the stack
            0520 ;
            0530 FIND
0600 68     0540        PLA            ;Count byte
0601 68     0550        PLA            ;hi byte, Source start
0602 85CC   0560        STA  SADRH
0604 68     0570        PLA            ;lo byte, Source start
0605 85CB   0580        STA  SADRL
0607 68     0590        PLA            ;hi byte, Source end
0608 85CE   0600        STA  SLENH
060A 68     0610        PLA            ;lo byte, Source end
060B 85CD   0620        STA  SLENL
060D 68     0630        PLA            ;hi byte, Search string
060E 85D0   0640        STA  FNDH
0610 68     0650        PLA            ;lo byte, Search string
0611 85CF   0660        STA  FNDL
0613 68     0670        PLA            ;hi byte, Search length
            0680 ;Ignore it
0614 68     0690        PLA           ;lo byte, Search length
0615 85D1   0700        STA  FNDLEN
            0710 ;
            0720 ;--------------------------
            0730 ;This is the main loop. We
            0740 ;search through the search space
            0750 ;looking for the first character
            0760 ;of the search string. We
            0770 ;look through entire 256-byte
            0780 ;blocks. If the first character
            0790 ;is found, we exit to a full
            0800 ;string comparison routine.
            0810 ;
            0820 ;If the string is never found,
            0830 ;we just return a zero to BASIC
            0840 ;
0617 A000   0850        LDY  #0
0619 B1CF   0860        LDA  (FNDL),Y   ;Set up first
061B 85D2   0870        STA  FIRSTCHAR  ;comparison
            0880 ;
061D A6CE   0890        LDX  SLENH      ;Less than 255
061F F018   0900        BEQ  SHORT      ;bytes?
            0910 NXTSRCH
0621 A9FF   0920        LDA  #255       ;Select end
            0930 SEARCH2
0623 85D9   0940        STA  ENDLOOP
0625 A000   0950        LDY  #0
            0960 SEARCHLOOP
0627 B1CB   0970        LDA  (SADRL),Y
0629 C5D2   0980        CMP  FIRSTCHAR  ;Found a match?
062B F017   0990        BEQ  FOUND1     ;yes
            1000 NOTFOUND
062D C8     1010        INY            ;no
062E C4D9   1020        CPY  ENDLOOP
0630 D0F5   1030        BNE  SEARCHLOOP ;continue
            1040 ;
0632 E6CC   1050        INC  SADRH      ;Next block
0634 CA     1060        DEX            ;Done?
0635 3006   1070        BMI  EXIT       ;yes
0637 D0E8   1080        BNE  NXTSRCH    ;nope
            1090 SHORT
0639 A5CD   1100        LDA  SLENL      ;Set up last
063B D0E6   1110        BNE  SEARCH2    ;scan
            1120 EXIT
063D A900   1130        LDA  #0         ;return
063F 85D4   1140        STA  FR0        ;=0
0641 85D5   1150        STA  FR0+1      ;?no strin
0643 60     1160        RTS            ;found
            1170 ;
            1180 ;------------------------------
            1190 ;Here is where we check for a
            1200 ;full match, starting with the
            1210 ;second character of the search string
            1220 ;We have to use two "pseudo" registers
            1230 ;in memory, since the same Y register
            1240 ;is needed to access both areas of memory
            1250 ;(search space and search string)
            1260 ;
            1270 FOUND1
0644 84D4   1280        STY  FR0        ;Save Y
0646 84D3   1290        STY  SINDEX     ;Source index
0648 A001   1300        LDY  #1
064A 84D6   1310        STY  FINDEX     ;Find index
            1320 ;
            1330 ;We use a temporary address, since we don't want
            1340 ;to change the address in SADR (so we can continue the
            1350 ;search if no match found)
            1360 ;
064C A5CB   1370        LDA  SADRL      ;Copy to
064E 85D7   1380        STA  TADRL      ;temp addr
0650 A5CC   1390        LDA  SADRH
0652 85D8   1400        STA  TADRH
            1410 ;
            1420 CONTSRCH
            1430 ;
            1440 ;As long as each character matches, we
            1450 ;continueto compare until we get a failed comparison
            1460 ;or reach the end of the search string,
            1470 ;which indicates a match.
            1480 ;
0654 A4D6   1490        LDY  FINDEX
0656 C4D1   1500        CPY  FNDLEN     ;Past end?
0658 F016   1510        BEQ  FOUND2     ;yes-matchl
065A B1CF   1520        LDA  (FNDL),Y   ;Character n
065C E6D6   1530        INC  FINDEX     ;no, increment
065E A4D3   1540        LDY  SINDEX     ;Compare to
0660 C8     1550        INY            ;source
0661 D002   1560        BNE  SKIPINC    ;Hit page bound?
0663 E6D8   1570        INC  TADRH
            1580 SKIPINC
0665 84D3   1590        STY  SINDEX     ;Update
0667 D1D7   1600        CMP  (TADRL),Y  ;equal so far?
0669 F0E9   1610        BEQ  CONTSRCH   ;yes, continue
            1620 ;Comparison failure,
            1630 ;Return to main loop
066B A4D4   1640        LDY  FR0
066D 18     1650        CLC            ;Used in place
066E 90BD   1660        BCC  NOTFOUND   ;of JMP (relocatable)
            1670 ;
            1680 ;Match!
            1690 ;Return address in FR0 to BASIC
            1700 FOUND2
0670 18     1710        CLC
0671 A5D4   1720        LDA  FR0
0673 65CB   1730        ADC  SADRL
0675 85D4   1740        STA  FR0
0677 A5CC   1750        LDA  SADRH
0679 6900   1760        ADC  #0
067B 85D5   1770        STA  FR0+1
067D 60     1780        RTS
            1790
067E        1800        .END

=00CB SADRL      =00CC SADRH      =00CD SLENL        =00CE SLENH
=00CF FNDL       =00D0 FNDH       =00D1 FNDLEN       =00D2 FIRSTCHAR
=00D3 SINDEX     =00D4 FR0        =00D6 FINDEX       =00D7 TADRL
=00D8 TADRH      =00D9 ENDLOOP     0600 FIND          0639 SHORT
 0621 NXTSRCH     0623 SEARCH2     0627 SEARCHLOOP    0644 FOUND1
 062D NOTFOUND    063D EXIT        0654 CONTSRCH      0670 FOUND2
 0665 SKIPINC

Program 8-3. 64 Search BASIC Loader.

799 X=PEEK(55):POKE55,X-1:REM PROTECT ML
800 FOR ADRES=40800TO40913:READ DATTA:
    POKE ADRES,DATTA:NEXT ADRES
900 PRINT"SYS40800 TO ACTIVATE"
4096 DATA 162, 0, 173, 1, 8, 133
4102 DATA 165, 173, 2, 8, 133, 166
4108 DATA 160, 0, 177, 165, 208, 6
4114 DATA 200, 177, 165, 208, 1, 96
4120 DATA 160, 0, 177, 165, 141, 167
4126 DATA 0, 200, 177, 165, 141, 168
4132 DATA 0, 200, 177, 165, 133, 57
4138 DATA 200, 177, 165, 133, 58, 165
4144 DATA 165, 24, 105, 4, 133, 165
4150 DATA 165, 166, 105, 0, 133, 166
4156 DATA 160, 0, 177, 165, 240, 28
4162 DATA 205, 6, 8, 240, 4, 200
4168 DATA 76, 158, 159, 162, 0, 232
4174 DATA 200, 189, 6, 8, 240, 7
4180 DATA 209, 165, 240, 245, 76, 158
4186 DATA 159, 32, 201, 159, 165, 167
4192 DATA 133, 165, 165, 168, 133, 166
4198 DATA 76, 108, 159, 32, 201, 189
4204 DATA 169, 32, 32, 210, 255, 96
READY.

Program 8-4. Apple Version.

700 FOR AD=768TO900: READ DA:POKE A
    D,DA:NEXT AD
768 DATA169,76,141,245,3,169
774 DATA16,141,246,3,169,3
780 DATA141,247,3,96,162,0
786 DATA173,1,8,133,1,173
792 DATA2,8,133,2,160,0
798 DATA177,1,208,6,200,177
804 DATA1,208,1,96,160,0
810 DATA177,1,133,3,200,177
816 DATA1,133,4,200,177,1
822 DATA133,117,200,177,1,133
828 DATA118,165,1,24,105,4
834 DATA133,1,165,2,105,0
840 DATA133,2,160,0,177,1
846 DATA240,28,205,6,8,240
852 DATA4,200,76,76,3,162
858 DATA0,232,200,189,6,8
864 DATA240,7,209,1,240,245
870 DATA76,76,3,76,119,3
876 DATA165,3,133,1,165,4
882 DATA133,2,76,28,3,169
888 DATA163,32,237,253,32,32
894 DATA237,169,160,32,237,253
900 DATA76,108,3

Program 8-5. VIC-20 Search BASIC Loader.

800 FOR ADRES=828TO941:READ DATTA:POKE ADR
    ES,DATTA:NEXT ADRES
810 PRINT"SYS 828 TO ACTIVATE"
828 DATA 162, 0, 173, 1, 16, 133
834 DATA 187, 173, 2, 16, 133, 188
840 DATA 160, 0, 177, 187, 208, 6
846 DATA 200, 177, 187, 208, 1, 96
852 DATA 160, 0, 177, 187, 141, 190
858 DATA 0, 200, 177, 187, 141, 191
864 DATA 0, 200, 177, 187, 133, 57
870 DATA 200, 177, 187, 133, 58, 165
876 DATA 187, 24, 105, 4, 133, 187
882 DATA 165, 188, 105, 0, 133, 188
888 DATA 160, 0, 177, 187, 240, 28
894 DATA 205, 6, 16, 240, 4, 200
900 DATA 76, 122, 3, 162, 0, 232
906 DATA 200, 189, 6, 16, 240, 7
912 DATA 209, 187, 240, 245, 76, 122
918 DATA 3, 32, 165, 3, 165, 190
924 DATA 133, 187, 165, 191, 133, 188
930 DATA 76, 72, 3, 32, 194, 221
936 DATA 169, 32, 32, 210, 255, 96

9

ML Equivalents of
BASIC Commands

What follows is a small dictionary, arranged alphabetically, of the major BASIC commands. If you need to accomplish something in ML – TAB for example – look it up in this chapter to see one way of doing it in ML. Often, because ML is so much freer than BASIC, there will be several ways to go about a given task. Of these choices, one might work faster, one might take up less memory, and one might be easier to program and understand. When faced with this choice, I have selected example routines for this chapter which are easier to program and understand. At ML speeds, and with increasingly inexpensive RAM memory available, it will be rare that you will need to opt for velocity or memory efficiency.

CLR

In BASIC, this clears all variables. Its primary effect is to reset pointers. It is a somewhat abbreviated form of NEW since it does not “blank out” your program, as NEW does.

We might think of CLR, in ML, as the initialization routine which erases (zeros) the memory locations you’ve set aside to hold your ML flags, pointers, counters, etc. Before your program RUNs, you may want to be sure that some of these “variables” are set to zero. If they are in different places in memory, you will need to zero them individually:

2000 LDA #0
2002 STA 1990: (put zero into one of the “variables”)
2005 STA 1994: (continue putting zero into each byte which needs to be initialized)

On the other hand, maybe you’ve got your tables, flags, etc., all lined up together somewhere in a data table at the start or end of your ML program. It’s a good idea. If your table is in one chunk of RAM, say from 1985 to 1999, then you can use a loop to zero them out:

2000 LDA #0
2002 LDY #15: (Y will be the counter. There are 15 bytes to zero out in this example.)
2004 STA 1985,Y: (the lowest of the 15 bytes)
2007 DEY
2008 BNE 2004: (let Y count down to zero, BNEing until Y is zero, then the Branch if Not Equal will let the program fall through to the next instruction at 2010)

CONT

This word allows your program to pick up where it left off after a STOP command (or after hitting the system break key). You might want to look at the discussion of STOP, below. In ML, you can’t usually get a running program to stop with the BREAK (or STOP) key. If you like, you could write a subroutine which checks to see if a particular key is being held down on the keyboard and, if it is, BRK:

3000 LDA 96: (or whatever your map says is the “key currently depressed” location for your machine)
3002 CMP #13: (this is likely to be the RETURN key on your machine, but you’ll want CMP here to the value that appears in the “currently pressed” byte for the key you select as your STOP key. It could be any key. If you want to use “A” for your “stop” key, try CMP #65.)
3004 BNE 3007: (if it’s not your target key, jump to RTS)
3006 BRK: (if it is the target, BRK)
3007 RTS: (back to the routine which called this subroutine)

The 6502 places the Program Counter (plus two) on the stack after a BRK.

A close analogy to BASIC is the placement of BRK within ML code for a STOP and then typing. G or GO or RUN – whatever your monitor recognizes as the signal to start execution of an ML program – to CONT.

DATA

In BASIC, DATA announces that the items following the word DATA are to be considered pieces of information (as opposed to being thought of as parts of the program). That is, the program will probably use this data, but the data are not BASIC commands. In ML, such a zone of “non-program” is called a table. It is unique only in that the program counter never starts trying to run through a table to carry out instructions. Program control is never transferred to a table since there are no meaningful instructions inside a table. Likewise, BASIC slides right over its DATA lines.

To keep things simple, tables of data are usually stored together either below the program or above it in memory. (See Figure 9-1.)

From within the program, tables can be used to print messages to the screen, update or examine flags, etc. If you disassemble your BASIC in ROM, you’ll find the words STOP, RUN, LIST, and so forth, gathered together in a table. You can suspect a data table when your disassembler starts giving lots of error messages. It cannot find groups of meaningful opcodes within tables.

Figure 9-1. Typical ML program organization with data tables – one at top or bottom of program.

┌───────────────────┐
│       DATA        │ <──── Bottom of Memory
├───────────────────┤
│   INITIALIZATION  │ <──── Start Of ML Program
├───────────────────┤
│       MAIN        │
│       LOOP        │
├───────────────────┤
│                   │ <──── Subroutines
├───────────────────┤
│       DATA        │
├───────────────────┤
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DIM

With its automatic string handling, array management, and error messages, BASIC makes life easy for the programmer. The price you pay for this “hand-holding” is that a program is slow when it’s RUN. In ML, the DIMensioning of space in memory for variables is not explicitly handled by the computer. You must make a note that you are setting aside memory from 6000 to 6500, or whatever, to hold variables. It helps to make a simple map of this “dimensioned” memory so you know where permanent strings, constants, variable strings, and variables, flags, etc., are within the dimensioned zone.

A particular chunk of memory (where, and how much, is up to you) is set aside, that’s all. You don’t write any instructions in ML to set aside the memory; you just jot it down so you won’t later use the reserved space for some other purpose. Managing memory is left up to you. It’s not difficult, but it is your responsibility.

END

There are several ways to make a graceful exit from ML programs. You can look for the “warm start” address on your particular computer (in the map of its BASIC locations) and JMP to that address. Or you can go to the “cold start” address. This results in the computer resetting itself as if you had turned the power off and then back on again.

If you went into the ML from BASIC (with a USR or SYS), you can return to BASIC with an RTS. Recall that every JSR matches up with its own RTS. Every time you use a JSR, it shoves its “return here” address onto the top of the stack. If the computer finds another JSR (before any RTS’s), it will shove another return address on top of the first one. So, after two JSR’s, the stack contains two return addresses. When the first RTS is encountered, the top return address is lifted from the stack and put into the program counter so that the program returns control to the current instruction following the most recent JSR.

When the next RTS is encountered, it pulls its appropriate return (waiting for it on the stack) and so on. The effect of a SYS or USR from BASIC is like a JSR from within ML. The return address to the correct spot within BASIC is put on the stack. In this way, if you are within ML and there is an RTS (without any preceding JSR), what’s on the stack had better be a return-to-BASIC address left there by SYS or USR when you first went into ML.

Another way to END is to put a BRK in your ML code. This drops you into the machine’s monitor. Normally, you put BRKs in during program development and debugging. When the program is finished, though, you would not want to make this ungraceful exit any more than you would want to end a BASIC program with STOP.

In fact, many ML programs, if they stand alone and are not part of a larger BASIC program, never END at all! They are an endless loop. The main loop just keeps cycling over and over. A game will not end until you turn off the power. After each game, you see the score and are asked to press a key when you are ready for the next game. Arcade games which cost a quarter will ask for another quarter, but they don’t end. They go into “attract mode.” The game graphics are left running on screen to interest new customers.

An ML word processor will cycle through its main loop, waiting for keys to be pressed, words to be written, format or disk instructions to be given. Here, too, it is common to find that the word processor takes over the machine, and you cannot stop it without turning the computer off. Among other things, such an endless loop protects software from being easily pirated. Since it takes control of the machine, how is someone going to save it or examine it once it’s in RAM? Some such programs are “auto-booting” in that they cannot be loaded without starting themselves running.

BASIC, itself a massive ML program, also loops endlessly until you power down. When a program is RUNning, all sorts of things are happening. BASIC is an interpreter, which means that it must look up each word (like INT) it comes across during a RUN (interpreting it, or translating its meanings into machine-understandable JSRs). Then BASIC executes the correct sequence of ML actions from its collection of routines.

In contrast to BASIC RUNs, BASIC spends 99 percent of its time waiting for you to program with it. This waiting for you to press keys is its “endless” loop, a tight, small loop indeed. It would look like our “which key is pressed?” routine.

2000 LDA 96: (or wherever your machine’s map shows that the “which key down” value is stored)
2002 CMP #255: (or whatever value is normally left in this address by default when no key is being pressed)
2004 BEQ 2000: (if it says “no key down,” cycle back and wait for one)

FOR-NEXT

Everyone has used “delay loops” in BASIC (FOR T=1 TO 1000: NEXT T). These are small loops, sometimes called do-nothing loops because nothing happens between the FOR and the NEXT except the passage of time. When you need to let the user read something on the screen, it’s sometimes easier just to use a delay loop than to say “When finished reading, press any key.”

In any case, you’ll need to use delay loops in ML just to slow ML itself down. In a game, the ball can fly across the screen. It can get so fast, in fact, that you can’t see it. It just “appears” when it bounces off la wall. And, of course, you’ll need to use loops in many other situations. Loops of all kinds are fundamental programming techniques.

In ML, you don’t have that convenient little counter (“T” in the BASIC FOR/NEXT example above) which decides when to stop the loop. When T becomes 1000, go to the instructions beyond the word NEXT. Again, you must set up and check your counter variable by yourself.

If the loop is going to be smaller than 255 cycles, you can use the X register as the counter (Y is saved for the very useful indirect indexed addressing discussed in Chapter 4: LDA (96),Y). So, using X, you can count to 200 by:

2000 LDX #200 (or $C8 hex)

2002 DEX

2003 BNE 2002

For loops involving counters larger than 255, you’ll need to use two bytes to count down, one going from 255 to zero and then clicking (like a gear) the other (more significant) byte. To count to 512:

2000 LDA #2
2002 STA 0: (put the 2 into address zero, our MSB, Most Significant Byte, counter)
2004 LDX #0: (set X to zero so that its first DEX will make it 255. Further DEX’s will count down again to zero, when it will click the MSB down from 2 to 1 and then finally 0)
2006 DEX
2007 BNE 2006
2009 DEC 0: (click the number in address zero down 1)
2011 BNE 2006

Here we used the X register as the LSB (least significant byte) and address zero as the MSB. We could use addresses zero and one to hold the MSB/LSB if we wanted. This is commonly useful because then address zero (or some available, two-byte space in zero page) can be used for LDA (0),Y. You would print a message to the screen using the combination of a zero page counter and LDA (zero page address),Y.

FOR-NEXT-STEP

Here you would just increase your counter (usually X or Y) more than once. To create FOR I=100 TO 1 STEP -2 you could use:

2000 LDX #100
2002 DEX
2003 DEX
2004 BCC
2002

For larger numbers you create a counter which uses two bytes working together to keep count of the events. Following our example above for FOR-NEXT, we could translate FOR I=512 TO 0 STEP -2:

2000 LDA #2

2002 STA 0

(this counts the MSB)
2004 LDX #0 (X counts the LSB)

2006 DEX

2007 DEX

(here we click X down a second time, for -2)

2008 BNE 2006

2010 DEC 0

2012 BNE 2006

To count up, use the CoMPare instruction. FOR I=1 TO 50 STEP 3:

2000 LDX #0
2002 INX
2003 INX
2004 INX
2005 CPX #50
2007 BNE 2002

For larger STEP sizes, you can use a nested loop within the larger one. This would avoid a whole slew of INX’s. To write the ML equivalent of FOR I=1 TO 50 STEP 10:

2000 LDX #0
2002 LDY #0
2004 INX
2005 INY
2006 CPY #10
2008 BNE 2004
2010 CPX #50
2012 BNE 2002

GET

Each computer model has its own “which key is being pressed?” address, where it holds the value of a character typed in from the keyboard. To GET, you create a very small loop which just keeps testing the first address in the buffer.

For Atari (in decimal):

2000 LDA 764: (“which key pressed” decimal address. In advanced assemblers, you could freely mix decimal with hex, but not in the Simple Assembler.)
2003 CMP #255: (when an FF value is in this address, it means that no key is pressed)
2005 BEQ 2000: (keep going back and looking until there is some key pressed)

For PET (Upgrade and 4.0) (in decimal)

2000 LDA 151 (“which key pressed” decimal address)

2003 CMP #255

2005 BEQ 2000

For PET (Original):

2000 LDA 515 (“which key pressed” decimal address)

2003 CMP #255

2005 BEQ 2000

For Apple II (hex):

2000 LDA 0000 (“which key pressed” – note: this is in hex)

2003 BPL 2000

2005 STA C010

(clears the keyboard)
2008 AND #7F (to give you the correct character value)

For VIC and 64 (decimal):

2000 LDA 197
2003 CMP #255
2008 BEQ 2000

The Commodore computers have a GET routine similar to the one illustrated by these examples, which is built in at $FFE4 which can be used for all ROM versions (all models of CBM) because it is a fixed JMP table which does not change address when new BASIC versions are introduced. See your BASIC’s map for Print a Byte to the Screen, GET a Byte, and other routines in the Commodore Jump Tables. They start at $FFBD.

The examples above do not conform to PET BASIC’s GET. In this version of BASIC, the computer does not “wait” for a character. If no key is being held down during a GET, the computer moves on and no GET takes place. In our ML GETs above, we loop until some character is actually pressed.

For most programming purposes, though, you want to wait until a key has actually been pressed. If your program is supposed to fly around doing things until a key is pressed, you might use the above routines without the loop structure. Just use a CMP to test for the particular key that would stop the routine and branch the program somewhere else when a particular key is pressed. How you utilize and construct a GET-type command in ML is up to you. You can, with ML’s flexibility, make special adjustments to use the best kind of GET for each different application.

GOSUB

This is nearly identical to BASIC in ML. Use JSR $NNNN and you will go to a subroutine at address NNNN instead of a line number, as in BASIC. (“NNNN” just means you can put any hex number in there you want to.) Some assemblers allow you to give “labels,” names to JSR to instead of addresses. The Simple Assembler does not allow labels. You are responsible (as with DATA tables, variables, etc.) for keeping a list on paper of your subroutine addresses and the parameters involved.

Parameters are the number or numbers handed to a subroutine to give it information it needs. Quite often, BASIC subroutines work with the variables already established within the BASIC program. In ML, though, managing variables is up to you. Subroutines are useful because they can perform tasks repeatedly without needing to be programmed into the body of the program each time the task is to be carried out. Beyond this, they can be generalized so that a single subroutine can act in a variety of ways, depending upon the variable (the parameter) which is passed to it.

A delay loop to slow up a program could be general in the sense that the amount of delay is handed to the subroutine each time. The delay can, in this way, be of differing durations, depending on what it gets as a parameter from the main routine. Let’s say that we’ve decided to use address zero to pass parameters to subroutines. We could pass a delay of “five” cycles of the loop by:

	`2000 LDA #5`
The Main Program	`2002 STA 0`
	`2004 JSR 5000`
	`…`
The Subroutine	`5000 DEC 0`
	`5002 BEQ 5012`	(if address zero has counted all the way down from five to zero, RTS back to the Main Program)
	`5004 LDY #0`
	`5006 DEY`
	`5007 BNE 5006`
	`5009 JMP 5000`
	`5012 RTS`

A delay which lasted twice as long as the above would merely require a single change: 2000 LDA #10.

GOTO

In ML, it’s JMP. JMP is like JSR, except the address you leap away from is not saved anywhere. You jump, but cannot use an RTS to find your way back. A conditional branch would be CMP #0 BEQ 5000. The condition of equality is tested by BEQ, Branch if EQual. BNE tests a condition of inequality, Branch if Not Equal. Likewise, BCC (Branch if Carry is Clear) and the rest of these branches are testing conditions within the program.

GOTO and JMP do not depend on any conditions within the program, so they are unconditional. The question arises, when you use a GOTO: Why did you write a part of your program that you must always (unconditionally) jump over? GOTO and JMP are sometimes used to patch up a program, but, used without restraint, they can make your program hard to understand later. Nevertheless, JMP can many times be the best solution to a programming problem. In fact, it is hard to imagine ML programming without it.

One additional note about JMP: it makes a program non-relocatable. If you later need to move your whole ML program to a different part of memory, all the JMP’s (and JSR’s) need to be checked to see if they are pointing to addresses which are no longer correct (JMP or JSR into your BASIC ROM’s will still be the same, but not those which are targeted to addresses within the ML program). This can be an important consideration if you are going to use an ML subroutine in other programs where the locations might well differ. Fully relocatable ML routines can be convenient if you like to program by drawing from a personal collection of solved problems.

2000 JMP 2005
2003 LDY #3
2005 LDA #5

If you moved this little program up to 5000, everything would survive intact and work correctly except the JMP 2005 at address 2000. It would still say to jump to 2005, but it should say to jump to 5005, after the move. You have to go through with a disassembly and check for all these incorrect JMP’s. To make your programs more “relocatable,” you can use a special trick with unconditional branching which will move without needing to be fixed:

2000 LDY #0
2002 BEQ 2005: (since we just loaded Y with a zero, this Branch-if-EQual-to-zero instruction will always be true and will always cause a pseudo-JMP)
2004 NOP
2005 LDA #5

This works because we set the Z flag. Then, when BEQ tests the zero flag, it will pass the test, it will find that flag “up” and will branch. If you load X, Y, or A with a zero, the zero flag goes up.

Various monitors and assemblers include a “move it” routine, which will take an ML program and relocate it somewhere else in memory for you. On the Apple, you can go into the monitor and type *5000 < 2000.2006M (although you will have to give the monitor these numbers in hex). The first number is the target address. The second and third are the start and end of the program you want to move.

On CBM computers, the built-in monitor (the VIC-20 and the Original 2001 ROM set do not have a built-in monitor) does not have a Move it command. However, it is easy to add a “monitor extension” program to the built-in monitor. Supermon and Micromon are such extensions. The format for Moveit in Commodore machines is. T 2000 2006 5000 (start and end of the program to be moved, followed by the target address). Again, these numbers must be in hex. The T stands for transfer.

The Atari Assembler Editor Cartridge follows a convention similar to Apple’s: M 5000 < 2000, 2006.

IF-THEN

This familiar and primary computing structure is accomplished in ML with the combination of CMP-BNE or any other conditional branch: BEQ, BCC, etc. Sometimes, the IF half isn’t even necessary. Here’s how it would look:

2000 LDA 57 (what’s in address 57?)
2002 CMP #15 (is it 15?)
2004 BEQ 2013 (IF it is, branch up to 2013)
2006 LDA #10 (or ELSE, put a 10 into address 57)

2008 STA 57

2010 JMP 2017

(and jump over the THEN part)
2013 LDA #20 (THEN, put a 20 into address 57)

2015 STA 57

2017

(continue with the program ... )

Often, though, your flags are already set by an action, making the CMP unnecessary. For example, if you want to branch to 2013 if the number in address 57 is zero, just LDA 57 BEQ 2013. This is because the act of loading the accumulator will affect the status register flags. You don’t need to CMP #0 because the zero flag will be set if a zero was just loaded into the accumulator. It won’t hurt anything to use a CMP, but you’ll find many cases in ML programming where you can shorten and simplify your coding. As you gain experience, you will see these patterns and learn how and what affects the status register flags.

INPUT

This is a series of GETS, echoed to the screen as they are typed in, which end when the typist hits the RETURN key. The reason for the echo (the symbol for each key typed is reproduced on the screen) is that few people enjoy typing without seeing what they’ve typed. This also allows for error correction using cursor control keys or DELETE and INSERT keys. To handle all of these actions, an INPUT routine must be fairly complicated. We don’t want, for example, the DELETE to become a character within the string. We want it to immediately act on the string being entered during the INPUT, to erase a mistake.

Our INPUT routine must be smart enough to know what to add to the string and what keys are intended only to modify it. Here is the basis for constructing your own ML INPUT. It simply receives a character from the keyboard, stores it in the screen RAM cells, and ends when the RETURN key is pressed. This version is for Upgrade and 4.0 CBM/PETs and we’ll write it as a subroutine. That simply means that when the 13 (ASCII for carriage return) is encountered, we’ll perform an RTS back to a point just following the main program address which JSRed to our INPUT routine:

5000 LDY #0: (Y will act here as an offset for storing the characters to the screen as they come in)
5002 LDA 158: (this is the “number of keys in the keyboard buffer” location. If it’s zero, nothing has been typed yet)
5004 BNE 5002: (so we go back to 5002)
5006 LDA 623: (get the character from the keyboard buffer)
5009 CMP #13: (is it a carriage return?)
5011 BNE 5014: (if not, continue)
5013 RTS: (otherwise return to the main program)
5014 STA 32768,Y: (echo it to the screen)
5017 INY
5018 LDA #0
5020 STA 158: (reset the “number of keys” counter to zero)
5022 JMP 5002: (continue looking for the next key)

This INPUT could be made much larger and more complex. As it stands, it will contain the string on the screen only. To save the string, you would need to read it from screen RAM and store it elsewhere where it will not be erased. Or, you could have it echo to the screen, but (also using Y as the offset) store it into some safe location where you are keeping string variables. The routine above does not make provisions for DELETE or INSERT either. The great freedom you have with ML is that you can redefine anything you want. You can softkey: define a key’s meaning via software; have any key perform any task. You might use the $ key to DELETE.

Along with this freedom goes the responsibility for organizing, writing, and debugging these routines.

LET

Although this word is still available on most BASICs, it is a holdover from the early days of computing. It is supposed to remind you that a statement like LET NAME=NAME+4 is an assignment of a value to a variable, not an algebraic equation. The two numbers on either side of the “equals” sign, in BASIC, are not intended to be equal in the algebraic sense. Most people write NAME=NAME+4 without using LET. However, the function of LET applies to ML as well as to BASIC: we must assign values to variables.

In the Atari, VIC, and Apple, for example, where the address of the screen RAM can change depending on how much memory is in the computer, etc. – there has to be a place where we find out the starting address of screen RAM. Likewise, a program will sometimes require that you assign meanings to string variables, counters, and the like. This can be part of the initialization process, the tasks performed before the real program, your main routine, gets started. Or it can happen during the execution of the main loop. In either case, there has to be an ML way to establish, to assign, variables. This also means that you must have zones of memory set aside to hold these variables.

For strings, you can think of LET as the establishment of a location in memory. In our INPUT example above, we might have included an instruction which would have sent the characters from the keyboard to a table of strings as well as echoing them to the screen. If so, there would have to be a way of managing these strings. For a discussion on the two most common ways of dealing with strings in ML, see Chapter 6 under the subhead “Dealing With Strings.”

In general, you will probably find that you program in ML using somewhat fewer variables than in BASIC. There are three reasons for this:

1. You will probably not write many programs in ML such as data bases where you manipulate hundreds of names, addresses, etc. It might be somewhat inefficient to create an entire data base management program, an inventory program for example, in ML. Keeping track of the variables would be a nightmare. An important benefit of ML is its speed of execution, but a drawback is that it slows programming down. So, for an inventory program, you could write the bulk of the program in BASIC and simply attach ML routines for sorting and searching tasks within the program.

2. Also, the variables in ML are often handled within a series of instructions (not held elsewhere as BASIC variables are). FOR I=1 TO 10: NEXT I becomes LDY #1, INY, CPY #10, BNE. Here, the BASIC variable is counted for you and stored outside the body of the program. The ML “variable,” though, is counted by the program itself. ML has no interpreter which handles such things. If you want a loop, you must construct all of its components yourself.

3. In BASIC, it is tempting to assign values to variables at the start of the program and then to refer to them later by their variable names, as in: 10 BALL=79. Then, any time you want to PRINT the BALL to the screen, you could say, PRINT CHR$(BALL). Alternatively, you might define it this way in BASIC: 10 BALL$="0". In either case, your program will later refer to the word BALL. In this example we are assuming that the number 79 will place a ball character on your screen.

In ML we are not free to use variable names except when using a complicated, advanced assembler. With the Simple Assembler, you will find it easier just to LDA #79, STA (screen position) each time. Some people like to put the 79 into their zone of variables (that arbitrary area of memory set up at the start of a program to hold tables, counters, and important addresses). They can pull it out of that zone whenever it’s needed. That is somewhat cumbersome, though, and slower. You would LDA 1015, STA (screen position), assuming you had put a 79 into this “ball” address earlier.

Obviously a value like BALL will remain the same throughout a program. A ball will look like a ball in your game, whatever else happens. So, it’s not a true variable, it does not vary. It is constant. A true variable must be located in your “zone of variables,” your variable table. It cannot be part of the body of your program itself (as in: LDA #79) because it will change. You don’t know when writing your program what the variable will be. So you can’t use immediate mode addressing because it might not be a #79. You have to LDA 1015 (or whatever) from within your table of variables.

Elsewhere in the program you have one or more STA 1015’s or INC 1015’s or some other manipulation of this address which keeps updating this variable. In effect, ML makes you responsible for setting aside areas which are safe to hold variables. What’s more, you have to remember the addresses, and update the variables in those addresses whenever necessary. This is why it is so useful to keep a piece of paper next to you when you are writing ML. The paper lists the start and end addresses of the zone of variables, the table. You also write down the specific address of each variable as you write your program.

LIST

This is done via a disassembler. It will not have line numbers (though, again, advanced assembler-disassembler packages do have line numbers). Instead, you will see the address of each instruction in memory. You can look over your work and debug it by working with the disassembler, setting BRKs into problem areas, etc. See Appendix D.

LOAD

The method of saving and loading an ML program varies from computer to computer. Normally, you have several options which can include loading: from within the monitor, from BASIC, or even from an assembler. When you finish working on a program, or a piece of a program, on the Simple Assmbler you will be given the starting and ending addresses of your work. Using these, you can save to tape or disk in the manner appropriate to your computer. To LOAD, the simplest way is just to LOAD as if you were bringing in a BASIC program. Unfortunately, this only works on Commodore machines. You’ll get your ML program, not a BASIC program, so it won’t start at the normal starting address for BASIC unless you wrote and saved it at that address. You should type NEW after loading it, however, to reset some pointers in the computer. That will not NEW out the ML program.

To save from within the monitor on Commodore machines:

.S "PROGRAM NAME",01,NNNN,NNNN* (for tape)
.L "PROGRAM NAME",01 (for tape)
.S "0:PROGRAM NAME",08,NNNN,NNNN* (for disk)
.L "0:PROGRAM NAME",08 (for disk)

*You should add one to the hex number for the end of your program or the SAVE will clip off the last byte. If your program exists in RAM from $0300 to $0350, you save it like this: S "PROGRAM NAME", 01, 0300, 0351.

On the Apple, you must BLOAD from disk. On the Atari, if you have DOS you can use the “L” command from the DOS menu to LOAD in an ML program. If you don’t, you need to use a short BASIC program that grabs in the bytes via a series of GETs:

10 OPEN#1,4,0,"C:"
20 GET#1,NN:GET#1,NN:REM DISCARD THE HEADER
30 GET#1,LO:GET#1,HI:REM START ADDRESS
40 START=LO+256*HI
50 GET#1,LO:GET#1,HI:REM ENDING ADDRESS
60 FIN=LO+256*HI
70 TRAP 100
80 FOR I=START TO FIN:GET#1,A:POKE I,A:NEXT I
90 GOTO 30
100 END

Note: This will not work correctly if the START and FIN addresses overlap this BASIC program in memory. It would then load in on top of itself.

NEW

In Microsoft BASIC, this has the effect of resetting some pointers which make the machine think you are going to start over again. The next program line you type in will be put at the “start-of-a-BASIC-program” area of memory. Some computers, the Atari for example, even wash memory by filling it with zeros. There is no special command in ML for NEWing an area of memory, though some monitors have a “fill memory” option which will fill a block of memory as big as you want with whatever value you choose.

The reason that NEW is not found in ML is that you do not always write your programs in the same area of memory (as you do in BASIC), building up from some predictable address. You might have a subroutine floating up in high memory, another way down low, your table of variables just above the second subroutine, and your main program in the middle. Or you might not. We’ve been using 2000 as our starting address for many of the examples in this book and 5000 for subroutines, but this is entirely arbitrary.

To “NEW” in ML, just start assembling over the old program. Alternatively, you could just turn the power off and then back on again. This would, however, have the disadvantage of wiping out your assembler along with your program.

ON GOSUB

In BASIC, you are expecting to test values from among a group of numbers: 1,2,3,4,5 .... The value of X must fall within this narrow range: ON X GOSUB 100, 200, 300 ... (X must be 1 or 2 or 3 here). In other words, you could not conveniently test for widely separated values of X (18, 55, 220). Some languages feature an improved form of ON GOSUB where you can test for any values. If your computer were testing the temperature of your bathwater:

CASE
           80 OF GOSUB HOT ENDOF
           100 OF GOSUB VERYHOT ENDOF
           120 OF GOSUB INTOLERABLE ENDOF
ENDCASE

ML permits you the greater freedom of the CASE structure. Using CMP, you can perform a multiple branch test:

2000 LDA 150: (get a value, perhaps input from the keyboard)
2002 CMP #80
2004 BNE 2009
2006 JSR 5000: (where you would print “hot,” following your example of CASE)
2009 CMP #100
2011 BNE 2016
2013 JSR 5020: (print “very hot”)
2016 CMP #120
2018 BNE 2023
2020 JSR 5030: (print “intolerable”)

Since you are JSRing and then will be RTSing back to within the multiple branch test above, you will have to be sure that the subroutines up at 5000 do not change the value of the accumulator. If the accumulator started out with a value of 80 and, somehow, the subroutine at 5000 left a 100 in the accumulator, you would print “hot” and then also print “very hot.” One way around this would be to put a zero into the accumulator before returning from each of the subroutines (LDA #0). This assumes that none of your tests, none of your cases, responds to a zero.

ON GOTO

This is more common in ML than the ON GOSUB structure above. It eliminates the need to worry about what is in the accumulator when you return from the subroutines. Instead of RTSing back, you jump back, following all the branch tests.

2000 LDA 150
2002 CMP #80
2004 BNE 2009
2006 JMP 5000: (print “hot”)
2009 CMP #100
2011 BNE 2016
2013 JMP 5020: (print “very hot”)
2016 CMP #120
2018 BNE 2023
2020 JMP 5030: (print “intolerable”)
2030: (all the subroutines JMP 2023 when they finish)

Instead of RTS, each of the subroutines will JMP back to 2023, which lets the program continue without accidentally “triggering” one of the other tests with something left in the accumulator during the execution of one of the subroutines.

PRINT

You could print out a message in the following way:

2000 LDY #0
2002 LDA #72: (use whatever your computer’s screen POKE value is for the letter “H”)
2004 STA 32900,Y: (an address on the screen)
2007 INY
2008 LDA #69: (the letter “E”)
2010 STA 32900,Y
2013 INY
2014 LDA #76: (the letter “L”)
2016 STA 32900,Y
2019 INY
2020 LDA #76: (the letter “L”)
2022 STA 32900,Y
2025 INY
2026 LDA #79: (the letter “O”)
2028 STA 32900,Y

But this is clearly a cumbersome, memory-eating way to go about it. In fact, it would be absurd to print out a long message this way. The most common ML method involves putting message strings into a data table and ending each message with a zero. Zero is never a printing character in computers (excepting Atari which cannot use the technique described here). To print the ASCII number zero, you use 48: LDA #48, STA 32900. So, zero itself can be used as a delimiter to let the printing routine know that you’ve finished the message. In a data table, we first put in the message “hello”. Recall that you should substitute your own computer’s screen POKE code:

(the delimiter, see Chapter 6)

1006 72 H

1007 73 I

(another message)
1008 0 (another delimiter)

Such a message table can be as long as you need; it holds all your messages and they can be used again and again:

2000 LDY #0
2002 LDA 1000,Y
2005 BEQ 2012: (if the zero flag is set, it must mean that we’ve reached the delimiter, so we branch out of this printing routine)
2005 STA 39000,Y: (put it on the screen)
2008 INY
2009 JMP 2002: (go back and get the next letter in the message)
2012: (continue with the program.)

Had we wanted to print “HI,” the only change necessary would have been to put 1006 into the LDA at address 2003. To change the location on the screen that the message starts printing, we could just put some other address into 2006. The message table, then, is just a mass of words, separated by zeros, in RAM memory.

The easiest way to print to the screen, especially if your program will be doing a lot of printing, is to create a subroutine and use some bytes in zero page (addresses 0 to 255) to hold the address of the message and the screen location you want to send it to. This is one reason why hex numbers can be useful. To put an address into zero page, you will need to put it into two bytes. It’s too big to fit into one byte. With two bytes together forming an address, the 6502 can address any location from $0000 to the top $FFFF. So, if the message is at decimal location 1000 like “HELLO” above, you should turn 1000 into a hex number. It’s $03E8.

Then you split the hex number in two. The left two digits, $03, are the MSB (the most significant byte) and the right digits, $E8, make up the LSB (least significant byte). If you are going to put this target address into zero page at 56 (decimal):

2000 LDA #232 (LSB, in decimal)
2002 STA 56
2004 LDA #3 (MSB)
2006 STA 57
2008 JSR 5000 (printout subroutine)

5000 LDY #0
5002 LDA (56),Y
5004 BEQ 5013 (if zero, return from subroutine)
5006 STA 32900,Y (to screen)
5009 INY
5010 JMP 5002
5013 RTS

One drawback to the subroutine is that it will always print any messages to the same place on the screen. That 32900 (or whatever you use there) is frozen into your subroutine. Solution? Use another zero page pair of bytes to hold the screen address. Then, your calling routine sets up the message address, as above, but also sets up the screen address.

The Atari contains the address of the first byte of the screen addresses in zero page for you at decimal 88 and 89. You don’t need to set up a screen address byte pair on the Atari. We are using the Apple II’s low resolution screen for the examples in this book, so you will want to put 0 and 4 into the LSB and MSB respectively. The PET’s screen is always located in a particular place, unlike the Atari, Apple, VIC, and 64 screen RAM locations which can move, so you can put a $00 and an $80 into LSB and MSB for PET. The following is in decimal:

2000 LDA #232: (LSB)
2002 STA 56: (set up message address)
2004 LDA #3: (MSB)
2006 STA 57
2008 LDA #0: (LSB for PET and Apple)
2010 STA 58: (we’ll just use the next two bytes in zero page above our message address for the screen address)
2012 LDA #4: (this is for Apple II; use 128 ($80) for PET)
2014 STA 59
2016 JSR 5000

5000 LDY #0
5002 LDA (56),Y
5004 BEQ 5013: (if zero, return from subroutine)
5006 STA (58),Y: (to screen)
5009 INY
5010 JMP 5002
5013 RTS

For Atari: 5006 STA (88),Y. You have less flexibility because you will always be printing your messages to the first line on screen, using address 88 as your screen storage target. To be able to put the message anywhere on screen, Atari users will have to use some other zero page for the screen address, as we did for Apple II and PET above. Atari users would have to keep track of the “cursor position” for themselves in that case.

READ

There is no reason for a reading of data in ML. Variables are not placed into ML “DATA statements.” They are entered into a table when you are programming. The purpose of READ, in BASIC, is to assign variable names to raw data or to take a group of data and move it somewhere, or to manipulate it into an array of variables. These things are handled by you, not by the computer, in ML programming.

If you need to access a piece of information, you set up the addresses of the datum and the target address to which you are moving it. See the “PRINT” routines above. As always, in ML you are expected to keep track of the locations of your variables. You keep a map of data locations, vectors, tables, and subroutine locations. A pad of paper is always next to you as you program in ML. It seems as if you would need many notes. In practice, an average program of say 1000 bytes could be mapped out and commented on, using only one sheet.

REM

You do this on a pad of paper, too. If you want to comment or make notes about your program – and it can be a necessary, valuable explanation of what’s going on – you can disassemble some ML code like a BASIC LISTing. If you have a printer, you can make notes on the printed disassembly. If you don’t have a printer, make notes on your pad to explain the purpose of each subroutine, the parameters it expects to get, and the results or changes it causes when it operates.

Complex, large assemblers often permit comments within the source code. As you program with them, you can include REMarks by typing a semicolon, or parentheses, or some other signal to the assembler to ignore the REMarks when it is assembling your program. In these assemblers, you are working much closer to the way you work in BASIC. Your remarks remain part of the source program and can be listed out and studied.

RETURN

RTS works the same way that RETURN does in BASIC: it takes you back to just after the JSR (GOSUB) that sent control of the program away from the main program and into a subroutine. JSR pushes, onto the stack, the address which immediately follows the JSR itself. That address then sits on the stack, waiting until the next RTS is encountered. When an RTS occurs, the address is pulled from the stack and placed into the program counter. This has the effect of transferring program control back to the instruction just after the JSR.

RUN

There are several ways to start an ML program. If you are taking off into ML from BASIC, you just use SYS or USR or CALL. They act just like JSR and will return control to BASIC, just like RETURN would, when there is an unmatched RTS in the ML program. By unmatched we mean the first RTS which is not part of a JSR/RTS pair. USR and SYS and CALL can be used either in immediate mode (directly from the keyboard) or from within a BASIC program as one of the BASIC commands.

USR is just like SYS and CALL except that you can “send” values from BASIC to ML by attaching them to the USR( ) within the parentheses. In Microsoft BASIC (Apple, PET/CBM, etc.), you must set up the location of your target ML program in special USR addresses, before exiting BASIC via USR. For example, to “gosub” to an ML routine located at $0360 (hex), you want to put a $60 (hex) into address 1 and an 03 into address 2. The 03 is obvious, just POKE 2,3. Atari goes from BASIC to ML via USR. The USR’s argument may place several parameters on the stack along with the “count,” the number of parameters which were passed.

The hex 60 means that you would multiply 16 × 6, since the second column in hex is the “16’s” column. So you would POKE 1, 96. Recall that we always set up ML addresses to be used by “indirect indexed addressing” (LDA (00),Y) by putting the LSB (least significant byte) first. To set up 0360, then, you first separate the hex number into its two bytes, 03 60. Then you translate them into decimal since we’re in BASIC when we use USR: 3 96. Then you switch them so that they conform to the correct order for ML: LSB/MSB 96 3. Finally, you POKE them into memory locations 1 and 2.

If this seems rather complex, it is. In practice, Microsoft BASIC users rarely use USR. The number which is “passed” to ML from within the parentheses is put into the floating point accumulator. Following this you must JSR to FPINT, a BASIC ROM routine which converts a floating point value into an integer that you could work with in ML. As we mentioned, working with floating point arithmetic in ML is an arcane art. For most applications which must pass information from BASIC to ML, it is far easier to use ordinary “integer” numbers and just POKE them into some predetermined ML variable zone that you’ve set aside and noted on your workpad. Then just SYS to your ML routine, which will look into the set-aside, POKEd area when it needs the values from BASIC.

In Atari BASIC, USR works in a more simplified and more convenient way. For one thing, the target ML address is contained within the argument of the USR command: USR (address). This makes it nearly the exact parallel of BASIC’s GOSUB. What’s more, USR passes values from BASIC by putting them on the stack as a two-byte hex number. USR (address,X) does three things. 1. It sends program control to the ML routine which starts at “address.” 2. It pushes the number X onto the stack where it can be pulled out with PLA’s. 3. Finally, it pushes the total number of passed values onto the stack. In this case, one value, X, was passed to ML. All of these actions are useful and make the Atari version of USR a more sensible way of GOSUBing from BASIC to ML.

If you are not going between BASIC and ML, you can start (RUN) your ML program from within your “monitor.” The PET/CBM and the Apple have built-in monitor programs in their ROM chips. On the Atari, a monitor is available as part of a cartridge. On the “Original” PET/CBM (sometimes called BASIC 2.0), there is no built-in monitor. A cassette with a program called TIM (terminal interface monitor) can be LOADed, though, and used in the same way that the built-in versions are on later models. Neither the VIC nor the 64 has a built-in monitor.

To enter “monitor mode” (as opposed to the normal BASIC mode), you can type SYS 1024 or SYS 4 on the PET/CBM. These locations always contain a zero and, by “landing” on a zero in ML, you cause a BRK to take place. This displays the registers of your 6502 and prints a dot on the screen while waiting for your instructions to the monitor. To enter the monitor on Apple II, type CALL -151 and you will see an asterisk (instead of PET’s period) as your prompt. From within Atari’s Assembler Cartridge, you would type BUG to enter the equivalent of the Apple and PET monitor. The Atari will print the word DEBUG and then the cursor will wait for your next instruction.

To RUN an ML program, all five computers use the abbreviation G to indicate “goto and run” the hex address which follows the G. Unfortunately, the format of the ML RUN (G), as always, differs between machines. To run a program which starts at address $2000:

Apple II, you type: 2000G (8192 in decimal)
PET, VIC,64, you type: G 2000
Atari, you type: G 2000

One other difference: the Apple II expects to encounter an unmatched RTS to end the run and return control to the monitor. Put another way, it will think that your ML program is a subroutine and 2000G causes it to JSR to the subroutine at address (in hex.) 2000. The Commodores and the Atari both look for a BRK instruction (00) to throw them back into monitor mode.

SAVE

When you SAVE a BASIC program, the computer handles it automatically. The starting address and the ending address of your program are calculated for you. In ML, you must know the start and end yourself and let the computer know. From the Apple II monitor, you type the starting and ending address of what you want saved, and then “W” for write:

2000.2010W (This is only for cassette and these commands are in hex. These addresses are 8192.8208, in decimal.)

From BASIC to disk use:

BSAVE Name, A, L (A=address, L=length)

On the VIC, 64, and PET, the format for SAVE is similar, but includes a filename:

.S "PROGRAM NAME",01,2000,2010 (the 01 is the “device number” of the tape player)

To save to disk, you must change the device number to 08 and start the filename with the number of the drive you are SAVEing to:

.S "0: NAME", 08,2000,2010

(Always add one to the “finish” address; the example above saves from 2000 to 200F.)

With the Atari Assembler Cartridge, you:

SAVE#C: NAME < 2000,2010 (do this from the EDIT, not DEBUG, mode). The NAME is not required with cassette.

To write Atari source code to cassette, type: .SAVE#C. For disk, type SAVE#D:FILENAME.EXT or use DOS.

STOP

BRK (or an RTS with no preceding JSR, on the Apple) throws you back into the monitor mode after running an ML program. This is most often used for debugging programs because you can set “breakpoints” in the same way that you would use STOP to examine variables when debugging a BASIC program.

String Handling

ASC

In BASIC, this will give you the number of the ASCII code which stands for the character you are testing. ?ASC("A") will result in a 65 being displayed. There is never any need for this in ML. If you are manipulating the character A in ML, you are using ASCII already. In other words, the letter A is 65 in ML programming. If your computer stores letters and other symbols in nonstandard ways (such as Commodore character codes for lowercase, and Atari’s ATASCII), you will need to write a special program to be able to translate to standard ASCII if you are using a modem or some other peripheral which uses ASCII. See your computer’s manual, the Atari BASIC Reference Manual for example, for information on your computer’s internal character code.

CHR$

This is most useful in BASIC to let you use characters which cannot be represented within normal strings, will not show up on your screen, or cannot be typed from the keyboard. For example, if you have a printer attached to your computer, you could “send” CHR$(13) to it, and it would perform a carriage return. (The correct numbers which accomplish various things sometimes differ, though decimal 13 – an ASCII code standard – is nearly universally recognized as carriage return.) Or, you could send the combination CHR$(27)CHR$(8) and the printer would backspace.

Again, there is no real use for CHR$ within ML. If you want to specify a carriage return, just LDA #13. In ML, you are not limited to the character values which can appear on screen or within strings. Any value can be dealt with directly.

The following string manipulation instructions are found in Microsoft BASIC:

LEFT$

As usual in ML, you are in charge of manipulating data. Here’s one way to extract a five-character-long “substring” from out of the left side of a string as in the BASIC statement: LEFT$(X$,5)

2000 LDY #5
2002 LDX #0: (use X as the offset for buffer storage)
2004 LDA 1000,Y: (the location of X$)
2007 STA 4000,X: (the “buffer,” or temporary storage area for the substring)
2010 INX
2011 DEY
2012 BNE 2004

LEN

In some cases, you will already know the length of a string in ML. One of the ways to store and manipulate strings is to know beforehand the length and address of a string. Then you could use the subroutine given for LEFT$ above. More commonly, though, you will store your strings with delimiters (zeros, except in Atari) at the end of each string. To find out the length of a certain string:

2000 LDY #0
2002 LDA 1000,Y: (the address of the string you are testing)
2003 BEQ 2009: (remember, if you LDA a zero, the zero flag is set. So you don’t really need to use a CMP #0 here to test whether you’ve loaded the zero delimiter)
2005 INY
2006 BNE 2002: (we are not using a JMP here because we assume that all your strings are less than 256 characters long.)
2008 BRK: (if we still haven’t found a zero after 256 INY’s, we avoid an endless loop by just BRKing out of the subroutine)
2009 DEY: (the LENgth of the string is now in the Y register)

We had to DEY at the end because the final INY picked up the zero delimiter. So, the true count of the LENgth of the string is one less than Y shows, and we must DEY one time to make this adjustment.

MID$

To extract a substring which starts at the fourth character from within the string and is five characters long (as in MID$(X$,4,5) ):

2000 LDY #5: (the size of the substring we’re after)
2002 LDX #0: (X is the offset for storage of the substring)
2004 LDA 1003,Y: (to start at the fourth character from within the X$ located at 1000, simply add three to that address. Instead of starting our LDA,Y at 1000, skip to 1003. This is because the first character is not in position one. Rather, it is at the zeroth position, at 1000.)
2007 STA 4000,X: (the temporary buffer to hold the substring)
2010 INX
2011 DEY
2012 BNE 2004

RIGHT$

This, too, is complicated because normally we do not know the LENgth of a given string. To find RIGHT$(X$,5) if X$ starts at 1000, we should find the LEN first and then move the substring to our holding zone (buffer) at 4000:

2000 LDY #0
2002 LDX #0
2004 LDA 1000,Y
2007 BEQ 2013: (the delimiting zero is found, so we know LEN)
2009 INY
2010 JMP 2004
2013 TYA: (put LEN into A to subtract substring size from it)
2014 SEC: (always set carry before subtraction)
2015 SBC #5: (subtract the size of the substring you want to extract)
2017 TAY: (,put the offset back into Y, now adjusted to point to five characters from the end of X$)
2018 LDA 1000,Y
2021 BEQ 2030: (we found the delimiter, so end)
2023 STA 4000,X
2026 INX
2027 DEY
2028 BNE 2018
2030 RTS

The above does not apply to Atari since it cannot use zero as a delimiter.

SPC

This formatting instruction is similar to TAB. The difference is that SPC(10) moves you ten spaces to the right from wherever the cursor is on screen at the time. TAB(10) moves ten spaces from the left-hand side of the screen. In other words, TAB always counts over from the first column on any line; SPC counts from the cursor’s current position.

In ML, you would just add the amount you want to SPC over. If you were printing to the screen and wanted ten spaces between A and B so it looked like this (A B), you could write:

2000 LDA #65 (A)

2002 STA 32768

(screen RAM address)

2005 LDA #66 (B)

2007 STA 32778

(you’ve added ten to the target address)

Alternatively, you could add ten to the Y offset:

2000 LDY #0

2002 LDA #65

2004 STA 32768,Y

2007 LDY #10

(add ten to Y)

2009 LDA #66

2011 STA 32768,Y

If you are printing out many columns of numbers and need a subroutine to correctly space your printout, you might want to use a subroutine which will add ten to the Y offset each time you call the subroutine:

5000 TYA
5001 CLC
5002 ADC #10
5004 TAY
5005 RTS

This subroutine directly adds ten to the Y register whenever you JSR 5000. To really do this job, however, you should use a two-byte register to keep track of the cursor.

TAB

Quite similar to SPC, except that you don’t add the offset from the cursor position (whatever location you most recently printed). Rather, TAB(X) moves ten over from the left side of the screen, or, if you are using a printer, from the left margin on the piece of paper. There is no particular reason to use TAB in ML. You have much more direct control in ML over where characters are printed out.

Appendix B

These maps, primarily the work of Jim Butterfield, all originally appeared in COMPUTE! Magazine. (See the copyright page for references.)

Map 1. PET Original And Upgrade BASIC.

ORIG    UPGR    DESCRIPTION

C357    C355    ?OUT OF MEMORY
C359    C357    Send BASIC error message
C38B    C389    Warm start, BASIC
C3AC    C3AB    Crunch & insert line
C430    C439    Fix chaining & READY
C433    C442    Fix chaining
C48D    C495    Crunch tokens
C522    C52C    Find line in BASIC
C553    C55D    Do NEW
C56A    C572    Do CLR
C59A    C5A7    Reset BASIC to start
C6B5    C6C4    Continue BASIC execution
C863    C873    Get fixed-point number from BASIC
C9CE    C9DE    Send Return, LF if in screen mode
C9D2    C9E2    Send Return, Linefeed
CA27    CA1C    Print string
CA2D    CA22    Print precomputed string
CA49    CA45    Print character
CE11    CDF8    Check for comma
CE13    CDFA    Check for specific character
CE1C    CE03    'SYNTAX ERROR'
D079    D069    Bump Variable Address by 2
D0A7    D09A    Float to Fixed conversion
D278    D26D    Fixed to Float conversion
D679    D67B    Get byte to X reg
D68D    D68F    Evaluate String
D6C4    D6C6    Get two parameters
D73C    D773    Add (from memory)
D8FD    D934    Multiply by memory location
D9B4    D9EE    Multiply by ten
DA74    DAAE    Unpack memory variable to Accum #1
DB1B    DB55    Completion of Fixed to Float conversion
DC9F    DCD9    Print fixed-point value
DCA9    DCE3    Print floating-point value
DCAF    DCE9    Convert number to ASCII string
E3EA    E3D8    Print a character
na      E775    Output byte as 2 hex digits
na      E7A7    Input 2 hex digits to A
na      E7B6    Input 1 hex digit to A
F0B6    F0B6    Send 'talk' to IEEE
F0BA    F0BA    Send 'listen' to IEEE
F12C    F128    Send Secondary Address
E7DE    F156    Send canned message
F167    F16F    Send character to IEEE
F17A    F17F    Send 'untalk'
F17E    F183    Send 'unlisten'
F187    F18C    Input from IEEE
F2C8    F2A9    Close logical file
F2CD    F2AE    Close logical file in A
F32A    F301    Check for Stop key
F33F    F315    Send message if Direct mode
na      F322    LOAD subroutine
F3DB    F3E6    ?LOAD ERROR
F3E5    F3EF    Print READY & reset BASIC to start
F3FF    F40A    Print SEARCHING ...
F411    F41D    Print file name
F43F    F447    Get LOAD/SAVE type parameters
F462    F466    Open IEEE channel for output
F495    F494    Find specific tape header block
F504    F4FD    Get string
F52A    F521    Open logical file from input parameters
F52D    F524    Open logical file
F579    F56E    ?FILE NOT FOUND, clear I/O
F57B    F570    Send error message
F5AE    F5A6    Find any tape header block
F64D    F63C    Get pointers for tape LOAD
F667    F656    Set tape buffer start address
F67D    F66C    Set cassette buffer pointers
F6E6    F6F0    Close IEEE channel
F78B    F770    Set input device from logical file number
F7DC    F7BC    Set output device from LFN
F83B    F812    PRESS PLAY..; wait
F87F    F855    Read tape to buffer
F88A    F85E    Read tape
F8B9    F886    Write tape from buffer
F8C1    F883    Write tape, leader length in A
F913    F8E6    Wait for I/O complete or Stop key
FBDC    FB76    Reset tape I/O pointer
FD1B    FC9B    Set interrupt vector
FFC6    FFC6    Set input device
FFC9    FFC9    Set output device
FFCC    FFCC    Restore default I/O devices
FFCF    FFCF    Input character
FFD2    FFD2    Output character
FFE4    FFE4    Get character

Map 2. Upgrade PET/CBM Map.

0000-0002     0-2     USR Jump instruction
0003          3       Search character
0004          4       Scan-between-quotes flag
0005          5       BASIC input buffer pointer; #subscripts
0006          6       Default DIM flag
0007          7       Type: FF=string, 00=numeric
0008          8       Type: 80=integer, 00=floating point
0009          9       DATA scan flag; LIST quote flag; memory flag
000A         10       Subscript flag; FNx flag
000B         11       0=input; 64=get; 152=read
000C         12       ATN sign flag; comparison evaluation flag
000D         13       input flag; suppress output if negative
000E         14       current I/O device for prompt-suppress
0011-0012    17-18    BASIC integer address (for SYS, GOTO, etc.)
0013         19       Temporary string descriptor stack pointer
0014-0015    20-21    Last temporary string vector
0016-001E    22-30    Stack of descriptors for temporary strings
001F-0020    31-32    Pointer for number transfer
0021-0022    33-34    Misc. number pointer
0023-0027    35-39    Product staging area for multiplication
0028-0029    40-41    Pointer: Start-of-BASIC memory
002A-002B    42-43    Pointer: End-of-BASIC, Start-of-Variables
002C-002D    44-45    Pointer: End-of-Variables, Start-of-Arrays
002E-002F    46-47    Pointer: End-of-Arrays
0030-0031    48-49    Pointer: Bottom-of-strings (moving down)
0032-0033    50-51    Utility string pointer
0034-0035    52-53    Pointer: Limit of BASIC Memory
0036-0037    54-55    Current BASIC line number
0038-0039    56-57    Previous BASIC line number
003A-003B    58-59    Pointer to BASIC statement (for CONT)
003C-003D    60-61    Line number, current DATA line
003E-003F    62-63    Pointer to current DATA item
0040-0041    64-65    Input vector
0042-0043    66-67    Current variable name
0044-0045    68-69    Current variable address
0046-0047    70-71    Variable pointer for FOR/NEXT
0048         72       Y save register; new-operator save
004A         74       Comparison symbol accumulator
004B-004C    75-76    Misc. numeric work area
004D-0050    77-80    Work area; garbage yardstick
0051-0053    81-83    Jump vector for functions
0054-0058    84-88    Misc. numeric storage area
0059-005D    89-93    Misc. numeric storage area
005E-0063    94-99    Accumulator#1:E,M,M,M,M,S
0064        100       Series evaluation constant pointer
0065        101       Accumulator hi-order propagation word
0066-0613   102-107   Accumulator #2
006C        108       Sign comparison, primary vs. secondary
006D        109       low-order rounding byte for Acc #1
006E-006F   110-111   Cassette buffer length/Series pointer
0070-0087   112-135   Subrtn: Get BASIC Char; 77,78=pointer
0088-008C   136-140   RND storage and work area
008D-008F   141-143   Jiffy clock for TI and TI$
0090-0091   144-145   Hardware interrupt vector
0092-0093   146-147   Break interrupt vector
0094-0095   148-149   NMI interrupt vector
0096        150       Status word ST
0097        151       Which key depressed: 255 = no key
0098        152       Shift key: 1 if depressed
0099-009A   153-154   Correction clock
009B        155       Keyswitch PIA: STOP and RVS flags
009C        156       Timing constant buffer
009D        157       Load=0, Verify=1
009E        158       #characters in keyboard buffer
009F        159       Screen reverse flag
00A0        160       IEEE-488 mode
00A1        161       End-of-line-for-input pointer
00A3-00A4   163-164   Cursor log (row, column)
00A5        165       PBD image for tape I/O
00A6        166       Key image
00A7        167       0=flashing cursor, else no cursor
00A8        168       Countdown for cursor timing
00A9        169       Character under cursor
00AA        170       Cursor blink flag
00AB        171       EOT bit received
00AC        172       Input from screen/input from keyboard
00AD        173       X save flag
00AE        174       How many open files
00AF        175       Input device, normally 0
00B0        176       Output CMD device, normally 3
00B1        177       Tape character parity
00B2        178       Byte received flag
00B4        180       Tape buffer character
00B5        181       Pointer in file name transfer
00B7        183       Serial bit count
00B9        185       Cycle counter
00BA        186       Countdown for tape write
00BB        187       Tape buffer #1 count
00BC        188       Tape buffer #2 count
00BD        189       Write leader count; Read pass 1/pass 2
00BE        190       Write new byte, Read error flag
00BF        191       Write start bit; Read bit seq error
00C0        192       Pass 1 error log pointer
00C1        193       Pass 2 error correction pointer
00C2        194       0=Scan; 1-15=Count; $40=Load; $80=End
00C3        195       Checksum
00C4-0005   196-197   Pointer to screen line
00C6        198       Position of cursor on above line
00C7-0008   199-200   Utility pointer: tape buffer, scrolling
00C9-000A   201-202   Tape end address/end of current program
00CB-000C   203-204   Tape timing constants
00CD        205       00=direct cursor, else programmed cursor
00CE        206       Timer 1 enabled for tape read; 00=disabled
00CF        207       EOT signal received from tape
00D0        208       Read character error
00D1        209       # characters in file name
00D2        210       Current logical file number
00D3        211       Current secondary addrs, or R/W command
00D4        212       Current device number
00D5        213       Line length (40 or 80) for screen
00D6-00D7   214-215   Start of tape buffer, address
00D8        216       Line where cursor lives
00B9        217       Last key input, buffer checksum; bit buffer
00DA-00DB   218-219   File name pointer
00DC        220       Number of keyboard INSERTs outstanding
00DD        221       Write shift word/Receive input character
00DE        222       # blocks remaining to write/read
00DF        223       Serial word buffer
00E0-00F8   224-248   Screen line table: hi order address & line wrap
00F9        249       Cassette #1 status switch
00FA        250       Cassette #2 status switch
00FB-00FC   251-252   Tape start address
0100-010A   256-266   Binary to ASCII conversion area
0100-013E   256-318   Tape read error log for correction
0100-01FF   256-511   Processor stack area
0200-0250   512-592   BASIC input buffer
0251-025A   593-602   Logical file number table
025B-0264   603-612   Device number table
0265-026E   613-622   Secondary address, or R/W cmd, table
026F-0278   623-632   Keyboard input buffer
027A-0339   634-825   Tape #1 buffer
033A-03F9   826-1017  Tape #2 buffer
03FA-03FB  1018-1019  Vector for Machine Language Monitor
0400-7FFF  1024-32767 Available RAM including expansion
8000-8FFF 32768-36863 Video RAM
9000-BFFF 36864-49151 Available ROM expansion area
0000-E0F8 49152-57592 Microsoft BASIC interpreter
E0F9-E7FF 57593-59391 Keyboard, Screen, Interrupt programs
E810-E813 59408-59411 PIA1 - Keyboard I/O
E820-E823 59424-59427 PIA2 - IEEE-488 I/O
E840-E84F 59456-59471 VIA - I/O and Timers
F000-FFFF 61440-65535 Reset, tape, diagnostic monitor

Map 3. PET/CBM 4.0 BASIC. Zero Page.

 Hex        Decimal   Description
0000-0002     0-2     USR jump
0003          3       Search character
0004          4       Scan-between-quotes flag
0005          5       Input buffer pointer; 11 of subscripts
0006          6       Default DIM flag
0007          7       Type: FF=string, 00=numeric
0008          8       Type: 80=integer, 00=floating point
0009          9       Flag: DATA scan; LIST quote; memory
000A         10       Subscript flag; FNX flag
000B         11       0=INPUT; $40=GET; $98=READ
000C         12       ATN sign/Comparison Evaluation flag
000D-000F    13-15    Disk status DS$ descriptor
0010         16       Current I/O device for prompt-suppress
0011-0012    17-18    Integer value (for SYS, GOTO etc.)
0013-0015    19-21    Pointers for descriptor stack
0016-001E    22-30    Descriptor stack(temp strings)
001E-0022    31-34    Utility pointer area
0023-0027    35-39    Product area for multiplication
0028-0029    40-41    Pointer: Start-of-Basic
002A-002B    42-43    Pointer: Start-of-Variables
002C-002D    44-45    Pointer: Start-of-Arrays
002E-002F    46-47    Pointer: End-of-Arrays
0030-0031    48-49    Pointer: String-storage(moving down)
0032-0033    50-51    Utility string pointer
0034-0035    52-53    Pointer: Limit-of-memory
0036-0037    54-55    Current Basic line number
0038-0039    56-57    Previous Basic line number
003A-003B    58-59    Pointer: Basic statement for CONT
003C-003D    60-61    Current DATA line number
003E-003F    62-63    Current DATA address
0040-0041    64-65    Input vector
0042-0043    66-67    Current variable name
0044-0045    68-69    Current variable address
0046-0047    70-71    Variable pointer for FOR/NEXT
0048-0049    72-73    Y-save; op-save; Basic pointer save
004A         74       Comparison symbol accumulator
004B-0050    75-80    Misc work area, pointers, etc
0051-0053    81-83    Jump vector for functions
0054-005D    84-93    Misc numeric work area
005E         94       Accuml#1: Exponent
005F-0062    95-98    Accuml#1: Mantissa
0063         99       Accuml#1: Sign
0064        100       Series evaluation constant pointer
0065        101       Accuml#1 hi-order (overflow)
0066-006B   102-107   Accuml#1: Exponent, etc.
006C        108       Sign comparison, Acc#1 vs #2
006D        106       Accumlll to-order (rounding)
006E-006F   110-111   Cassette buff len/Series pointer
0070-0087   112-135   CHRGET subroutine; get Basic char
0077-0078   119-120   Basic pointer (within subrtn)
0088-008C   136-140   Random number seed.
008D-008F   141-143   Jiffy clock for TI and TI$
0090-0091   144-145   Hardware interrupt vector
0092-0093   146-147   BRK interrupt vector
0094-0095   148-149   NMI interrupt vector
0096        150       Status word ST
0097        151       Which key down; 255=no key
0098        152       Shift key: 1 if depressed
0099-009A   153-154   Correction clock
009B        155       Keyswitch PIA: STOP and RVS flags
009C        156       Timing constant for tape
009D        157       Load=0, Verify=1
009E        158       Number of characters in keybd buffer
009F        159       Screen reverse flag
00A0        160       IEEE output; 255=character pending
00A1        161       End-of-line-for-input pointer
00A3-00A4   163-164   Cursor log (row, column)
00A5        165       IEEE output buffer
00A6        166       Key image
00A7        167       0=flash cursor
00A8        168       Cursor timing countdown
00A9        169       Character under cursor
00AA        170       Cursor in blink phase
00AB        171       EOT received from tape
00AC        172       Input from screen/from keyboard
00AD        173       X save
00AE        174       How many open files
00AF        175       Input device, normally 0
00B0        176       Output CMD device, normally 3
00B1        177       Tape character parity
00B2        178       Byte received flag
00B3        179       Logical Address temporary save
00B4        180       Tape buffer character; MLM command
00B5        181       File name pointer; MLM flag, counter
00B7        183       Serial bit count
00B9        185       Cycle counter
00BA        186       Tape writer countdown
00BB-00BC   187-188   Tape buffer pointers, 111 and 112
00BD        189       Write leader count; read passl/2
00BE        190       Write new byte; read error flag
00BF        191       Write start bit; read bit seq error
00C0-0001   192-193   Error log pointers, passl/2
00C2        194       0=Scan/1-15=Count/$40=Load/$80=End
00C3        195       Write leader length; read checksum
00C4-0005   196-197   Pointer to screen line
00C6        198       Position of cursor on above line
00C7-00C8   199-200   Utility pointer: tape, scroll
00C9-00CA   201-202   Tape end addrs/End of current program
00CB-00CC   203-204   Tape timing constants
00CD        205       0=direct cursor, else programmed
00CE        206       Tape read timer 1 enabled
00CF        207       EOT received from tape
00D0        208       Read character error
00D1        209       11 characters in file name
00D2        210       Current file logical address
00D3        211       Current file secondary addrs
00D4        212       Current file device number
00D5        213       Right-hand window or line margin
00D6-00D7   214-215   Pointer: Start of tape buffer
00D8        216       Line where cursor lives
00D9        217       Last key/checksum/misc.
00DA-00DB   218-219   File name pointer
00DC        220       Number of INSERTs outstanding
00DD        221       Write shift word/read character in
00DE        222       Tape blocks remaining to write/read
00DF        223       Serial word buffer
00E0-00F8   224-248   (40-column) Screen line wrap table
00E0-00E1   224-225   (80-column) Top, bottom of window
00E2        226       (80-column) Left window margin
00E3        227       (80-column) Limit of keybd buffer
00E4        228       (80-column) Key repeat flag
00E5        229       (80-column) Repeat countdown
00E6        230       (80-column) New key marker
00E7        231       (80-column) Chime time
00E8        232       (80-column) HOME count
00E9-00EA   233-234   (80-column) Input vector
00EB-00EC   235-236   (80-column) Output vector
00F9-00FA   249-250   Cassette status, 111 and 112
00FB-00FC   251-252   MLM pointer/Tape start address
00FD-00FE   253-254   MLM, DOS pointer, misc.
0100-010A   256-266   STR$ work area, MLM work
0100-013E   256-318   Tape read error log
0100-01FF   256-511   Processor stack
0200-0250   512-592   MLM work area; Input buffer
0251-025A   593-602   File logical address table
025B-0264   603-612   File device number table
0265-026E   613-622   File secondary adds table
026E-0278   623-632   Keyboard input buffer
027A-0339   634-825   Tape#1 input buffer
033A-03F9   826-1017  Tape#2 input buffer
033A        826       DOS character pointer
033B        827       DOS drive 1 flag
033C        828       DOS drive 2 flag
033D        829       DOS length/write flag
033E        830       DOS syntax flags
033F-0340   831-832   DOS disk ID
0341        833       DOS command string count
0342-0352   834-850   DOS file name buffer
0353-0380   851-896   DOS command string buffer
03EE-03F7  1006-1015  (80-column) Tab stop table
03FA-03FB  1018-1019  Monitor extension vector
03FC       1020       IEEE timeout defeat
0400-7FFF  1024-32767 Available RAM including expansion
8000-83FF 32768-33791 (40-column) Video RAM
8000-87FF 32768-34815 (80-column) Video RAM
9000-AFFF 36864-45055 Available ROM expansion area
B000-DFFF 45056-57343 Basic, DOS, Machine Lang Monitor
E000-E7FF 57344-59391 Screen, Keyboard, Interrupt programs
E810-E813 59408-59411 PIA 1 - Keyboard I/O
E820-E823 59424-59427 PIA 2 - IEEE-488 I/O
E840-E84F 59456-59471 VIA - I/O and timers
E880-E881 59520-59521 (80-column) CRT Controller
F000-FFFF 61440-65535 Reset, I/O handlers, Tape routines

Map 4. PET/CBM 4.0 BASIC ROM Routines.

                     Description
B000-B065 Action addresses for primary keywords
B066-B093 Action addresses for functions
B094-B0B1 Hierarchy and action addresses for operators
B0B2-B20C Table of Basic keywords
B20D-B321 Basic messages, mostly error messages
B322-B34F Search the stack for FOR or GOSUB activity
B350-B392 Open up space in memory
B393-B39F Test: stack too deep?
B3A0-B3CC Check available memory
B3CD      Send canned error message, then:
B3FF-B41E Warm start; wait for Basic command
B41F-B4B5 Handle new Basic line input
B4B6-B4E1 Rebuild chaining of Basic lines
B4E2-B4FA Receive line from keyboard
B4FB-B5A2 Crunch keywords into Basic tokens
B5A3-B5D1 Search Basic for given line number
B5D2      Perform NEW, and;
B5EC-B621 Perform CLR
B622-B62F Reset Basic execution to start
B630-B6DD Perform LIST
B6DE-B784 Perform FOR
B785-B7B6 Execute Basic statement
B7B7-B7C5 Perform RESTORE
B7C6-B7ED Perform STOP or END
B7EE-B807 Perform CONT
B808-B812 Perform RUN
B813-B82F Perform GOSUB
B830-B85C Perform GOTO
B85D      Perform RETURN, then:
B883-B890 Perform DATA: skip statement
B891      Scan for next Basic statement
B894-B8B2 Scan for next Basic line
B8B3      Perform IF, and perhaps:
B8C6-B8D5 Perform REM: skip line
B8D6-B8F5 Perform ON
B8F6-B92F Accept fixed-point number
B930-BA87 Perform LET
BA88-BARD Perform PRINT#
BA8E-BAA1 Perform CMD
BAA2-BB1C Perform PRINT
BB1D-BB39 Print string from memory
BB3A-BB4B Print single format character
BB4C-BB79 Handle bad input data
BB7A-BBA3 Perform GET
BBA4-BBBD Perform INPUT#
BBBE-BBF4 Perform INPUT
BBF5-BC01 Prompt and receive input
BC02-BCF6 Perform READ
BCF7-BD18 Canned Input error messages
BD19-BD71 Perform NEXT
BD72-BD97 Check type mismatch
BD98      Evaluate expression
BEE9      Evaluate expression within parentheses
BEEF      Check parenthesis, comma
BF00-BF0B Syntax error exit
BF8C-C046 Variable name setup
C047-C085 Set up function references
C086-C0B5 Perform OR, AND
C0B6-C11D Perform comparisons
C11E-C12A Perform DIM
C12B-C1BF Search for variable
C1C0-C2C7 Create new variable
C2C8-C2D8 Setup array pointer
C2D9-C2DC 32768 in floating binary
C2DD-C2FB Evaluate integer expression
C2FC-C4A7 Find or make array
C4A8      Perform FRE, and:
C4BC-C4C8 Convert fixed-to-floating
C4C9-C4CE Perform POS
C4CF-C4DB Check not Direct
C4DC-C509 Perform DEF
C50A-C51C Check FNx syntax
C51D-C58D Evaluate FNx
C58E-C59D Perform STR$
C59E-C5AF Do string vector
C5B0-C61C Scan, set up string
C61D-C669 Allocate space for string
C66A-C74E Garbage collection
C74F-C78B Concatenate
C78C-C7B4 Store string
C7B5-C810 Discard unwanted string
C811-C821 Clean descriptor stack
C822-C835 Perform CHR$
C836-C861 Perform LEFT$
C862-C86C Perform RIGHT$
C86D-C896 Perform MID$
C897-C8B1 Pull string data
C8B2-C8B7 Perform LEN
C8B8-C8C0 Switch string to numeric
C8C1-C8D0 Perform ASC
C8D1-C8E2 Get byte parameter
C8E3-C920 Perform VAL
C921-C92C Get two parameters for POKE or WAIT
C92D-C942 Convert floating-to-fixed
C943-C959 Perform PEEK
C95A-C962 Perform POKE
C963-C97E Perform WAIT
C97F-C985 Add 0.5
C986      Perform subtraction
C998-CA7C Perform addition
CA7D-CAB3 Complement accum#1
CAB4-CAB8 Overflow exit
CAB9-CAF1 Multiply-a-byte
CAF2-CB1F Constants
CB20      Perform LOG
CB5E-CBC1 Perform multiplication
CBC2-CBEC Unpack memory into accumli2
CBED-CC09 Test & adjust accumulators
CC0A-CC17 Handle overflow and underflow
CC18-CC2E Multiply by 10
CC2F-CC33 10 in floating binary
CC34      Divide by 10
CC3D      Perform divide-by
CC45-CCD7 Perform divide-into
CCD8-CCFC Unpack memory into accum#1
CCFD-CD31 Pack accum411 into memory
CD32-CD41 Move accum412 to #1
CD42-CD50 Move accum111 to #2
CD51-CD60 Round accum#1
CD61-CD6E Get accum#1 sign.
CD6F-CD8D Perform SGN
CD8E-CD90 Perform ABS
CD91-CDD0 Compare accum#1 to memory
CDD1-CE01 Floating-to-fixed
CE02-CE28 Perform INT
CE29-CEB3 Convert string to floating-point
CEB4-CEE8 Get new ASCII digit
CEE9-CEF8 Constants
CF78      Print IN, then:
CF7F-CF92 Print Basic line li
CF93-D0C6 Convert floating-point to ASCII
D0C7-D107 Constants
D108      Perform SQR
D112      Perform power function
D14B-D155 Perform negation
D156-D183 Constants
D184-D1D6 Perform EXP
D1D7-D220 Series evaluation
D221-D228 RND constants
D229-D281 Perform RND
D282      Perform COS
D289-D2D1 Perform SIN
D2D2-D2FD Perform TAN
D2FE-D32B Constants
D32C-D35B Perform ATN
D35C-D398 Constants
D399-D3B5 CHRGET sub for zero page
D3B6-D471 Basic cold start
D472-D716 Machine Language Monitor
D717-D7AB MLM subroutines
D7AC-D802 Perform RECORD
D803-D837 Disk parameter checks
D838-D872 Dummy disk control messages
D873-D919 Perform CATALOG or DIRECTORY
D91A-D92E Output
D92F-D941 Find spare secondary address
D942-D976 Perform DOPEN
D977-D990 Perform APPEND
D991-D9D1 Get disk status
D9D2-DA06 Perform HEADER
DA07-DA30 Perform DCLOSE
DA31-DA64 Set up disk record
DA65-DA7D Perform COLLECT
DA7E-DAA6 Perform BACKUP
DAA7-DAC6 Perform COPY
DAC7-DAD3 Perform CONCAT
DAD4-DB0C Insert command string values
DB0D-DB39 Perform DSAVE
DB3A-DB65 Perform DLOAD
DB66-DB98 Perform SCRATCH
DB99-DB9D Check Direct command
DB9E-DBD6 Query ARE YOU SURE?
DBD7-DBE0 Print BAD DISK
DBE1-DBF9 Clear DS$ and ST
DBFA-DC67 Assemble disk command string
DC68-DE29 Parse Basic DOS command
DE2C-DE48 Get Device number
DE49-DE86 Get file name
DE87-DE9C Get small variable parameter
** Entry points only for E000-E7FF **
E000      Register/screen initialization
E0A7      Input from keyboard
E116      Input from screen
E202      Output character
E442      Main Interrupt entry
E455      Interrupt: clock, cursor, keyboard
E600      Exit from Interrupt
**                                  **
F000-F0D1 File messages
F0D2      Send 'Talk'
F0D5      Send 'Listen'
F0D7      Send IEEE command character
F109-F142 Send byte to IEEE
F143-F150 Send byte and clear ATN
F151-F16B Option: timeout or wait
F16C-F16F DEVICE NOT PRESENT
F170-F184 Timeout on read, clear control lines
F185-F192 Send canned file message
F193-F19D Send byte, clear control lines
F19E-F1AD Send normal (deferred) IEEE char
F1AE-F1BF Drop IEEE device
F1C0-F204 Input byte from IEEE
F205-F214 GET a byte
F215-F265 INPUT a byte
F266-F2A1 Output a byte
F2A2      Abort files
F2A6-F2C0 Restore default I/O devices
F2C1-F2DC Find/setup file data
F2DD-F334 Perform CLOSE
F335-F342 Test STOP key
F343-F348 Action STOP key
F349-F350 Send message if Direct mode
F351-F355 Test if Direct mode
F356-F400 Program load subroutine
F401-F448 Perform LOAD
F449-F46C Print SEARCHING
F46D-F47C Print LOADING or VERIFYING
F47D-F4A4 Get Load/Save parameters
F4A5-F4D2 Send name to IEEE
F4D3-F4F5 Find specific tape header
F4F6-F50C Perform VERIFY
F50D-F55F Get Open/Close parameters
F560-F5E4 Perform OPEN
F5E5-F618 Find any tape header
F619-F67A Write tape header
F67B-F694 Get start/end addrs from header
F695-F6AA Set buffer address
F6AB-F6C2 Set buffer start & end addrs
F6C3-F6CB Perform SYS
F6CC-F6DC Set tape write start & end
F6DD-F767 Perform SAVE
F768-F7AE Update clock
F7AF-F7FD Connect input device
F7FE-F84A Connect output device
F84B-F856 Bump tape buffer pointer
F857-F879 Wait for PLAY
F87A-F88B Test cassette switch
F88C-F899 Wait for RECORD
F89A      Initiate tape read
F8CB      Initiate tape write
F8E0-F92A Common tape I/O
F92B-F934 Test I/O complete
F935-F944 Test STOP key
F945-F975 Tape bit timing adjust
F976-FA9B Read tape bits
FA9C-FBBA Read tape characters
FBBB-FBC3 Reset tape read address
FBC4-FBC8 Flag error into ST
FBC9-FBD7 Reset counters for new byte
FBD8-FBF3 Write a bit to tape
FBF4-FC85 Tape write
FC86-FCBF Write tape leader
FCC0-FCDA Terminate tape; restore interrupt
FCDB-FCEA Set interrupt vector
FCEB-FCF8 Turn off tape motor
FCF9-FD0A Checksum calculation
FD0B-FD15 Advance load/save pointer
FD16-FD4B Power-on Reset
FD4C-FD5C Table of interrupt vectors
** Jump table:                  **
FF93-FF9E CONCAT,DOPEN,DCLOSE,RECORD
FF9F-FFAA HEADER,COLLECT,BACKUP,COPY
FFAB-FFB6 APPEND,DSAVE,DLOAD,CATALOG
FFB7-FFBC RENAME,SCRATCH
FFBD      Get disk status
FFC0      OPEN
FFC3      CLOSE
FFC6      Set input device
FFC9      Set output device
FFCC      Restore default I/O devices
FFCF      INPUT a byte
FFD2      Output a byte
FFD5      LOAD
FFD8      SAVE
FFDB      VERIFY
FFDE      SYS
FFE1      Test stop key
FFE4      GET byte
FFE7      Abort all files
FFEA      Update clock
FFFA-FFFF Hard vectors: NMI, Reset, INT

Map 5. VIC Zero Page And BASIC ROMs.

 Hex        Decimal   Description
0000-0002     0-2     USR jump
0003-0004     3-4     Float-Fixed vector
0005-0006     5-6     Fixed-Float vector
0007          7       Search character
0008          8       Scan-quotes flag
0009          9       TAB column save
000A         10       0=LOAD, 1=VERIFY
000B         11       Input buffer pointer/# subscrpt
000C         12       Default DIM flag
000D         13       Type: FF=string, 00=numeric
000E         14       Type: 80=integer, 00=floating point
000F         15       DATA scan/LIST quote/memry flag
0010         16       Subscript/FNx flag
0011         17       0=INPUT;$40=GET;$98=READ
0012         18       ATN sign/Comparison eval flag
0013         19       Current I/O prompt flag
0014-0015    20-21    Integer value
0016         22       Pointer: temporary strg stack
0017-0018    23-24    Last temp string vector
0019-0021    25-33    Stack for temporary strings
0022-0025    34-37    Utility pointer area
0026-002A    38-42    Product area for multiplication
002B-002C    43-44    Pointer: Start-of-Basic
002D-002E    45-46    Pointer: Start-of-Variables
002F-0030    47-48    Pointer: Start-of-Arrays
0031-0032    49-50    Pointer: End-of-Arrays
0033-0034    51-52    Pointer: String-storage(moving down)
0035-0036    53-54    Utility string pointer
0037-0038    55-56    Pointer: Limit-of-memory
0039-003A    57-56    Current Basic line number
003B-003C    59-60    Previous Basic line number
003D-003E    61-62    Pointer: Basic statement for CONT
003F-0040    63-64    Current DATA line number
0041-0042    65-66    Current DATA address
0043-0044    67-68    Input vector
0045-0046    69-70    Current variable name
0047-0048    71-72    Current variable address
0049-004A    73-74    Variable pointer for FOR/NEXT
004B-004C    75-76    Y-save; op-save; Basic pointer save
004D         77       Comparison symbol accumulator
004E-0053    78-83    Misc work area, pointers, etc
0054-0056    84-86    Jump vector for functions
0057-0060    87-96    Misc numeric work area
0061         97       Accum#1: Exponent
0062-0065    98-101   Accum#1: Mantissa
0066        102       Accum#1: Sign
0067        103       Series evaluation constant pointer
0068        104       Accum#1 hi-order (overflow)
0069-006E   105-110   Accum#2: Exponent, etc.
006F        111       Sign comparison, Acc#1 vs #2
0070        112       Accum#1 to-order (rounding)
0071-0072   113-114   Cassette buff len/Series pointer
0073-008A   115-138   CHRGET subroutine; get Basic char
007A-007B   122-123   Basic pointer (within subrtn)
008B-008F   139-143   RND seed value
0090        144       Status word ST
0091        145       Keyswitch PTA: STOP and RVS flags
0092        146       Timing constant for tape
0093        147       Load=0, Verify=1
0094        148       Serial output: deferred char flag
0095        149       Serial deferred character
0096        150       Tape EOT received
0097        151       Register save
0098        152       How many open files
0099        153       Input device, normally 0
009A        154       Output CMD device, normally 3
009B        155       Tape character parity
009C        156       Byte-received flag
009D        157       Direct=$80/RUN=0 output control
009E        158       Tp Pass 1 error log/char buffer
009F        159       Tp Pass 2 err log corrected
00A0-00A2   160-162   Jiffy Clock HML
00A3        163       Serial bit count/EOI flag
00A4        164       Cycle count
00A5        165       Countdown,tape write/bit count
00A6        166       Tape buffer pointer
00A7        167       Tp Wrt ldr count/Rd pass/inbit
00A8        168       Tp Wrt new byte/Rd error/inbit cnt
00A9        169       Wrt start bit/Rd bit err/stbit
00AA        170       Tp Scan;Cnt;Ld;End/byte assy
00AB        171       Wr lead length/Rd checksum/parity
00AC-00AD   172-173   Pointer: tape bufr, scrolling
00AE-00AF   174-175   Tape end adds/End of program
00B0-00B1   176-177   Tape timing constants
00B2-00B3   178-179   Pntr: start of tape buffer
00B4        180       1=Tp timer enabled; bit cnt
00B5        181       Tp EOT/RS232 next bit to send
00B6        182       Read character error/outbyte buf
00B7        183       # characters in file name
00B8        184       Current logical file
00B9        185       Current secndy address
00BA        186       Current device
00BB-00BC   167-188   Pointer to file name
00BD        189       Wr shift word/Rd input char
00BE        190       # blocks remaining to Wr/Rd
00BF        191       Serial word buffer
00C0        192       Tape motor interlock
00C1-0002   193-194   I/O start adds
00C3-0004   195-196   Kernel setup pointer
00C5        197       Last key pressed
00C6        198       # chars in keybd buffer
00C7        199       Screen reverse flag
00C8        200       End-of-line for input pointer
00C9-000A   201-202   Input cursor log (row, column)
00CB        203       Which key: 64 if no key
00CC        204       0=flash cursor
00CD        205       Cursor timing countdown
00CE        206       Character under cursor
00CF        207       Cursor in blink phase
00D0        208       Input from screen/from keyboard
00D1-00D2   209-210   Pointer to screen line
00D3        211       Position of cursor on above line
00D4        212       0=direct cursor, else programmed
00D5        213       Current screen line length
00D6        214       Row where cursor lives
00D7        215       Last inkey/checks um/buffer
00D8        216       # of INSERTS outstanding
00D9-00F0   217-240   Screen line link table
00F1        241       Dummy screen link
00F2        242       Screen row marker
00F3-00F4   243-244   Screen color pointer
00F5-00F6   245-246   Keyboard pointer
00F7-00F8   247-248   RS-232 Rev pntr
00F9-00FA   249-250   RS-232 Tx pntr
00FF-010A   255-266   Floating to ASCII work area
FF8A-FFF5 65418-65525 Jump Table, Including:
  FFC6 - Set Input channel
  FFC9 - Set Output channel
  FFCC - Restore default I/O channels
  FFCF - INPUT
  FFD2 - PRINT
  FFE1 - Test Stop key
  FFE4 - GET

c000    ROM control vectors
c00c    Keyword action vectors
c052    Function vectors
c080    Operator vectors
c09e    Keywords
c19e    Error messages
c328    Error message vectors
c365    Miscellaneous messages
c38a    Scan stack for FOR/GOSUB
c3b8    Move memory
c3fb    Check stack depth
c408    Check memory space
c435    'OUT OF MEMORY'
c437    Error routine
c469    Break entry
c474    'READY.'
c480    Ready for Basic
c49c    Handle new line
c533    Re-chain lines
c560    Receive input line
c579    Crunch tokens
c613    Find Basic line
c642    Perform [NEW]
c65e    Perform [CLR]
c68e    Back up text pointer
c69c    Perform [LISTj
c742    Perform [FOR]
c7ed    Execute statement
c81d    Perform [RESTORE]
c82c    Break
c82f    Perform [STOP]
c831    Perform [END]
c857    Perform [CONT]
c871    Perform [RUN]
c883    Perform [GOSUB]
c8a0    Perform [GOTO]
c8d2    Perform [RETURN]
c8f8    Perform [DATA]
c906    Scan for next statement
c928    Perform [IF]
c93b    Perform [REM]
c94b    Perform [ON]
c96b    Get fixed point number
c9a5    Perform [LET]
ca80    Perform [PRINT#]
ca86    Perform [CMD]
caa0    Perform [PRINT]
cb1e    Print message from (y,a)
cb3b    Print format character
cb4d    Bad-input routines
cb7b    Perform [GET]
cba5    Perform [INPUT#]
cbbf    Perform [INPUT]
cbf9    Prompt & input
cc06    Perform [READ]
ccfc    Input error messages
cd1e    Perform [NEXT]
cd78    Type-match check
cd9e    Evaluate expression
cea8    Constant - PI
cef1    Evaluate within brackets
cef7    Check for ')'
ceff    Check for comma
cf08    Syntax error
ef14    Check range
cf28    Search for variable
cfa7    Set up FN reference
cfe6    Perform [OR]
cfe9    Perform [AND]
d016    Compare
d081    Perform [DIM]
d08b    Locate variable
d113    Check alphabetic
d11d    Create variable
d194    Array pointer subroutine
d1a5    Value 32768
d1b2    Float-fixed conversion
d1d1    Set up array
d245    'BAD SUBSCRIPT'
d248    'ILLEGAL QUANTITY'
d34c    Compute array size
d37d    Perform [FRE]
d391    Fixed-float conversion
d39e    Perform [POS]
d3a6    Check direct
d3b3    Perform [DEF]
d3e1    Check FN syntax
d3f4    Perform [FN]
d465    Perform [STR$]
d475    Calculate string vector
d487    Set up string
d4f4    Make room for string
d526    Garbage collection
d5bd    Check salvageability
d606    Collect string
d63d    Concatenate
d67a    Build string to memory
d6a3    Discard unwanted string
d6db    Clean descriptor stack
d6ec    Perform [CHR$]
d700    Perform [LEFT$]
d72c    Perform [RIGHT$]
4737    Perform [MID$]
d761    Pull string parameters
d77c    Perform [LEN]
4782    Exit string-mode
d78b    Perform [ASC]
d79b    Input byte parameter
d7ad    Perform [VAL]
d7eb    Get params for poke/wait
d7f7    Float-fixed
d80d    Perform [PEEK]
d824    Perform [POKE]
d82d    Perform [WAIT]
d849    Add 0.5
d850    Subtract-from
d853    Perform [SUBTRACT]
d86a    Perform [ADD]
d947    Complement fac#1
d97e    'OVERFLOW'
d983    Multiply by zero byte
d9ea    Perform [LOG]
da2b    Perform [MULTIPLY]
da59    Multiply-a-bit
da8c    Memory to FAC#2
dab7    Adjust FAC#1/#2
dad4    Unde rf low/overflow
dae2    Multiply by 10
daf9    +10 in floating pt
dafe    Divide by 10
db12    Perform [DIVIDE]
dba2    Memory to fac#1
dbc7    FAC#1 to memory
dbfc    FAC#2 to fac#1
dc0c    FAC#1 to FAC#2
dc1b    Round FAC#1
dc2b    Get sign
dc39    Perform [SGN]
dc58    Perform [ABS]
dc5b    Compare FAC#1 to mem
dc9b    Float-fixed
dccc    Perform [ INT]
dcf3    String to fac
dd7e    Get ascii digit
dddd    Float to ascii
df16    Decimal constants
df3a    TI constants
df71    Perform [SQR]
df7b    Perform [POWER]
dfb4    Perform [NEGATIVE]
dfed    Perform [EXP]
e040    Series evaluate 1
e056    Series evaluate 2
e094    Perform [RND]
e0f6    ?? Breakpoints ??
e127    Perform    [ SYS ]
e153    Perform [SAVE]
e162    Perform [VERIFY]
e165    Perform [LOAD]
e1bb    Perform [OPEN]
e1c4    Perform [CLOSE]
e1d1    Parameters for load/save
e203    Check default parameters
e20b    Check for comma
e216    Parameters for open/close
e261    Perform [COS]
e268    Perform [SIN]
e2b1    Perform [TAN]
e30b    Perform [ATN]
e378    Initialize
e387    CHRGET for zero page
e3a4    Initialize Basic
e429    Power-up message
e44f    Vectors for $300
e45b    Initialize vectors
e467    Warm restart
e476    Program patch area
e4a0    Serial output '1'
e4a9    Serial output '0'
e4b2    Get serial input & clock
e4bc    Program patch area
e500    Set 6522 addrs
e505    Set screen limits
e50a    Track cursor location
e518    Initalize I/O
e54c    Normalize screen
e55f    Clear screen
e581    Home cursor
e587    Set screen pointers
e5bb    Set I/o defaults
e5c3    Set vic chip defaults
e5cf    Input from keyboard
e64f    Input from screen
e6b8    Quote mark test
e6c5    Set up screen print
e6ea    Advance cursor
e715    Retreat cursor
e72d    Back into previous line
e742    Output to screen
e8c3    Go to next line
e8d8    Do 'RETURN'
e8e8    Check line decrement
e8fa    Check line increment
e912    Set colour code
e921    Colour code table
e929    Code conversion
e975    Scroll screen
e9ee    Open space on screen
ea56    Move screen line
ea6e    Synch colour transfer
ea7e    Set start-of-line
ea8d    Clear screen line
eaa1    Print to screen
eaaa    Store on screen
eab2    Synch colour to char
eabf    Interrupt (IRQ)
eb1e    Check keyboard
ec00    Set text mode
ec46    Keyboard vectors
ec5e    Keyboard maps
ed21    Graphics/text control
ed30    Set graphics mode
ed5b    Wrap up screen line
ed6a    Shifted key matrix
eda3    Control key matrix
ede4    Vic chip defaults
edfd    Screen line adds low
ee14    Send 'talk'
ee17    Send 'listen'
ee1c    Send control char
ee49    Send to serial bus
eeb7    Timeout on serial
eec0    Send listen SA
eec5    Clear ATN
eece    Send talk SA
eee4    Send serial deferred
eef6    Send 'untalk'
ef04    Send 'unlisten'
ef19    Receive from serial bus
ef84    Clock line on
ef84    Clock line off
ef96    Delay 1 ms
efa3    RS232 send (NMI)
efee    New RS232 byte send
f016    Error or quit
f027    Compute bit count
f036    RS232 receive (NMI)
f05b    Setup to receive
f09d    Receive parity error
f0a2    Receive overrun error
f0a5    Receive break error
f0a8    Receive frame error
f0b9    Bad device
f0bc    File to RS232
f0ed    Send to RS232 buffer
f116    Input from RS232 buffer
f14f    Get from RS232 buffer
f160    Check serial bus idle
f174    Messages
f1e2    Print if direct
f1f5    Get..
f205    ..from RS232
f20e    Input
f250    Get.. tape/serial/RS232
f27a    Output..
f290    ..to tape
f2c7    Set input device
f309    Set output device
f34a    Close
f3cf    Find file
f3df    Set file values
f3ef    Abort all files
f3f3    Restore default I/O
f40a    Do file opening
f495    Send SA
f4c7    Open RS232
f542    Load program
f647    'SEARCHING'
f659    Print file name
f66a    'LOADING/VERIFYING'
f675    Save program
f728    'SAVING'
f734    Bump clock
f760    Get time
f767    Set time
f770    Action stop key
f77e    File Error Messages
f7af    Find any tape header
f7e7    Write tape header
f84d    Get buffer address
f854    Set buffer start, end pointers
f867    Find specific header
f88a    Bump tape pointer
f894    'PRESS PLAY .. '
f8ab    Check cassette status
f8b7    'PRESS RECORD ..'
f8c0    Initiate tape read
f8e3    Initiate tape write
f8f4    Common tape read/write
f94b    Check tape stop
f95d    Set timing
f98e    Read bits (IRQ)
faad    Store characters
fbd2    Reset pointer
fbdb    New tape character setup
fbea    Toggle tape
fc06    Data write
fc0b    Tape write    (IRQ)
fc95    Leader write (IRQ)
fccf    Restore vectors
fcf6    Set vector
fd08    Kill motor
fd11    Check read/write pointer
fd1b    Bump read/write pointer
fd22    Powerup entry
fd3f    Check A-rom
fd52    Set kernal2
fd8d    Initialize system constants
fdf1    IRQ vectors
fdf9    Initialize I/O regs
fe49    Save data name
fe50    Save file details
fe57    Get status
fe66    Flag ST
fe6f    Set timeout
fe73    Read/set top of memory
fe82    Read/set bottom of memory
fe91    Test memory location
fea9    NMI interrupt entry
fed2    RESET/STOP warm start
fede    NMI RS232 sequences
ff56    Restore & exit
ff5c    RS232 timing table
ff72    Main IRQ entry
ff8a    Jumbo jump table
fffa    Hardware vectors

Map 6. Commodore 64 Memory Map.

                           SID         (6581)    Commodore 64
 V1   V2   V3   ┌───────────────────────────────────────────────┐  V1    V2    V3
                │                                               │
D400 D407 D40E  │                                             L │ 54272 54279 54286
                ├─────               Frequency              ────┤
D401 D408 D40F  │                                             H │ 52273 54280 54287
                │                                               │
                ├───────────────────────────────────────────────┤
                │                                               │
D402 D409 D410  │                   Pulse Width               L │ 54274 54281 54288
                ├ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ┐                   ────┤
D403 D40A D411  │                       |                     H │ 54275 54282 54289
                │     0  0  0  0        |                       │
                ├───────────────────────┴───────────────────────┤
D404 D40B D412  │       Voice Type                              │
                │ NSE   PUL   SAW   TRI │                   Key │
                ├─────┴─────┴─────┴─────┴─────┴─────┴─────┴─────┤
D405 D40C D413  │    Attack Time               Decay Time       │
                │    2 ms - 8 ms               6 ms - 24 sec    │
                ├───────────────────────────────────────────────┤
D406 D40D D414  │    Sustain Level             Release Time     │
                │                              6 ms - 24 sec    │
                └───────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                                      Voices
                                  (Write Only)

                ┌───────────────────────┬───────────────────────┐
                │     0  0  0  0        |                       │
          D415  │                       |                     L │ 54293
                ├ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ┘                   ────┤
          D416  │           Filter Frequency                  H │ 54294
                │                                               │
                ├───────────────────────┴───────────────────────┤
          D417  │       Resonance                               │
                │                       │ EXT   V3    V2    V1  │
                ├─────┴─────┴─────┴─────┴─────┴─────┴─────┴─────┤
          D418  │       Passband                Master          │
                │ V3    Hi    Bd    Lo           Volume         │
                │ Off                   │ EXT   V3    V2    V1  │
                └─────┴─────┴─────┴─────┴─────┴─────┴─────┴─────┘
                                Filter & Volume
                                  (Write Only)

                ┌───────────────────────────────────────────────┐
          D419  │                Paddle X                       │  54297
                │───────────────────────────────────────────────│
          D41A  │                Paddle Y                       │  54298
                │───────────────────────────────────────────────│
          D41B  │                Noise 3 (Random)               │  54299
                │───────────────────────────────────────────────│
          D41C  │                Envelope 3                     │  54300
                └───────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                                   Sense
         (Read Only)

Special voice features (TEST, RING MOD, SYNC) are omitted from the above diagram




             CIA 2 (NMI)                  (6526)                 Commodore 64
       ┌────────┬────────┬────────┬────────┬────────┬────────┬────────┬────────┐
$DD00  │ Serial   Clock    Serial   Clock     ATN     RS-232                   │ PRA   56576
       │   In      In       Out      Out      Out      Out                     │
       ├────────┼────────┼────────┼────────┼────────┼────────┼────────┼────────┤
       │  DSR   │  CTS   │        │  DCD*  │  RI*   │  DTR   │  RTS*  │ RS-232 │
$DD01  │  In    │  In    │        │   In   │  In    │  Out   │  Out   │  In    │ PRB   56577
       │                                                                       │
       │                Parallel User Port                                     │
       ├───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
$DD02  │  IN       IN       Out      Out      Out      Out      Out      Out   │ DDRA  56578
       │                                      $3F                              │
       ├───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
$DD03  │                 $06 For RS-232                                        │ DDRB  56579
       ├───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
$DD04  │                                                                       │ TAL   56580
       ├──                                                                   ──┤
$DD05  │                             Timer A                                   │ TAH   56581
       ├───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
$DD06  │                                                                       │ TBL   56582
       ├──                                                                   ──┤
$DD07  │                             Timer B                                   │ TBH   56583
       ├───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
       │                                                                       │
       ~                                                                       ~
       │                                                                       │
       ├──────────────────────────┬────────┬─────────────────┬─────────────────┤
$DD0D  │                          │ RS-232 │                 │ Timer     Timer │ ICR   56589
       │                          │  In    │                 │   B         A   │
       ├──────────────────────────┴────────┴─────────────────┴────────┴────────┤
$DD0E  │                                                                 Timer │ CRA   56590
       │                                                                A Start│
       ├──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┴────────┤
$DD0F  │                                                                 Timer │ CRB   56591
       │                                                                B Start│
       └──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┴────────┘



               Processor I/O Port      (6510)       Commodore 64
       ┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
$0000  │   IN       IN       Out      IN       Out      Out      Out      Out  │ DDR  0
       │────────┴────────┼────────┴────────┴────────┼────────┴────────┴────────│
$0001  │                 │  Tape     Tape     Tape  │ D-Rom    EF RAM   AB RAM │ PR   1
       │                 │  Motor    Sense    Write │ Switch   Switch   Switch │
       └────────┴────────┴────────┴────────┴────────┴────────┴────────┴────────┘




               CIA 1      (IRQ)          (6526)     Commodore 64
       ┌─────────────────┬─────────────────┬───────────────────────────────────┐
       │   Paddle SEL    |                 |          Joystick 0               │ PRA   56320
$DC00  │  A        B     |                 |    R       L         D       U    │
       │─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─┘                 └ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ │
       │               Keyboard Row Select (Inverted)                          │
       ├───────────────────────────────────┬───────────────────────────────────┤
       │                                   |          Joystick 1               │ PRB   56321
$DC01  │                                   |                                   │
       │                                   └ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ │
       │                  Keyboard Column Read                                 │
       ├───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
$DC02  │                     $FF - All Output                                  │ DDRA  56322
       ├───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
$DC03  │                     $00 - All Input                                   │ DDRB  56323
       ├───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
$DC04  │                                                                       │ TAL   56324
       ├────                                                              ─────┤
$DC05  │                           Timer A                                     │ TAH   56325
       ├───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
$DC06  │                                                                       │ TBL   56326
       ├────                                                              ─────┤
$DC07  │                           Timer B                                     │ TBH   56327
       ├───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
       │                                                                       │
       ~                                                                       ~
       │                                                                       │
       ├──────────────────────────┬────────┬─────────────────┬─────────────────┤
$DC0D  │                          │  Tape  │                 │  Timer    Timer │ ICR   56333
       │                          │  Input │                 │    B        A   │
       │────────┴────────┴────────┴────────┴────────┴────────┴────────┴────────┤
$DC0E  │                                      One      Out      Time     Timer │ CRA   56334
       │                                      Shot     Mode    PB6 Out  A Start│
       ├────────┴────────┴────────┴────────┴────────┴────────┴────────┴────────┤
$DC0F  │                                      One      Out      Time     Timer │ CRB   56335
       │                                      Shot     Mode    PB7 Out  B Start│
       └────────┴────────┴────────┴────────┴────────┴────────┴────────┴────────┘

64 Memory Map

Hex         Decimal   Description
0000          0       Chip directional register
0001          1       Chip I/O; memory & tape control
0003-0004     3-4     Float-Fixed vector
0005-0006     5-6     Fixed-Float vector
0007          7       Search character
0008          8       Scan-quotes flag
0009          9       TAB column save
000A         10       0=LOAD, 1=VERIFY
000B         11       Input buffer pointer/# subscrpt
000C         12       Default DIM flag
000D         13       Type: FF=string, 00=numeric
000E         14       Type: 80=integer, 00=floating point
000F         15       DATA scan/LIST quote/memry flag
0010         16       Subscript/FNx flag
0011         17       0=INPUT;$40=GET;$98=READ
0012         18       ATN sign/Comparison eval flag
0013         19       Current I/O prompt flag
0014-0015    20-21    Integer value
0016         22       Pointer: temporary strg stack
0017-0018    23-24    Last temp string vector
0019-0021    25-33    Stack for temporary strings
0022-0025    34-37    Utility pointer area
0026-002A    38-42    Product area for multiplication
002B-002C    43-44    Pointer: Start-of-Basic
002D-002E    45-46    Pointer: Start-of-Variables
002F-0030    47-48    Pointer: Start-of-Arrays
0031-0032    49-50    Pointer: End-of-Arrays
0033-0034    51-52    Pointer: String-storage(moving down)
0035-0036    53-54    Utility string pointer
0037-0038    55-56    Pointer: Limit-of-memory
0039-003A    57-58    Current Basic line number
003B-003C    59-60    Previous Basic line number
003D-003E    61-62    Pointer: Basic statement for CONT
003F-0040    63-64    Current DATA line number
0041-0042    65-66    Current DATA address
0043-0044    67-68    Input vector
0045-0046    69-70    Current variable name
0047-0048    71-72    Current variable address
0049-004A    73-74    Variable pointer for FOR/NEXT
004B-004C    75-76    Y-save; op-save; Basic pointer save
004D         77       Comparison symbol accumulator
004E-0053    78-83    Misc work area, pointers, etc
0054-0056    84-86    Jump vector for functions
0057-0060    87-96    Misc numeric work area
0061         97       Accum#1: Exponent
0062-0065    98-101   Accum#1: Mantissa
0066        102       Accum#1: Sign
0067        103       Series evaluation constant pointer
0068        104       Accum#1 hi-order (overflow)
0069-006E   105-110   Accum#2: Exponent, etc.
006F        111       Sign comparison, Acc#1 vs #2
0070        112       Accum#1 to-order (rounding)
0071-0072   113-114   Cassette buff len/Series pointer
0073-008A   115-138   CHRGET subroutine; get Basic char
007A-007B   122-123   Basic pointer (within subrtn)
008B-008F   139-143   RND seed value
0090        144       Status word ST
0091        145       Keyswitch PIA: STOP and RVS flags
0092        146       Timing constant for tape
0093        147       Load=0, Verify=1
0094        148       Serial output: deferred char flag
0095        149       Serial deferred character
0096        150       Tape EOT received
0097        151       Register save
0098        152       How many open files
0099        153       Input device, normally 0
009A        154       Output CMD device, normally 3
009B        155       Tape character parity
009C        156       Byte-received flag
009D        157       Direct=$80/RUN=0 output control
009E        158       Tp Pass 1 error log/char buffer
009F        159       Tp Pass 2 err log corrected
00A0-00A2   160-162   Jiffy Clock HML
00A3        163       Serial bit count/EOI flaq
00A4        164       Cycle count
00A5        165       Countdown,tape write/bit count
00A6        166       Tape buffer pointer
00A7        167       Tp Wrt ldr count/Rd pass/inbit
00A8        168       Tp Wrt new byte/Rd error/inbit cnt
00A9        169       Wrt start bit/Rd bit err/stbit
00AA        170       Tp Scan;Cnt;Ld;End/byte assy
00AB        171       Wr lead length/Rd checksum/parity
00AC-00AD   172-173   Pointer: tape bufr, scrolling
00AE-00AF   174-175   Tape end adds/End of program
00B0-00B1   176-177   Tape timing constants
00B2-00B3   178-179   Pntr: start of tape buffer
00B4        180       1=Tp timer enabled; bit count
00B5        181       Tp EOT/RS232 next bit to send
00B6        182       Read character error/outbyte buf
00B7        183       # characters in file name
00B8        184       Current logical file
00B9        185       Current secndy address
00BA        186       Current device
00BB-00BC   187-188   Pointer to file name
00BD        189       Wr shift word/Rd input char
00BE        190       # blocks remaining to Wr/Rd
00BF        191       Serial word buffer
00C0        192       Tape motor interlock
00C1-0002   193-194   I/O start address
00C3-0004   195-196   Kernel setup pointer
00C5        197       Last key pressed
00C6        198       # chars in keybd buffer
00C7        199       Screen reverse flag
00C8        200       End-of-line for input pointer
00C9-000A   201-202   Input cursor log (row, column)
00CB        203       Which key: 64 if no key
00CC        204       0=flash cursor
00CD        205       Cursor timing countdown
00CE        206       Character under cursor
00CF        207       Cursor in blink phase
00D0        208       Input from screen/from keyboard
00D1-00D2   209-210   Pointer to screen line
00D3        211       Position of cursor on above line
00D4        212       0=direct cursor, else programmed
00D5        213       Current screen line length
00D6        214       Row where curosr lives
00D7        215       Last inkey/checksum/buffer
00D8        216       # of INSERTS outstanding
00D9-00F2   217-242   Screen line link table
00F3-00F4   243-244   Screen color pointer
00F5-00F6   245-246   Keyboard pointer
00F7-00F8   247-248   RS-232 Rcv pntr
00F9-00FA   249-250   RS-232 Tx pntr
00FF-010A   255-266   Floating to ASCII work area
0100-013E   256-318   Tape error log
0100-01FF   256-511   Processor stack area
0200-0258   512-600   Basic input buffer
0259-0262   601-610   Logical file table
0263-026C   611-620   Device # table
026D-0276   621-630   Sec Adds table
0277-0280   631-640   Keybd buffer
0281-0282   641-642   Start of Basic Memory
0283-0284   643-644   Top of Basic Memory
0285        645       Serial bus timeout flag
0286        646       Current color code
0287        647       Color under cursor
0288        648       Screen memory page
0289        649       Max size of keybd buffer
028A        650       Repeat all keys
028B        651       Repeat speed counter
028C        652       Repeat delay counter
028D        653       Keyboard Shift/Control flag
028E        654       Last shift pattern
028F-0290   655-656   Keyboard table setup pointer
0291        657       Keyboard shift mode
0292        658       0=scroll enable
0293        659       RS-232 control reg
0294        660       RS-232 command reg
0295-0296   661-662   Bit timing
0297        663       RS-232 status
0298        664       # bits to send
0299-029A   665       RS-232 speed/code
029B        667       RS232 receive pointer
029C        668       RS232 input pointer
029D        669       RS232 transmit pointer
029F        670       RS232 output pointer
029F-02A0   671-672   IRQ save during tape I/O
02A1        673       CIA 2 (NMI) Interrupt Control
02A2        574       CIA 1 Timer A control log
02A3        675       CIA 1 Interrupt Log
02A4        676       CIA 1 Timer A enabled flag
02A5        677       Screen row marker
02C0-02FE   704-766   (Sprite 11)
0300-0301   768-769   Error message link
0302-0303   770-771   Basic warm start link
0304-0305   772-773   Crunch Basic tokens link
0306-0307   774-775   Print tokens link
0308-0309   776-777   Start new Basic code link
030A-030B   778-779   Get arithmetic element link
030C        780       SYS A-reg save
030D        781       SYS X-rea save
030E        782       SYS Y-reg save
030F        783       SYS status reg save
0310-0312   784-785   USR function jump         (8248)
0314-0315   788-789   Hardware interrupt vector (EA31)
0316-0317   790-791   Break interrupt vector    (FE66)
0318-0319   792-793   NMI interrupt vector      (FE47)
031A-031B   794-795   OPEN vector               (F34A)
031C-031D   796-797   CLOSE vector              (F291)
031E-031F   798-799   Set-input vector          (F20E)
0320-0321   800-801   Set-output vector         (F250)
0322-0323   802-803   Restore I/O vector        (F333)
0324-0325   804-805   INPUT vector              (F157)
0326-0327   806-807   Output vector             (F1CA)
0328-0329   808-809   Test-STOP vector          (FEED)
032A-032B   810-811   GET vector                (F13E)
032C-032D   812-813   Abort I/O vector          (F32F)
032E-032F   814-815   Warm start vector         (FE66)
0330-0331   816-817   LOAD link                 (F4A5)
0332-0333   818-819   SAVE link                 (F5ED)
033C-03FB   828-1019  Cassette buffer
0340-037E   832-894   (Sprite 13)
0380-03BE   896-958   (Sprite 14)
0300-03FE   960-1022  (Sprite 15)
0400-07FF  1024-2047  Screen memory
0800-9FFF  2048-40959 Basic RAM memory
8000-9FFF 32768-40959 Alternate: ROM plug-in area
A000-BFFF 40960-49151 ROM: Basic
A000-BFFF 49060-49151 Alternate: RAM
0000-CFFF 49152-53247 RAM memory, including alternate
D000-D02E 53248-53294 Video Chip (6566)
D400-D41C 54272-54300 Sound Chip (6581 SID)
D800-DBFF 55296-56319 Color nybble memory
D000-DC0F 56320-56335 Interface chip 1, IRQ (6526 CIA)
DD00-DD0F 56576-56591 Interface chip 2, NMI (6526 CIA)
D000-DFFF 53248-57343 Alternate: Character set
E000-FFFF 57344-65535 ROM: Operating System
E000-FFFF 57344-65535 Alternate: RAM
FF81-FFF5 65409-65525 Jump Table, Including:
  FFC6 - Set Input channel
  FFC9 - Set Output channel
  FFCC - Restore default I/O channels
  FFCF - INPUT
  FFD2 - PRINT
  FFE1 - Test Stop key
  FFE4 - GET

Map 7. Atari Memory.

        ;
        ;       PAGE ZERO RAM ASSIGNMENTS
        ;
0000    LINZBS  =       $0000   ;LINBUG RAM (WILL BE REPLACED BY MONITOR RAM)
        ;
        ;       THESE LOCATIONS ARE NOT CLEARED
0002    CASINI  =       $0002   ;CASSETTE INIT LOCATION
0004    RAMLO   =       $0004   ;RAM POINTER FOR MEMORY TEST
0006    TRAMSZ  =       $0006   ;TEMPORARY REGISTER FOR RAM SIZE
0007    TSTDAT  =       $0007   ;RAM TEST DATA REGISTER
        ;
        ;       CLEARED ON COLD START ONLY
0008    WARMST  =       $0008   ;WARM START FLAG
0009    BOOTQ   =       $0009   ;SUCCESSFUL BOOT FLAG <WAS BOOT?>
000A    DOSVEC  =       $000A   ;DISK SOFTWARE START FLAG
000C    DOSINI  =       $000C   ;DISK SOFTWARE INIT ADDRESS
000E    APPMHI  =       $000E   ;APPLICATIONS MEMORY HI LIMIT
        ;
        ;       CLEARED ON A COLD OR WARM START
0010    INTZBS  =       $0010   ;INTERRUPT HANDLER
0010    POKMSK  =       $0010   ;SYSTEM MASK FOR POKEY IRQ HANDLER
0011    BRKKEY  =       $0011   ;BREAK KEY FLAG
0012    RTCLOCK =       $0012   ;REAL TIME CLOCK (IN 16 MSEC UNITS)
        ;
0015    BUFADR  =       $0015   ;INDIRECT BUFFER ADDRESS REGISTER
        ;
0017    ICCOMT  =       $0017   ;COMMAND FOR VECTOR
        ;
0018    DSKFMS  =       $0018   ;DISK FILE MANAGER POINTER
        ;
001A    DSKUTL  =       $001A   ;DISK UTILITIES POINTER
001C    PTIMOT  =       $001C   ;PRINTER TIME OUT REGISTER
001D    PBPNT   =       $0010   ;PRINTER BUFFER POINTER
001E    PBUFSZ  =       $001E   ;PRINT BUFFER SIZE
001F    PTEMP   =       $001F   ;TEMPORARY REGISTER
        ;
0020    ZIOCB   =       $0020   ;ZERO PAGE I/O CONTROL BLOCK
0010    IOCBSZ  =       16      ;NUMBER OF BYTES PER IOCB
0080    MAXIOC  =       8*IOCBSZ        ;LENGTH OF THE IOCB AREA
0020    IOCBAS  =       $0020
0020    ICHIDZ  =       $0020   ;HANDLER INDEX NUMBER (FF == IOCB FREE)
0021    ICDNOZ  =       $0021   ;DEVICE NUMBER (DRIVE NUMBER)
0022    ICCOMZ  =       $0022   ;COMMAND CODE
0023    ICSTAZ  =       $0023   ;STATUS OF LAST IOCB ACTION
0024    ICBALZ  =       $0024   ;BUFFER ADDRESS LOW BYTE
0025    ICBAHZ  =       $0025   ;BUFFER ADDRESS HIGH BYTE
0026    ICPTLZ  =       $0026   ;PUT BYTE ROUTINE ADDRESS - 1
0027    ICPTHZ  =       $0027
0028    ICBLLZ  =       $0028   ;BUFFER LENGTH LOW BYTE
0029    ICBLHZ  =       $0029
002A    ICAX1Z  =       $002A   ;AUXILIARY INFORMATION FIRST BYTE
0028    ICAX2Z  =       $0028
002C    ICSPRZ  =       $002C   ;TWO SPARE BYTES (CIO LOCAL USE)
002E    ICIDNO  =       ICSPRZ+2        ;ICOB NUMBER X 16
002F    CIOCHR  =       ICSPRZ+3        ;CHARACTER BYTE FOR CURRENT OPERATION
        ;
0030    STATUS  =       $0030   ;INTERNAL STATUS STORAGE
0031    CHKSUM  =       $0031   ;CHECKSUM (SINGLE BYTE SUM WITH CARRY)
0032    BUFRLO  =       $0032   ;POINTER TO DATA BUFFER (LO BYTE)
0033    BUFRHI  =       $0033   ;POINTER TO DATA BUFFER (HI BYTE)
0034    BFENLO  =       $0034   ;NEXT BYTE PAST END OF DATA BUFFER (LO BYTE)
0035    BFENHI  =       $0035   ;NEXT BYTE PAST END OF DATA BUFFER (HI BYTE)
0036    CRETRY  =       $0036   ;NUMBER OF COMMAND FRAME RETRIES
0037    DRETRY  =       $0037   ;NUMBER OF DEVICE RETRIES
0038    BUFRFL  =       $0038   ;DATA BUFFER FULL FLAG
0039    RECVDN  =       $0039   ;RECIEVE DONE FLAG
003A    XMTDON  =       $003A   ;TRANSMISSION DONE FLAG
0038    CHKSNT  =       $003B   ;CHECKSUM SENT FLAG
003C    NOCKSM  =       $003C   ;NO CHECKSUM FOLLOWS DATA FLAG
        ;
        ;
003D    BPTR    =       $003D
003E    FTYPE   =       $003E
003F    FEOF    =       $003F
0040    FREQ    =       $0040
0041    SOUNDR  =       $0041   ;NOISY I/O FLAG (ZERO IS QUIET)
0042    CRITIC  =       $0042   ;DEFINES CRITICAL SECTION (CRITICAL IF NON-ZERO)
        ;
0043    FMSZPG  =       $0043   ;TOTAL OF 7 BYTES FOR DISK FILE MANAGER ZERO PAGE
        ;
        ;
004A    CKEY    =       $004A   ;FLAG SET WHEN GAME START PRESSED
0048    CASSBT  =       $0048   ;CASSETTE BOOT FLAG
004C    DSTAT   =       $004C   ;DISPLAY STATUS
        ;
004D    ATRACT  =       $004D   ;ATRACT FLAG
004E    DRKMSK  =       $C04E   ;DARK ATRACT FLAG
004E    COLORH  =       $004F   ;ATRACT COLOR SHIFTER (EOR'D WITH PLAYFIELD COLORS)
        ;
        ;LEDGE  =       2       ;LMARGN's VALUE AT COLD START
        ;REDGE  =       39      ;
0050    TMPCHR  =       $0050
0051    HOLD1   =       $0051
0052    LMARGN  =       $0052   ;LEFT MARGIN (SET TO ONE AT POWER ON)
0053    RMARGN  =       $0053   ;RIGHT MARGIN (SET TO ONE AT POWER ON)
0054    ROWCRS  =       $0054   ;CURSOR COUNTERS
0055    COLCRS  =       $0055
0057    DINDEX  =       $0057
0058    SAVMSC  =       $0058
005A    OLDROW  =       $005A
005B    OLDCOL  =       $0058
005D    OLDCHR  =       $005D   ;DATA UNDER CURSOR
005E    OLDADR  =       $005E
0060    NEWROW  =       $0060   ;POINT DRAW GOES TO
0061    NEWCOL  =       $0061
0063    LOGCOL  =       $0063   ;POINTS AT COLUMN IN LOGICAL LINE
0064    ADRESS  =       $0064
0066    MLTTMP  =       $0066
0068    SAVADR  =       $0068
006A    RAMTOP  =       $006A   ;RAM SIZE DEFINED BY POWER ON LOGIC
006B    BUFCNT  =       $0068   ;BUFFER COUNT
006C    BUFSTR  =       $006C   ;EDITOR GETCH POINTER
006E    BITMSK  =       $006E   ;BIT MASK
        ; LOTS OF RANDOM TEMPS
0078    SWPFLG  =       $0078   ;NON-0 IF TXT AND REGULAR RAM IS SWAPPED
007C    HOLDCH  =       $007C   ;CH IS MOVED HERE IN KGETCH BEfore CNTL & SHIFT PROC
        ;
        ;
        ;
        ;       80 - FF ARE FOR FP, USER, FMS AND DOS
        ;
        ;
        ;       PAGE 1 -- STACK
        ;
        ;
        ;       PAGE TWO RAM ASSIGNMENTS
        ;
0200    INTABS  =       $0200   ;INTERRUPT RAM
0200    VDBLST  =       $0200   ;DISPLAY LIST NMI VECTOR
0202    VPRCED  =       $0202   ;PROCEED LINE IRQ VECTOR
0204    VINTER  =       $0204   ;INTERRUPT LINE IRQ VECTOR
0206    VBREAK  =       $0206   ;SOFTWARE BREAK (00) INSTRUCTION IRQ VECTOR
0208    VKEYBD  =       $0208   ;POKEY KEYBOARD IRQ VECTOR
020A    VSERIN  =       $020A   ;POKEY SERIAL INPUT READY IRQ
020C    VSEROR  =       $020C   ;POKEY SERIAL OUTPUT READY IRQ
020E    VSEROC  =       $020E   ;POKEY SERIAL OUTPUT COMPLETE IRQ
0210    VTIMR1  =       $0210   ;POKEY TIMER 1 IRQ
0212    VTIMR2  =       $0212   ;POKEY TIMER 2 IRQ
0214    VTIMR4  =       $0214   ;POKEY TIMER 4 IRQ
0216    VIMIRQ  =       $0216   ;IMMEDIATE IRQ VECTOR
0218    CDTMV1  =       $0218   ;COUNT DOWN TIMER 1
021A    CDTMV2  =       $021A   ;COUNT DOWN TIMER 2
021C    CDTMV3  =       $021C   ;COUNT DOWN TIMER 3
021E    CDTMV4  =       $021E   ;COUNT DOWN TIMER 4
0220    CDTMV5  =       $0220   ;COUNT DOWN TIMER 5
0222    VVBLKI  =       $0222   ;IMMEDIATE VERTICAL BLANK NMI VECTOR
0224    VVBLKD  =       $0224   ;DEFERRED VERTICAL BLANK NMI VECTOR
0226    CDTMA1  =       $0226   ;COUNT DOWN TIMER 1 JSR ADDRESS
0228    CDTMA2  =       $0228   ;COUNT DOWN TIMER 2 JSR ADDRESS
022A    CDTMF3  =       $022A   ;COUNT DOWN TIMER 3 FLAG
0228    SRTIMR  =       $0228   ;SOFTWARE REPEAT TIMER
022C    CDTMF4  =       $022C   ;COUNT DOWN TIMER 4 FLAG
022E    CDTMF5  =       $022E   ;COUNT DOWN TIMER 5 FLAG
022E    SDMCTL  =       $022F   ;SAVE DMACTL REGISTER
0230    SDLSTL  =       $0230   ;SAVE DISPLAY LIST LOW BYTE
0231    SDLSTH  =       $0231   ;SAVE DISPLAY LIST HIGH BYTE
0232    SSKCTL  =       $0232   ;SKCTL REGISTER RAM
        ;
0234    LPENH   =       $0234   ;LIGHT PEN HORIZONTAL VALUE
0235    LPENV   =       $0235   ;LIGHT PEN VERTICAL VALUE

026F    GPRIOR  =       $26F    ;Global priority cell


        ;
        ;
        ;       POTENTIOMETERS
        ;
        ;
0270    PADDL0  =       $0270
0271    PADDL1  =       $0271
0272    PADDL2  =       $0272
0273    PADDL3  =       $0273
0274    PADDL4  =       $0274
0275    PADDL5  =       $0275
0276    PADDL6  =       $0276
0277    PADDL7  =       $0277
        ;
        ;
        ;       JOYSTICKS
        ;
        ;
0278    STICK0  =       $0278
0279    STICK1  =       $0279
027A    STICK2  =       $027A
027B    STICK3  =       $027B
        ;
        ;
        ;       PADDLE TRIGGER
        ;
        ;
027C    PTRIG0  =       $027F
027D    PTRIG1  =       $027D
027E    PTRIG2  =       $027E
027E    PTRIG3  =       $027F
0280    PTRIG4  =       $0280
0281    PTRIG5  =       $0281
0282    PTRIG6  =       $0282
0283    PTRIG7  =       $0283
        ;
        ;
        ;       JOYSTICK TRIGGER
        ;
        ;
0284    STRIG0  =       $0284
0285    STRIG1  =       $0285
0286    STRIG2  =       $0286
0287    STRIG3  =       $0287
        ;
        ;
        ;       Many random OS variables, the following were commented
        ;
        ;
0290    TXTROW  =       $0290   ;Text rowers
0291    TXTCOL  =       $0291   ;Text colcrs
0293    TINDEX  =       $0293   ;Text index
0294    TXTMSC  =       $0294   ;fools convert into new msc
0296    TXTOLD  =       $0296   ;oldrow and oldcol for text (etc.)
02A2    ESCFLG  =       $02A2   ;Escape flan
0282    LOGMAP  =       $0282   ;Logical line start bit map
0286    INVFLAG =       $0286   ;Inverse video flag (toggled by Atari key)
0287    FILFIG  =       $0287   ;Fill flag for draw
0288    SCRFLG  =       $02BB   ;Set if scroll occures
028E    SHFLOK  =       $02BE   ;Shift lock
02BF    BOTSCR  =       $02BF   ;Bottom of screen: 24 Norm, 4 Split,
        ;
        ;
        ;       COLORS
        ;
        ;
02C0    PCOLR0  =       $02C0   ;P0 COLOR
02C1    PCOLR1  =       $02C1   ;P1 COLOR
02C2    PCOLR2  =       $02C2   ;P2 COLOR
02C3    PCOLR3  =       $02C3   ;P3 COLOR
02C4    COLOR0  =       $02C4   ;COLOR 0
0205    COLOR1  =       $02C5   ;COLOR 1
02C6    COLOR2  =       $02C6   ;COLOR 2
02C7    COLOR3  =       $02C7   ;COLOR 3
0208    COLOR4  =       $02C8   ;COLOR 4
        ;
        ;
        ;      GLOBAL VARIABLES
        ;
        ;
02E4    RAMSIZ  =       $02E4   ;RAM SIZE (HI BYTE ONLY)
02E5    MEMTOP  =       $02E5   ;TOP OF AVAILABLE USER MEMORY
02E7    MEMLO   =       $02E7   ;BOTTOM OF AVAILABLE USER MEMORY
02EA    DVSTAT  =       $02EA   ;STATUS BUFFER
        ;
02F0    CRSINH  =       $02F0   ;CURSOR INHIBIT (00 = CURSOR ON)
02F1    KEYDEL  =       $02F1   ;Key delay
02F3    CHACT   =       $02F3   ;CHACTL REGISTER RAM
02F4    CHBAS   =       $02F4   ;CHBAS REGISTER RAM
02FD    FILDAT  =       $02FD   ;RIGHT FILL DATA (DRAW)
02FB    ATACHR  =       $02FB   ;Atascii character
02FC    CH      =       $02FC   ;global variable for keyboard
02FE    DSPFLA  =       $02FE   ;DISPLAY FLAG: DISPLAYS CNTLS IF NON ZERO;
02FF    SSFLAG  =       $02FF   ;Start/stop flag for paging (CNTL 1). Cleared by Brea

        ;
        ;       Page three RAM assignments
        ;
        ;
        ;       Device control blocks
        ;       (SIO)
0300    DCB     =       $0300   ;Device control block
0300    DDEVIC  =       $0300   ;Peripheral Unit 1 bus I.D. number
0301    DUNIT   =       $0301   ;Unit number
0302    DCOMND  =       $0302   ;Bus command
0303    DSTATS  =       $0303   ;Command Type/status return
0304    DBUFLO  =       $0304   ;Data buffe pointe low
0305    DBUFHI  =       $0305
0306    DTIMLO  =       $0306   ;Device time out in 1 second units
0308    DBYTLO  =       $0308   ;Number of bytes to be transvered low byte
0309    DBYTHI  =       $0309
030A    DAUX1   =       $030A   ;Command Aux byte 1
030B    DAUX2   =       $030B
        ;
0340    IOCB    =       $0340
0340    ICHID   =       $0340   ;Handler index number (FF = IOCB free)
0341    ICDNO   =       $0341   ;Device number (drive number)
0342    ICCOM   =       $0342   ;Command code
0343    ICSTA   =       $0343   ;Status of last IOCB action
0344    ICBAL   =       $0344   ;Buffer address low byte
0345    ICBAH   =       $0345
0346    ICPTL   =       $0346   ;Put byte routine address - 1
0347    ICPTH   =       $0347
0348    ICBLL   =       $0348   ;Buffer length low byte
0349    ICBLH   =       $0349
034A    ICAX1   =       $034A   ;Auxiliary information first byte
0348    ICAX2   =       $0348
034C    ICSPR   =       $034C   ;four spare bytes
        ;
03C0    PRNBUF  =       $03C0   ;Printer buffer (40 bytes)
        ;       (21 spare bytes)
        ;
        ;       Page Four Ram Assignments
03FD    CASBUF  =       $03FD   ;Cassette Buffer (131 bytes)
        ;
0480    USAREA  =       $0480   ; (0480 thru 05FF for the user)
        ;                         (except for floating point...)
        ;
        ;       FLOATING POINT ROM ROUTINES
        ;
        ;
        ;       IF CARRY IS USED THEN CARRY CLEAR => NO ERROR, CARRY SET => ERROR
        ;
D800    AFP     =       $D800   ;ASCII -> FLOATING POINT (FP)
        ;                       INBUFF + CIX -> FR0, CIX, CARRY
D8E6    FASC    =       $DBE6   ;FP -> ASCII    FR0 -> FOR,F00+1, CARRY
D9AA    IFP     =       $D9AA   ;INTEGER -> FP
        ;                       0-$FFFF (L.SB, MSB) IN FR0,FR0+1->FR0
D92D    FPI     =       $D92D   ;FP -> INTEGER FR0 -> FR0,FR0+1, CARRY
DA60    FSUB    =       $DA60   ;FR0 <- FR0 - FR1, CARRY
DA66    FADD    =       $DA66   ;FR0 <- FR0 + FR1  ,CARRY
DADB    FMUL    =       $DADB   ;FR0 <- FR0 * FR1  ,CARRY
DB28    FDIV    =       $DB28   ;FR0 <- FR0 / FR1  ,CARRY
DD89    FLD0R   =       $DD89   ;FLOATING LOAD REG0     FR0 <- (X,Y)
DD8D    FLD0P   =       $DD8D   ;                       FR0 <- (FLPTR)
DD98    FLD1R   =       $DD98   ;                       FR1 <- (X,Y)
DD9C    FLD1P   =       $DD9C   ;                       FR1 <- (FLPTR)
DDA7    FST0R   =       $DDA7   ;FLOATING STORE REG0  (X,Y) <- FR0
DDAB    FST0P   =       $DDAB   ;                  (FLTPTR)<- FR0
DDB6    FMOVE   =       $DDB6   ;FR1 <- FR0
DD40    PLYEVL  =       $DD40   ;FR0 <- P(Z) = SUM(I = N TO 0) (A(I) *Z**I)    CARRY

        ;                       INPUT:  (X,Y) = A(N), A(N-1) ...A(0) -> PLYARG
        ;                               ACC   = # OF COEFFICIENTS = DEGREE + 1
        ;                               FR0   = Z
DDC0    EXP     =       $DDC0   ;FR0 <- E**FR0 = EXP10(FR0 * LOG10(E))  CARRY
DDCC    EXP10   =       $DDCC   ;FR0 <- 10**FR0 CARRY
DECD    LOG     =       $DECD   ;FR0 <- LN(FR0) = LOG10(FR0) / LOG10(E) CARRY
DED1    LOG10   =       $DED1   ;FR0 <- LOG10(FR0)      CARRY
        ;
        ;
        ;       THE FOLLOWING ARE IN THE BASIC CARTRIDGE:
        ;
        ;
BD81    SIN     =       $BD81   ;FR0 <- SIN(FR0) DEGFLG=0 => RADS, 6=>DEG.     CARRY

BD73    COS     =       $BD73   ;FR0 <- COS(FR0)        CARRY
BD43    ATAN    =       $B043   ;FR0 <- ATN(FR0)        CARRY
BEB1    SQR     =       $BE61   ;FR0 <- SQUAREROOT(FR0) CARRY
        ;
        ;
        ;       FLOATING POINT ROUTINES ZERO PAGE (NEEDED ONLY IF F.P.
        ;               ROUTINES ARE CALLED)
00D4    FR0     =       $00D4   ;FP REG0
00E0    FR1     =       $00E0   ;FP REG1
00F2    CIX     =       $00F2   ;CURRENT INPUT INDEX
00F3    INBUFF  =       $00F3   ;POINTS TO USER'S LINE INPUT BUFFER
00FB    RADFLG  =       $00FB   ;0 = RADIANS, 6 = DEGREES
00FC    FLTPTR  =       $00FC   ;POINTS TO USERS FLOATING POINT NUMBER
        ;
        ;
        ;       FLOATING POINT ROUTINES' NON-ZP RAM
        ;
        ;       (057E to 05FF)


0580    LBUFF   =       $0580    ;LINE BUFFER
05E0    PLYARG  =       LBUFF+$60        ;POLYNOMILA ARGUMENTS
        ;
        ;
        ;
        ;
        ;
        ;
        ;
        ;       COLLEEN MNEMONICS
        ;
        ;
        ;
D200    POKEY   =       $D200           ;VBLANK ACTION:         DESCRIPTION:
D200    POT0    =       POKEY+0         ;POT0-->PADDL0          0-227 IN RAM CELL
D201    POT1    =       POKEY+1         ;POT1-->PADDL1          0-227 IN RAM CELL
D202    POT2    =       POKEY+2         ;POT2-->PADDL2          0-227 IN RAM CELL
D203    POT3    =       POKEY+3         ;POT3-->PADDL3          0-227 IN RAM CELL
D204    POT4    =       POKEY+4         ;POT4-->PADDL4          0-227 IN RAM CELL
D205    POT5    =       POKEY+5         ;POT5-->PADDL5          0-227 IN RAM CELL
D206    POT6    =       POKEY+6         ;POT6-->PADDL6          0-227 IN RAM CELL
D207    POT7    =       POKEY+7         ;POT7-->PADDL7          0-227 IN RAM CELL
D208    ALLPOT  =       POKEY+8         ;???
D209    KBCODE  =       POKEY+9
D20A    RANDOM  =       POKEY+10
D20B    POTGO   =       POKEY+11        ;Strobed
        ;               n/a
D20D    SERIN   =       POKEY+13
D20E    IRQST   =       POKEY+14
D20F    SKSTAT  =       POKEY+15
D200    AUDF1   =       POKEY+0
D201    AUDC1   =       POKEY+1
D202    AUDF2   =       POKEY+2
D203    AUDC2   =       POKEY+3
D204    AUDF3   =       POKEY+4
D205    AUDC3   =       POKEY+5
D206    AUDF4   =       POKEY+6
D207    AUDC4   =       POKEY+7
D208    AUDCT   =       POKEY+8         ;NONE                   AUDCTL<--[SIO]
D209    STIMFR  =       POKEY+9
D20A    SKRES   =       POKEY+10        ;NONE                   SKRES<--[SIO]
D20B    POTGO   =       POKEY+11
D20D    SEROUT  =       POKEY+13        ;NONE                   SEROUT<--[SIO]
D20E    IRQEN   =       POKEY+14        ;POKMSK-->IRQEN (AFFECTED BY OPEN S: OR E:)
D20F    SKCTL   =       POKEY+15        ;SSKCTL-->SKCTL         SSKCTL<--[SIO]
        ;
D000    CTIA    =       $D000
D000    HPOSP0  =       CTIA+0
D001    HPOSP1  =       CTIA+1
D002    HPOSP2  =       CTIA+2
D003    HPOSP3  =       CTIA+3
D004    HPOSM0  =       CTIA+4
D005    HPOSM1  =       CTIA+5
D006    HPOSM2  =       CTIA+6
D007    HPOSM3  =       CTIA+7
D008    SIZEP0  =       CTIA+8
D009    SIZEP1  =       CTIA+9
D00A    SIZEP2  =       CTIA+10
D008    SIZEP3  =       CTIA+11
D00C    SIZEM   =       CTIA+12
D00D    GRAFP0  =       CTIA+13
D00E    GRAFP1  =       CTIA+14
D00F    GRAFP2  =       CTIA+15
D010    GRAFP3  =       CTIA+16
D011    GRAFM   =       CTIA+17
D012    COLPM0  =       CTIA+18         ;PCOLR0-->COLPM0         WITH ATTRACT MODE

D013    COLPM1  =       CTIA+19         ;ETC.N
D014    COLPM2  =       CTIA+20
D015    COLPM3  =       CTIA+21
D016    COLPF0  =       CTIA+22
D017    COLPF1  =       CTIA+23
D018    COLPF2  =       CTIA+24
D019    COLPF3  =       CTIA+25
D01A    COLBK   =       CTIA+26
001B    PRIOR   =       CTIA+27
D01C    VDELAY  =       CTIA+28
D01D    GRACTL  =       CTIA+29
D01E    HITCLR  =       CTIA+30
D01F    CONSOL  =       CTIA+31         ;$08-->CONSOL               TURN OFF SPEAKER

        ;
D000    M0PF    =       CTIA+0
D002    M2PF    =       CTIA+2
D003    M3PF    =       CTIA+3
D004    P0PF    =       CTIA+4
0005    P1PF    =       CTIA+5
D006    P2PF    =       CTIA+6
D007    P3PF    =       CTIA+7
D008    M0PL    =       CTIA+8
D009    M1PL    =       CTIA+9
D00A    M2PL    =       CTIA+10
D008    M3PL    =       CTIA+11
D00C    P0PL    =       CTIA+12
D00D    P1PL    =       CTIA+13
D00E    P2PL    =       CTIA+14
D00F    P3PL    =       CTIA+15
D010    TRIG0   =       CTIA+16         ;TRIG0-->STRIG1
D011    TRIG1   =       CTIA+17         ;ETC.
D012    TRIG2   =       CTIA+18
D013    TRIG3   =       CTIA+19
D014    PAL     =       CTIA+20
        ;
D400    ANTIC   =       $D400
D400    DMACTL  =       ANTIC+0         ;DMACTL<--SDMCTL            ON OPEN S: OR E:
D401    CHARCTL =       ANTIC+1         ;CHACTL<--CHACT             ON OPEN S: OR E:
D402    DLISTL  =       ANTIC+2         ;DLISTL<--SDLSTL            ON OPEN S: OR E:
D403    DLISTH  =       ANTIC+3         ;DLISTH<--SDLSTH            ON OPEN S: OR E:
D404    HSCROL  =       ANTIC+4
D405    VSCROL  =       ANTIC+5
D407    PMBASE  =       ANTIC+7
D409    CHBASE  =       ANTIC+9         ;CHBASE<--CHBAS             ON OPEN S: OR E:
D40A    WSYNC   =       ANTIC+10
D40B    VCOUNT  =       ANTIC+11
D40C    PENH    =       ANTIC+12
D40D    PENV    =       ANTIC+13
D40E    NMIEN   =       ANTIC+14        ;NMIEN<--40                 POWER ON AND [SETVBV]
D40F    NMIRES  =       ANTIC+15        ;STROBED
D40F    NMIST   =       ANTIC+15
E400    EDITRV  =       $E400   ;EDITOR
E410    SCREEV  =       $E410   ;TELEVISION SCREEN
E420    KEYBDV  =       $E420   ;KEYBOARD
E430    PRINTV  =       $E430   ;PRINTER
E440    CASETV  =       $E440   ;CASSETTE
E459    SIOV    =       $E459   ;serial input output routine
E45C    SETVBV  =       $E45C   ;set system timers routine
        ; With respect to SETVBV, the call sequence is
        ; X - MSB of vector/timer
        ; Y - LSB of vector/timer
        ; A - # of vector to hack
0001    SETMR1  =       1       ;Timer  1
0002    SETMR2  =       2       ;       2
0003    SETMR3  =       3       ;       3
0004    SETMR4  =       4       ;       4
0005    SETMR5  =       5       ;       5
0006    SETIMM  =       6       ;Immediate VBLANK
0007    SETDEF  =       7       ;Deffered VBLANK

E45F    SYSVBV  =       $E45F   ;SYSTEM VERTICAL BLANK CALCULATIONS
E462    XITVBL  =       $E462   ;EXIT VERTICAL BLANK. CALCULATIONS
E466    SIOINV  =       $E465   ;SERIAL INPUT OUTPUT INITIALIZATION

For Further Reference

Apple: What’s Where In The Apple, William Luebbert, Micro Ink, Inc., 34 Chelmsford St., Chelmsford, MA 01824, 1981.

Atari: Mapping The Atari, Ian Chadwick, COMPUTE! Books, P.O. Box 5406, Greensboro, NC 27403, 1983. (This covers the operating system and provides lengthy cross-referenced explanations of Atari’s memory addresses.)

Atari: The Atari BASIC Sourcebook, Bill Wilkinson, COMPUTE! Books, P.O. Box 5406, Greensboro, NC 27403, 1983. (Complete commented source code of Atari BASIC, with explanatory text.)

Appendix F

SUPERMON For PET

The following monitor extensions are the work of several programmers and were previously published in COMPUTE! Magazine. (See the copyright page for references.)

Here is the legendary Supermon – a version for Upgrade (3.0 or “New ROM”) and 4.0 PETS, all keyboards, all memory sizes, 40 or 80 column screens. You need not yet know how to program in machine language (ML) to enter this program – or to use it. In fact, exploring with Supermon, you will find that the mysterious world of your computer’s own language becomes gradually understandable. You will find yourself learning ML.

Many ML programmers with PET/CBM machines feel that Supermon is the essential tool for developing programs of short to medium length. All Upgrade and 4.0 machines have a “resident” monitor, a program within the computer’s ROM which allows you to type SYS 1024 and see the registers, load and save and run ML programs, or see a memory dump (a list of numbers from the computer’s memory cells). But to program or analyze ML easily, disassembler, assembler, hunt, and single-step functions are all practical necessities. Supermon provides these and more.

Even if you’ve never assembled a single instruction and don’t know NOP from ROL, this appendix will lead you step-by-step through the entry and SAVE of Supermon.

How To Enter Supermon

1. Type in the BASIC program (Program 1). It is the same for all versions. Then save it normally by typing SAVE "CONTROL". This program will be used later to automatically find your memory size, transfer Supermon to the top, and report to you the SYS address you use to activate it.

2. Now the hard part: type SYS 1024 which enters you into the machine language monitor. You will see something like the following:

Figure 1.

      B*
             PC  IRQ  SR AC XR YR SP
         .; 0401 E455 32 04 5E 00 EE

Then type: M 0600 0648 and you will see something similar to this (the numbers will be different, but we are going to type over them which, after hitting RETURN on each line, will enter the new numbers into the computer’s memory):

Figure 2.

.M 0600 0648
.:  0600 28 58 FF FF 00 0B 06 AD
.:  0608 FF FC 00 21 06 03 AD A9
.:  0610 CB 85 1F A9 0C 85 20 A5
.:  0618 34 85 21 A5 35 85 22 A0
.:  0620 00 93 06 06 DO 16 20 38
.:  0628 06 F0 11 85 23 20 38 06
.:  0630 18 65 34 AA A5 23 65 35
.:  0638 20 43 06 8A 20 43 06 20
.:  0640 50 06 90 DB 60 EA EA A5
.:  0648 1F D0 02 C6 20 C6 1F B1

We have divided Supermon into 21 blocks with 80 hexadecimal numbers per block to make typing easier. There is a final, shorter block with 64 numbers. Type right over the numbers on the screen so that line 0600 looks like it does in Program 2. Then hit RETURN and cursor over to the A5 on line 0608. (Set a TAB to this position if your keyboard has a TAB key.) Then type over the numbers in this line and so on. When you have finshed typing your RETURN on line 0648, type in: M 0650 0698 and the next block will appear for you to type over. Continue this way until you finish entering the new version of line OCC8 at the end. (Hope that no lightning or fuses blow.)

3. If you have Upgrade ROMs, you will need to correct the lines listed in Program 3 at this point. To change line 06DO, simply type M 06D0 06D0 and it will appear so that you can type over it and RETURN as in step 2.

4. Now Supermon is in your memory and you must SAVE it. Hit RETURN so that you are on a new line and type: S "SUPERMON",01,0600,000C (to SAVE to tape) or type: S "0:SUPERMON",08,0600,000C (to SAVE to disk drive 0).

5. Finally, you will want to use the Checksum program to see if you made any errors during the marathon. You probably did, but to make it as painless as possible, the Checksum program will flash through your Supermon and let you know which blocks need to be corrected. So, type in Program 4 (or if you have Upgrade ROMs, use the first three lines from Program 5). SAVE Checksum just in case. Then LOAD "SUPERMON" (an ordinary LOAD as with a BASIC program will slide it in starting at address 1536, above the end of Checksum). Then RUN. Incorrect blocks will be announced. When you know where the errors are, type SYS 1024 and then M XXXX XXXX for the starting and ending addresses of the bad block. Check the numbers against Program 2 (or Program 3) and in all corrections. If, despite everything, you cannot find an error within a block, make sure that the corresponding number within the DATA statement of the Checksum program is correct. Then SAVE the good version ‘SUPERMON1’ as in step 4.

6. Your reward is near. LOAD "CONTROL" and then LOAD SUPERMON1. Then type RUN and hold your breath. If all goes well, you should see:

Figure 3.

  SUPERMON4!

      DISSASSEMBLER BY WOZNIAK/BAUM
        SINGLE STEP
 BY JIM RUSSO
 MOST OTHER STUFF ,BY BILL SEILER

 TIDIED & WRAPPED BY JIM BUTTERFIELD


 LINK TO MONITOR -- SYS 31283

 SAVE WITH MLM:
.S "SUPERMON",01,7A33,8000
 READY.

And you should be able to use all the commands listed in the Supermon Summary. If some, or all, of the commands fail to function, check the last, short block of code to see if there are any errors.

After Supermon is relocated to the top of your memory, use a ML SAVE to save it in its final form. Instructions are on screen after RUN.

SUPERMON SUMMARY

COMMODORE MONITOR INSTRUCTIONS:
G GO RUN
L LOAD FROM TAPE OR DISK
M MEMORY DISPLAY
R REGISTER DISPLAY
S SAVE TO TAPE OR DISK
X EXIT TO BASIC

SUPERMON ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS:
A SIMPLE ASSEMBLER
D DISASSEMBLER
F FILL MEMORY
H HUNT MEMORY
I SINGLE INSTRUCTION
P PRINTING DISASSEMBLER
T TRANSFER MEMORY
SUPERMON WILL LOAD ITSELF INTO THE
TOP OF MEMORY .. WHEREVER THAT HAPPENS
TO BE ON YOUR MACHINE.
   YOU MAY THEN SAVE THE MACHINE CODE
FOR FASTER LOADING IN THE FUTURE.
BE SURE TO NOTE THE SYS COMMAND WHICH
LINKS SUPERMON TO THE COMMODORE
MONITOR.


 SIMPLE ASSEMBLER
.A 2000 LDA #$12
.A 2002 STA $8000,X
.A 2005 (RETURN)
.
     IN THE ABOVE EXAMPLE THE USER
STARTED ASSEMBLY AT 2000 HEX.  THE
FIRST INSTRUCTION WAS LOAD A REGISTER
WITH IMMEDIATE 12 HEX.  IN THE SECOND
LINE THE USER DID NOT NEED TO TYPE THE
A AND ADDRESS. THE SIMPLE ASSEMBLER
PROMPTS WITH THE NEXT ADDRESS.  TO EXIT
THE ASSEMBLER TYPE A RETURN AFTER THE
THE ADDRESS PROMPT.  SYNTAX IS THE SAME
AS THE DISASSEMBLER OUTPUT.

  DISASSEMBLER
.D 2000
(SCREEN CLEARS)
.,  2000 A9 12       LDA #$12
.,  2002 9D 00 80    STA $8000,X
.,  2005 AA          TAX
.,  2006 AA          TAX
(FULL PAGE OF INSTRUCTIONS)
     DISASSEMBLES 2.2 INSTRUCTIONS
STARTING AT 2000 HEX.  THE THREE BYTES
FOLLOWING THE ADDRESS MAY BE MODIFIED.
USE THE CRSR KEYS TO MOVE TO AND MODIFY
THE BYTES. HIT RETURN AND THE BYTES
IN MEMORY WILL BE CHANGED. SUPERMON
WILL THEN DISASSEMBLE THAT PAGE AGAIN.

 PRINTING DISASSEMBLER
.P 2000,2040
2000 A9 12       LDA #$12
2002 9D 00 80    STA $8000,XY.
2005 AA          TAX
   ....
203F A2 00       LDX #$00
TO ENGAGE PRINTER, SET UP BEFOREHAND:
     OPEN 4,4:CMD4
ON 4.0, ACCESS THE MONITOR VIA A CALL
SYS 54386 (*NOT* A BREAK) COMMAND

SINGLE STEP
.I
     ALLOWS A MACHINE LANGUAGE PROGRAM
TO BE RUN STEP BY STEP.
CALL REGISTER DISPLAY WITH R AND SET
THE PC ADDRESS TO THE DESIRED FIRST
INSTRUCTION FOR SINGLE STEPPING.
THE I WILL CAUSE A SINGLE STEP TO
EXECUTE AND WILL DISASSEMBLE THE NEXT.
CONTROLS:
  < FOR SINGLE STEP;
  RVS FOR SLOW STEP;
  SPACE FOR FAST STEPPING;
  STOP TO RETURN TO MONITOR.
[ON BUSINESS KEYBOARDS—
      USE 8,←,6 AND STOP].

 FILL MEMORY
.F 1000 1100 FF
     FILLS THE MEMORY FROM 1000 HEX TO
1100 HEX WITH THE BYTE FF HEX.

 GO RUN
.G
     GO TO THE ADDRESS IN THE PC
REGISTER DISPLAY AND BEGIN RUN CODE.
ALL THE REGISTERS WILL BE REPLACED
WITH THE DISPLAYED VALUES.
.G 1000
     GO TO ADDRESS 1000 HEX AND BEGIN
RUNNING CODE.

 HUNT MEMORY
.H C000 D000 'READ
     HUNT THRU MEMORY FROM C000 HEX TO
D000 HEX FOR THE ASCII STRING READ AND
PRINT THE ADDRESS WHERE IT IS FOUND.  A
MAXIMUM OF 32 CHARACTERS MAY BE USED.
.H C000 D000 20 D2 FF
     HUNT MEMORY FROM C000 HEX TO D000
HEX FOR THE SEQUENCE OF BYTES 20 D2 FF
AND PRINT THE ADDRESS. A MAXIMUM OF 32
BYTES MAY BE USED.

 LOAD
.L
   LOAD ANY PROGRAM FROM CASSETTE #1.
.L "RAM TEST"
   LOAD FROM CASSETTE #1 THE PROGRAM
NAMED RAM TEST.
.L "RAM TEST",08
 LOAD FROM DISK (DEVICE 8) THE PROGRAM
NAMED RAM TEST.
THIS COMMAND LEAVES BASIC POINTERS
UNCHANGED.

 MEMORY DISPLAY
.M 0000 0080
.:  0000 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07
.:  0008 08 09 0A 0B 0C 0D 0E 0F

     DISPLAY MEMORY FROM 0000 HEX TO
0080 HEX. THE BYTES FOLLOWING THE .:
CAN BE ALTERED BY TYPING OVER THEM
THEN TYPING A RETURN.

 REGISTER DISPLAY
.R
     PC  IRQ  SR AC XR YR SP
.;  0000 E62E 01 02 03 04 05
     DISPLAYS THE REGISTER VALUES SAVED
WHEN SUPERMON WAS ENTERED.  THE VALUES
MAY BE CHANGED WITH THE EDIT FOLLOWED
BY A RETURN.
  USE THIS INSTRUCTION TO SET UP THE
PC VALUE BEFORE SINGLE STEPPING WITH
.I

 SAVE
.S "PROGRAM NAME",01,0800,0C80
     SAVE TO CASSETTE #1 MEMORY FROM
0800 HEX UP TO BUT NOT INCLUDING 0C80
HEX AND NAME IT PROGRAM NAME.
.S "O:PROGRAM NAME",08,1200,1F50
    SAVE TO DISK DRIVE #0 MEMORY FROM
1200 HEX UP TO BUT NOT INCLUDING 1F50
HEX AND NAME IT PROGRAM NAME.

 TRANSFER MEMORY
.T 1000 1100 5000
     TRANSFER MEMORY IN THE RANGE 1000
HEX TO 1100 HEX AND START STORING IT AT
ADDRESS 5000 HEX.

 EXIT TO BASIC
.X
     RETURN TO BASIC READY MODE.
THE STACK VALUE SAVED WHEN ENTERED WILL
BE RESTORED.  CARE SHOULD BE TAKEN THAT
THIS VALUE IS THE SAME AS WHEN THE
MONITOR WAS ENTERED. A CLR IN
BASIC WILL FIX ANY STACK PROBLEMS.

Program 1. CONTROL.

100 PRINT"{CLEAR}{02 DOWN}{REV} SUP
    ERMON!!"
110 PRINT"{DOWN}     DISSASSEMBLER ~
    {REV}D{OFF} BY WOZNIAK/BAU
    M
120 PRINT"       SINGLE STEP {REV}I
    {OFF} BY JIM RUSSO
130 PRINT"MOST OTHER STUFF {REV},HA
    LT{OFF} BY BILL SEILER
150 PRINT"{DOWN}TIDIED & WRAPPED BY
     JIM BUTTERFIELD"
170 L=PEEK(52)+PEEK(53)*256:SYS1536
    :M=PEEK(33):N=PEEK(34)
180 POKE52,M:POKE53,N:POKE48,M:POKE
    49,N:N=M+N*256
210 PRINT"{02 DOWN}LINK TO MONITOR ~
    -- SYS";N
220 PRINT:PRINT"SAVE WITH MLM:"
230 PRINT".S ";CHR$(34);"SUPERMON";
    CHR$(34);",01";:X=N/4096:G
    OSUB250
240 X=L/4096:GOSUB250:END
250 PRINT",";:FORJ=1TO4:X%=X:X=(X-X
    %)*16:IFX%>9THENX%=X%+7
260 PRINTCHR$(X%+48);:NEXTJ:RETURN

Program 2. SUPERMON 4.0

.
.: 0600 A9 CB 85 1F A9 0C 85 20
.: 0608 A5 34 85 21 A5 35 85 22
.: 0610 A0 00 20 38 06 D0 16 20
.: 0618 38 06 F0 11 85 23 20 38
.: 0620 06 18 65 34 AA A5 23 65
.: 0628 35 20 43 06 8A 20 43 06
.: 0630 20 50 06 90 DB 60 EA EA
.: 0638 A5 1F D0 02 C6 20 C6 1F
.: 0640 B1 1F 60 48 A5 21 D0 02
.: 0648 C6 22 C6 21 68 91 21 60

.: 0650 A9 80 C5 1F A9 06 E5 20
.: 0658 60 AA AA AA AA AA AA AA
.: 0660 AA AA AA AA AA AA AA AA
.: 0668 AA AA AA AA AA AA AA AA
.: 0670 AA AA AA AA AA AA AA AA
.: 0678 AA AA AA AA AA AA AA AA
.: 0680 AD FE FF 00 85 34 AD FF
.: 0688 FF 00 85 35 AD FC FF 00
.: 0690 8D FA 03 AD FD FF 00 8D
.: 0698 FB 03 00 00 A2 08 DD DE

.: 06A0 FF 00 D0 0E 86 B4 8A 0A
.: 06A8 AA BD E9 FF 00 48 BD E8
.: 06B0 FF 00 48 60 CA 10 EA 40
.: 06B8 9A FA 00 A2 02 20 A2 00
.: 06C0 00 B4 FB D0 08 B4 FC D0
.: 0608 02 E6 DE D6 FC D6 FB 60
.: 06D0 20 98 D7 C9 20 F0 F9 60
.: 06D8 A9 00 00 8D 00 00 01 20
.: 06E0 79 FA 00 20 6B D7 20 57
.: 06E8 D7 90 09 60 20 98 D7 20
.: 06F0 54 D7 B0 DE AE 06 02 9A

.: 06F8 40 A4 D7 20 31 D5 CA D0
.: 0700 FA 60 E6 FD D0 02 E6 FE
.: 0708 60 A2 02 B5 FA 48 BD 0A
.: 0710 02 95 FA 68 9D 0A 02 CA
.: 0718 D0 F1 60 AD 0B 02 AC 0C
.: 0720 02 40 CE FA 00 A5 FD A4
.: 0728 FE 38 E5 FB 8D 1B 02 98
.: 0730 E5 FC A8 0D 1B 02 60 20
.: 0738 81 FA 00 20 44 D7 20 92

.: 0740 FA 00 20 AF FA 00 20 92
.: 0748 FA 00 20 CA FA 00 20 44
.: 0750 D7 90 15 A6 DE D0 65 20
.: 0758 01 FA 00 90 60 A1 FB 81
.: 0760 FD 20 A8 FA 00 20 39 D5
.: 0768 D0 EB 20 01 FA 00 18 AD
.: 0770 1B 02 65 FD 85 FD 98 65
.: 0778 FE 85 FE 20 AF FA 00 A6
.: 0780 DE D0 3D A1 FB 81 FD 20
.: 0788 01 FA 00 B0 34 20 65 FA

.: 0790 00 20 68 FA 00 40 1B FB
.: 0798 00 20 31 FA 00 20 44 D7
.: 07A0 20 92 FA 00 20 44 D7 20
.: 07A8 98 D7 20 63 D7 90 14 85
.: 07B0 B5 A6 DE D0 11 20 CA FA
.: 07B8 00 90 0C A5 B5 81 FB 20
.: 07C0 39 D5 D0 EE 4C 9A FA 00
.: 0708 40 BA D4 20 81 FA 00 20
.: 07D0 44 D7 20 92 FA 00 20 44
.: 07D8 D7 20 98 D7 A2 00 00 20

.: 07E0 98 D7 C9 27 D0 14 20 98
.: 07E8 D7 9D 10 02 E8 20 CF FF
.: 07F0 C9 0D F0 22 E0 20 D0 F1
.: 07F8 F0 1C 8E 00 00 01 20 6B
.: 0800 D7 90 C6 9D 10 02 E8 20
.: 0808 CF FF C9 0D F0 09 20 63
.: 0810 D7 90 B6 E0 20 D0 EC 86
.: 0818 B4 20 34 D5 A2 00 00 A0
.: 0820 00 00 B1 FB DD 10 02 D0
.: 0828 0C C8 E8 E4 B4 D0 F3 20

.: 0830 17 D7 20 31 D5 20 39 D5
.: 0833 A6 DE D0 92 20 CA FA 00
.: 0840 B0 DD 4C BA D4 20 81 FA
.: 0848 00 8D 0D 02 A5 FC 8D 0E
.: 0850 02 A9 04 A2 00 00 8D 09
.: 0858 02 8E 0A 02 A9 93 20 D2
.: 0860 FF A9 16 85 B5 20 06 FC
.: 0868 00 20 64 FC 00 85 FB 84
.: 0870 FC C6 B5 D0 F2 A9 91 20
.: 0878 D2 FF 4C BA D4 A0 2C 20

.: 0880 79 D5 20 17 D7 20 31 D5
.: 0888 A2 00 00 A1 FB 20 74 FC
.: 0890 00 48 20 BB FC 00 68 20
.: 0898 D3 FC 00 A2 06 E0 03 D0
.: 08A0 13 AC 1C 02 F0 0E A5 FF
.: 08A8 C9 E8 B1 FB B0 1C 20 5C
.: 08B0 FC 00 88 D0 F2 06 FF 90
.: 08B8 0E BD 51 FF 00 20 45 FD
.: 08C0 00 BD 57 FF 00 F0 03 20
.: 08C8 45 FD 00 CA D0 D4 60 20

.: 08D0 68 FC 00 AA E8 D0 01 C8
.: 08D8 98 20 5C FC 00 8A 86 B4
.: 08E0 20 22 D7 A6 B4 60 AD 1C
.: 08E8 02 38 A4 FC AA 10 01 88
.: 08F0 65 FB 90 01 C8 60 A8 4A
.: 08F8 90 0B 4A B0 17 C9 22 F0
.: 0900 13 29 07 09 80 4A AA BD
.: 0908 00 FF 00 B0 04 4A 4A 4A
.: 0910 4A 29 0F D0 04 A0 80 A9
.: 0918 00 00 AA BD 44 FF 00 85

.: 0920 FF 29 03 8D 1C 02 98 29
.: 0928 8F AA 98 A0 03 E0 8A F0
.: 0930 0B 4A 90 08 4A 4A 09 20
.: 0938 88 D0 FA C8 88 D0 F2 60
.: 0940 B1 FB 20 5C FC 00 A2 01
.: 0948 20 A1 FA 00 CC 1C 02 C8
.: 0950 90 F0 A2 03 CC 09 02 90
.: 0958 F0 60 A8 B9 5E FF 00 8D
.: 0960 0B 02 B9 9E FF 00 8D 0C
.: 0968 02 A9 00 00 A0 05 0E 0C

.: 0970 02 2E 0B 02 2A 88 D0 F6
.: 0978 69 3F 20 D2 FF CA D0 EA
.: 0980 4C 31 D5 20 81 FA 00 20
.: 0988 44 D7 20 92 FA 00 20 44
.: 0990 D7 A9 04 A2 00 00 8D 09
.: 0998 02 8E 0A 02 20 34 D5 20
.: 09A0 0B FC 00 20 64 FC 00 85
.: 09A8 FB 84 FC 20 35 F3 F0 05
.: 09B0 20 CA FA 00 B0 E9 4C BA
.: 09B8 D4 20 81 FA 00 A9 03 85

.: 09C0 B5 20 98 D7 20 0B D5 D0
.: 09C8 F8 AD 0D 02 85 FB AD 0E
.: 09D0 02 85 FC 4C E7 FB 00 CD
.: 09D8 0A 02 F0 03 20 D2 FF 60
.: 09E0 A9 03 A2 24 8D 09 02 8E
.: 09E8 0A 02 20 34 D5 78 AD FA
.: 09F0 FF 00 85 90 AD FB FF 00
.: 09F8 85 91 A9 A0 8D 4E E8 CE
.: 0A00 13 E8 A9 2E 8D 48 E8 A9
.: 0A08 00 00 8D 49 E8 AE 06 02

.: 0A10 9A 4C 55 D6 20 C0 FC 68
.: 0A18 8D 05 02 68 8D 04 02 68
.: 0A20 8D 03 02 68 8D 02 02 68
.: 0A28 8D 01 02 68 8D 00 00 02
.: 0A30 BA 8E 06 02 58 20 34 D5
.: 0A38 20 23 D5 85 B5 A0 00 00
.: 0A40 20 FE D4 20 31 D5 AD 00
.: 0A48 00 02 85 FC AD 01 02 85
.: 0A50 FB 20 17 D7 20 0E FC 00
.: 0A58 20 35 F3 C9 F7 F0 F9 20

.: 0A60 35 F3 D0 03 4C BA D4 C9
.: 0A68 FF F0 F4 4C 5B FD 00 20
.: 0A70 81 FA 00 20 44 D7 8E 11
.: 0A78 02 A2 03 20 79 FA 00 48
.: 0A80 CA D0 F9 A2 03 68 38 E9
.: 0A88 3F A0 05 4A 6E 11 02 6E
.: 0A90 10 02 88 D0 F6 CA D0 ED
.: 0A98 A2 02 20 CF FF C9 0D F0
.: 0AA0 1E C9 20 F0 F5 20 F7 FE
.: 0AA8 00 B0 0F 20 78 D7 A4 FB

.: 0AB0 84 FC 85 FB A9 30 9D 10
.: 0AB8 02 E8 9D 10 02 E8 D0 DB
.: 0AC0 8E 0B 02 A2 00 00 86 DE
.: 0AC8 F0 04 E6 DE F0 7B A2 00
.: 0AD0 00 86 B5 A5 DE 20 74 FC
.: 0AD8 00 A6 FF 8E 0C 02 AA BC
.: 0AE0 5E FF 00 BD 9E FF 00 20
.: 0AE8 E0 FE 00 D0 E2 A2 06 E0
.: 0AF0 03 D0 1A AC 1C 02 F0 15
.: 0AF8 A5 FF C9 E8 A9 30 B0 21

.: 0B00 20 E6 FE 00 D0 CA 20 E8
.: 0B08 FE 00 D0 C5 88 D0 EB 06
.: 0B10 FF 90 0B BC 57 FF 00 BD
.: 0B18 51 FF 00 20 E0 FE 00 D0
.: 0B20 B3 CA D0 D0 F0 0A 20 DF
.: 0B28 FE 00 D0 A9 20 DF FE 00
.: 0B30 D0 A4 AD 0B 02 C5 B5 D0
.: 0B38 9D 20 44 D7 AC 1C 02 F0
.: 0B40 2F AD 0C 02 C9 9D D0 20
.: 0B48 20 CA FA 00 90 0B 98 D0

.: 0B50 05 AE 1B 02 10 0B 4C 9A
.: 0B58 FA 00 C8 D0 FA AE 1B 02
.: 0B60 10 F5 CA CA 8A AC 1C 02
.: 0B68 D0 03 B9 FC 00 00 91 FB
.: 0B70 88 D0 F8 A5 DE 91 FB 20
.: 0B78 64 FC 00 85 FB 84 FC A0
.: 0B80 41 20 79 D5 20 17 D7 20
.: 0B88 31 D5 4C D8 FD 00 A8 20
.: 0B90 E6 FE 00 D0 11 98 F0 0E
.: 0B98 86 B4 A6 B5 DD 10 02 08

.: 0BA0 E8 86 B5 A6 B4 28 60 C9
.: 0BA8 30 90 03 C9 47 60 38 60
.: 0BB0 40 02 45 03 D0 08 40 09
.: 0BB8 30 22 45 33 D0 08 40 09
.: 0BC0 40 02 45 33 D0 08 40 09
.: 0BC8 40 02 45 B3 D0 08 40 09
.: 0BD0 00 00 22 44 33 D0 8C 44
.: 0BD8 00 00 11 22 44 33 D0 8C
.: 0BE0 44 9A 10 22 44 33 D0 08
.: 0BE8 40 09 10 22 44 33 D0 08

.: 0BF0 40 09 62 13 78 A9 00 00
.: 0BF8 21 81 82 00 00 00 00 59
.: 0C00 4D 91 92 86 4A 85 9D 2C
.: 0C08 29 2C 23 28 24 59 00 00
.: 0C10 58 24 24 00 00 1C 8A 1C
.: 0C18 23 5D 8B 1B A1 9D 8A 1D
.: 0C20 23 9D 8B 1D A1 00 00 29
.: 0C28 19 AE 69 A8 19 23 24 53
.: 0C30 1B 23 24 53 19 A1 00 00
.: 0C38 1A 5B 5B A5 69 24 24 AE

.: 0C40 AE A8 AD 29 00 00 7C 00
.: 0C48 00 15 9C 6D 9C A5 69 29
.: 0C50 53 84 13 34 11 A5 69 23
.: 0C58 A0 D8 62 5A 48 26 62 94
.: 0C60 88 54 44 C8 54 68 44 E8
.: 0C68 94 00 00 B4 08 84 74 B4
.: 0C70 28 6E 74 F4 CC 4A 72 F2
.: 0C78 A4 8A 00 00 AA A2 A2 74
.: 0C80 74 74 72 44 68 B2 32 B2
.: 0C88 00 00 22 00 00 1A 1A 26

.: 0C90 26 72 72 88 C8 C4 CA 26
.: 0C98 48 44 44 A2 C8 54 46 48
.: 0CA0 44 50 2C 41 49 4E 00 00
.: 0CA8 DB FA 00 30 FB 00 5E FB
.: 0CB0 00 D1 FB 00 F8 FC 00 28
.: 0CB8 FD 00 D4 FD 00 4D FD 00
.: 0CC0 B9 D4 7F FD 00 4A FA 00
.: 0CC8 33 FA 00 AA AA AA AA AA

Program 3. Changes For SUPERMON 3.0.

.: 06D0 20 EB E7 C9 20 F0 F9 60
.
.: 06E0 79 FA 00 20 BE E7 20 AA
.: 06E8 E7 90 09 60 20 EB E7 20
.: 06F0 A7 E7 B0 DE AE 06 02 9A
.: 06F8 4C F7 E7 20 CD FD CA D0
.
.: 0738 81 FA 00 20 97 E7 20 92
.
.: 0748 FA 00 20 CA FA 00 20 97
.: 0750 E7 90 15 A6 DE D0 65 20
.
.: 0760 FD 20 A8 FA 00 20 D5 FD
.
.: 0798 00 20 81 FA 00 20 97 E7
.: 07A0 20 92 FA 00 20 97 E7 20
.: 07A8 EB E7 20 B6 E7 90 14 85
.
.: 07C0 D5 FD D0 EE 4C 9A FA 00
.: 07C8 4C 56 FD 20 81 FA 00 20
.: 07D0 97 E7 20 92 FA 00 20 97
.: 07D8 E7 20 EB E7 A2 00 00 20
.: 07E0 EB E7 C9 27 D0 14 20 EB
.: 07E8 E7 9D 10 02 E8 20 CF FF
.
.: 07F8 F0 1C 8E 00 00 01 20 BE
.: 0800 E7 90 C6 9D 10 02 E8 20
.: 0808 CF FF C9 0D F0 09 20 B6
.: 0810 E7 90 B6 E0 20 D0 EC 86
.: 0818 B4 20 D0 FD A2 00 00 A0
.
.: 0830 6A E7 20 CD FD 20 D5 FD
.
.: 0840 B0 DD 4C 56 FD 20 81 FA
.
.: 0878 D2 FF 4C 56 FD A0 2C 20
.: 0880 15 FE 20 6A E7 20 CD FD
.: 08E0 20 75 E7 A6 B4 60 AD 1C
.
.: 0980 4C CD FD 20 81 FA 00 20
.: 0988 97 E7 20 92 FA 00 20 97
.: 0990 E7 A9 04 A2 00 00 8D 09
.: 0998 02 8E 0A 02 20 D0 FD 20
.
.: 09A8 FB 84 FC 20 01 F3 F0 05
.: 09B0 20 CA FA 00 B0 E9 4C 56
.: 09B8 FD 20 81 FA 00 A9 03 85
.: 09C0 B5 20 EB E7 20 A7 FD D0
.
.: 09E8 0A 02 20 D0 FD 78 AD FA
.
.: 0A10 9A 4C F1 FE 20 7B FC 68
.
.: 0A30 BA 8E 06 02 58 20 D0 FD
.: 0A38 20 BF FD 85 B5 A0 00 00
.: 0A40 20 9A FD 20 CD FD AD 00
.
.: 0A50 FB 20 6A E7 20 0E FC 00
.: 0A58 20 01 F3 C9 F7 F0 F9 20
.: 0A60 01 F3 D0 03 4C 56 FD C9
.
.: 0A70 81 FA 00 20 97 E7 8E 11
.
.: 0AA8 00 B0 0F 20 CB E7 A4 FB
.
.: 0B38 9D 20 97 E7 AC 1C 02 F0
.
.: 0B80 41 20 15 FE 20 6A E7 20
.: 0B88 CD FD 4C D8 FD 00 A8 20
.
.: 0CC0 55 FD 7F FD 00 4A FA 00

Program 4. SUPERMON 4.0 Checksum.

100 REM SUPERMON 4 CHECKSUM
110 DATA7331,12186,10071,10387,1082
    9,9175,10314,9823,9715,871
    4,8852
120 DATA8850,9748,7754,10247,10423,
    10948,10075,6093,5492,7805
    :S=1536
130 FORB=1TO21:READX:FORI=STOS+79:14
    =PEEK(I):Y=Y+N
140 NEXTI:IFY<>XTHENPRINT"ERROR IN "'
    BLOCK #"B:GOTO160
150 PRINT"BLOCK. #"B" IS CORRECT"
160 S=I:Y=0:NEXTB:PRINT"CHECK THE F
    INAL, SHORT BLOCK BY HAND"

Program 5. Changes For SUPERMON 3.0 Checksum.

100 REM SUPERMON 3 CHECKSUM
110 DATA7331,12186,10467,10880,1112
    4,10005,10906,10196,9951,8
    813
120 DATA8852,9329,10239,8457,10334,
    10423,11047,10311,6093,549
    2,7805:S=1536

PET MICROMON
An Enhanced Machine
Language Monitor

Micromon is for Upgrade and 4.0 BASICs, all memory sizes, all keyboards and is in the public domain. If you have enough memory, you can add the additional commands of “Micromon Plus” as well. “Plus” is from $51300 to $5F48 and you will want to move Micromon from $1000 up to $6000.

There is quite a bit of typing here so there are two checksum programs which will find and flag any errors. See the instructions for typing in Supermon.

Micromon Instructions

SIMPLE ASSEMBLER

.A 2000 LDA #$12
.A 2002 STA $8000,X
.A 2005 DEX:GARBAGE

In the above example, the user started assembly at 2000 hex. The first instruction was load a register with immediate 12 hex. In the second line the user did not need to type the A and address. The simple assembler retypes the last entered line and prompts with the next address. To exit the assembler, type a return after the address prompt. Syntax is the same as the Disassembler output. A colon (:) can be used to terminate a line.

BREAK SET

.B 1000 00FF

The example sets a break at 1000 hex on the FF hex occurrence of the instruction at 1000. Break set is used with the QUICK TRACE command. A BREAK SET with count blank stops at the first occurrence of the break address.

COMPARE MEMORY

.C 1000 2000 C000

Compares memory from hex 1000 to hex 2000 to memory beginning at hex 0000. Compare will print the locations of the unequal bytes.

DISASSEMBLER

.D 2000 3000
., 2000 A9 12  LDA #$12
., 2002 9D 00 80 STA $8000,X
., 2005 AA  TAX

Disassembles from 2000 to 3000. The three bytes following the address may be modified. Use the CRSR KEYS to move to and modify the bytes. Hit return and the bytes in memory will be changed. Micromon will then disassemble that line again.

Disassembly can be done under the control of the cursor. To disassemble one at a time from $1000.

.D 1000

If the cursor is on the last line, one instruction can be disassembled for each pressing of the cursor down key. If it is held down, the key will repeat and continuous disassembly will occur. Disassembly can even be in reverse! If the screen is full of a disassembly listing, place the cursor at the top line of the screen and press the cursor up key.

EXIT MICROMON

.E

Combine the killing of Micromon and exit to BASIC.

FILL MEMORY

.F 1000 1100 FF

Fills the memory from 1000 hex to 1100 hex with the byte FF hex.

GO RUN

.G

Go to the address in the PC Register display and begin run code. All the registers will be replaced with the displayed values.

.G 1000

Go to address 1000 hex and begin running code.

HUNT MEMORY

.H 0000 D000 'READ

Hunt through memory from 0000 hex to D000 hex for the ASCII string “read” and print the address where it is found. Maximum of 32 characters may be used.

.H 0000 D000 20 D2 FF

Hunt memory from 0000 hex to D000 hex for the sequence of bytes 20 D2 FF and print the address. A maximum of 32 bytes may be used. Hunt can be stopped with the STOP key.

KILL MICROMON

.K

Restore the Break vector and IRQ that was saved before Micromon was called and break into the TIM monitor. A return to Micromon can be done with a Go to the value in the PC register.

LOAD

.L "RAM TEST",08

Load the program named RAM TEST from the disk. Note for cassette users: To load or save to cassette. Kill Micromon with the K command to return to the TIM monitor. Then use the TIM monitor L and S commands to load and save to the cassettes. This has to be done because of the repeat keys of Micromon. BASIC 4.0 users then can return to Micromon with a Go command to the PC value, but BASIC 2.0 users should return to BASIC, then SYS to Micromon because the TIM overwrites the IRQ value for loads and saves with a filename.

MEMORY DISPLAY

.M 0000 0008
.: 0000 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 1234567
.: 0008 38 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 89ABCDE

Display memory from 0000 hex to 0008 in hex and ASCII. The bytes following the address may be modified by editing and then typing a RETURN.

Memory display can also be done with the cursor control keys.

NEW LOCATER

.N 1000 17FF 6000 1000 1FFF
.N 1FB0 1FFF 6000 1000 1FFF W

The first line fixes all three byte instructions in the range 1000 hex to 1FFF hex by adding 6000 hex offset to the bytes following the instruction. New Locater will not adjust any instruction outside of the 1000 hex to 1FFF hex range. The second line adjusts Word values in the same range as the first line. New Locater stops and disassembles on any bad op code.

CALCULATE BRANCH OFFSET

.O 033A 033A FE

Calculate the offset for branch instructions. The first address is the starting address and the second address is the target address. The offset is then displayed.

QUICK TRACE

.Q
.Q 1000

The first example begins trace at the address in the PC of the register display. The second begins at 1000 hex. Each instruction is executed as in the WALK command, but no disassembly is shown. The Break Address is checked for the break on Nth occurrence. The execution may be stopped by pressing the STOP and = (left arrow on business) keys at the same time.

REGISTER DISPLAY

.R
PC IRQ SR AC XR YR SP
.: 0000 E455 01 02 03 04 05

Displays the register values saved when Micromon was entered. The values may be changed with the edit followed by a RETURN.

SAVE

.S "1:PROGRAM NAME",08,0800,0C80

Save to disk drive #1 memory from 0800 hex up to, but not including, 0C80 hex and name it PROGRAM NAME. See note in LOAD command for cassette users.

TRANSFER MEMORY

.T 1000 1100 5000

Transfer memory in the range 1000 hex to 1100 hex and start storing it at address 5000 hex.

WALK CODE

.W

Single step starting at address in register PC.

.W 1000

Single step starting at address 1000 hex. Walk will cause a single step to execute and will disassemble the next instruction. Stop key stops walking. The J key finishes a subroutine that is walking, then continues with the walk.

EXIT TO BASIC

.X

Return to BASIC READY mode. The stack value saved when entered will be restored. Care should be taken that this value is the same as when the monitor was entered. A CLR in BASIC will fix any stack problems. Do not X to BASIC then return to Micromon via a SYS to the cold start address. Return via a SYS to BRK (SYS 1024) or SYS to the Warm start of Micromon (Warm start = Cold start + 3). An X and cold start will write over the TIM break vector that was saved.

CHANGE CHARACTER SETS

.Z

Change from uppercase/graphics to lower/uppercase mode or vice versa.

HEX CONVERSION

.$4142 16706 A B 0100 0001 0100 0010

A hex number is input and the decimal value, the ASCII for the two bytes, and the binary values are returned. The ASCII control values are returned in reverse.

Hex conversion can also be scrolled with the cursor control keys.

DECIMAL CONVERSION

.#16706 4142 A B 0100 0001 0100 0010

A decimal number is input and the hex value, the ASCII for the two bytes, and the binary values are returned.

BINARY CONVERSION

.%0100000101000010 4142 16706 A B

A binary number is input and the hex value, the decimal number, and the ASCII values are returned.

ASCII CONVERSION

."A 41 65 0100 0001

An ASCII character is input and the hex value, decimal value, and binary values are returned. Because of the quote, the control characters can be determined also.

ADDITION

.+ 1111 2222 3333

The two hex numbers input are added, and the sum displayed.

SUBTRACTION

.-3333 1111 2222

The second number is subtracted from the first number and the difference displayed.

CHECKSUM

.&A000 AFFF 67E2

The checksum between the two addresses is calculated and displayed.

MICROMON INSTRUCTIONS:

A SIMPLE ASSEMBLE
B BREAK SET
C COMPARE MEMORY
D DISASSEMBLER
E EXIT MICROMON
F FILL MEMORY
G GO RUN
H HUNT MEMORY
K KILL MICROMON L LOAD
M MEMORY DISPLAY
N NEW LOCATER
O CALCULATE BRANCH
Q QUICK TRACE
R REGISTER DISPLAY
S SAVE
T TRANSFER MEMORY
W WALK CODE
X EXIT TO BASIC
Z CHANGE CHARACTER SETS
$ HEX CONVERSION
# DECIMAL CONVERSION
% BINARY CONVERSION
" ASCII CONVERSION
+ ADDITION
- SUBTRACTION
& CHECKSUM

Micromon also has repeat for all keys.

Micromon is executed by the following: SYS 4096 as listed in Program 2, where it resides in $1000 to $1FFF.

For 8032, make the following changes for Micromon operation. In location the X stands for the start of Micromon. Values in hex.

Location	Old Value	New Value
X3E7 X3EC X3F6 X427 XD18 XDA3 XCFC XD7B XE16 XE20 XE24 XE26 XE37 XE46 X681	08 08 08 08 08 08 28 28 83 28 C0 04 27 28 24	10 To display 16 instead 10 of 8 bytes. 10 10 10 10 50 To fix scroll. 50 87 50 80 08 4F 50 00 To print all characters in Walk command.

Micromon Plus Instructions

PRINTING DISASSEMBLER

.(Shift)D 1000 1FFF

The same as the Disassembler but no ., printed before each line. Also the ASCII values for the bytes are output at the end of the line.

FORM FEED SET

.I

Sets a form feed for printout. Gives 57 printed lines per page. Works with the Shift D and Shift M commands.

.I "Heading"

Sets form feed with a message to be printed at the top of each page.

.I X

Cancels form feed.

PRINT LOAD ADDRESS

.J "File name"

Read the load address of the file and print it in hex. Device number 8 is used.

KILL MICROMON ADDITIONS

.(Shift)K

Kill Micromon and its additions and BRK to the TIM monitor. This is the same as the unshifted K command except now a G command will reinitialize Micromon and the additions.

LOAD FROM DISK

.(Shift)L "filename"

This is the same as the normal load command except that the disk (device #8) is used as the default, riot the cassette.

PRINTING MEMORY DUMP

.(Shift)M F000 F100

The same as the normal Memory dump, but does not print the.: and prints out 16 hex bytes and the ASCII for them.

PRINT SWITCHER

.P

If the output is to the CRT then switch the output to the printer (device #4). If the output is not to the CRT then clear the output device and restore the output to the CRT.

.P06

Make device #6 the output device if the current output is to the CRT.

SEND TO PROM PROGRAMMER

.U 06 7000 7FFF

This command will send out bytes to a PROM programmer on the IEEE bus. The first byte is the device number and the two addresses are the range of memory to output. A CHR$(2) is sent first to start the programmer. This is followed by the memory bytes as ASCII characters separated by spaces. After all bytes have been sent, a CHR$(3) is sent to stop the programmer. Micromon then does a checksum on the range to compare against the programmer checksum. Although this is for a particular programmer, it could be modified for others.

SPECIFY LOAD ADDRESS

.Y 7000 "Filename"

This command allows a file to be loaded starting at the address you specify and not the load address it would normally load into. The disk (device #8) is used for loading.

TEXT FLIP FOR 8032 & FAT 40’s

.(Shift)Z

This is for 8032 and Fat 40’s to go from Text to Graphics mode or vice versa.

DOS SUPPORT

.@ or .>

This reads the error channel from disk device number 8.

.@ disk command or .> disk command

This sends the disk command to disk device number 8.

.@$0 or .>$0

This reads the directory from disk device number 8. The SPACE BAR will hold the display, any other key will start it again, and the STOP key will return to command mode.

CONTROL CHARACTERS

.(Up arrow)g

This command will print the control character of the ASCII character input.

Examples of controls:

g    Ring bell

i    Tab set and clear

M    Insert line

n    Text mode

N    Graphics mode

q    Cursor down

Q    Cursor up

s    Home cursor

S    Clear screen

u    Delete line

v    Erase end

V    Erase begin

MICROMON PLUS INSTRUCTIONS

(Shift)	D	PRINTING DISASSEMBLER
	I	HEADING AND FORM FEED CONTROL
	J	PRINT LOAD ADDRESS
(Shift)	K	KILL MICROMON ADDITIONS
(Shift)	L	LOAD FROM DISK
(Shift)	M	PRINT MEMORY DISPLAY
	P	PRINTER SWITCHING
	U	SEND TO PROM PROGRAMMER
	Y	SPECIFY LOAD ADDRESS
(Shift)	Z	TEXT/GRAPHICS FLIP
	>	DOS SUPPORT COMMANDS
	@	DOS SUPPORT COMMANDS
(Up arrow)		CONTROL CHARACTERS

Program 1. Checksum For Micromon.

10 DATA 15463,14894,142_90,11897,12
   453,13919,14116,11715,1257
   5,14571
20 DATA 13693,11853,12_903,14513,12
   137,15006,12654,13291,1243
   6,13899
30 DATA 15366,9999,11834,13512,128
   92,14475,15149,14896,15782
   ,9511
40 DATA 12171,8985
100 Q=4096
110 FOR BLOCK=1TO32
120 FOR BYTE=0TO127
130 X=PEEK(Q+BYTE):CK=CK+X
140 NEXT BYTE
150 READ SUM
160 IF SUM <> CK THEN PRINT" ERROR ~
    IN BLOCK #"BLOCK:GOTO170
165 PRINT"                  BLOCK"
    BLOCK" IS CORRECT
170 CK=0:Q=Q+128
180 NEXT BLOCK

Program 2. Micromon.

1000 4C 0C 10 4C 6F 10 4C CF
1008 FF 4C D2 FF 78 A5 92 A6
1010 93 8D E5 02 8E E6 02 AD
1018 F6 1F AE F7 1F 8D E3 02
1020 8E E4 02 AD F0 1F AE F1
1028 1F 85 92 86 93 A5 90 A6
1030 91 CD EE 1F D0 05 EC EF
1038 1F F0 10 8D 9E 02 8E 9F
1040 02 AD EE 1F AE EF 1F 85
1048 90 86 91 AD EC 1F AE ED
1050 1F E0 80 B0 08 85 34 86
1058 35 85 30 86 31 A9 10 8D
1060 84 02 8D 85 02 A9 00 8D
1068 86 02 8D A2 02 58 00 38
1070 AD 7B 02 E9 01 8D 7B 02
1078 AD 7A 02 E9 00 8D 7A 02

1080 20 55 19 A2 42 A9 2A 20
1088 29 18 A9 52 D0 23 A9 3F
1090 20 09 10 20 55 19 A9 2E
1098 20 09 10 A9 00 8D 94 02
10A0 8D A2 02 A2 FF 9A 20 A4
10A8 18 C9 2E F0 F9 C9 20 F0
10B0 F5 A2 1D DD 92 1F D0 13
10B8 8D 87 02 8A 0A AA BD B0
10C0 1F 85 FB BD B1 1F 85 FC
10C8 6C FB 00 CA 10 E5 6C E3
10D0 02 A2 02 D0 02 A2 00 B4
10D8 FB D0 09 B4 FC D0 03 EE
10E0 94 02 D6 FC D6 FB 60 A9
10E8 00 8D 8C 02 20 4F 12 A2
10F0 09 20 52 19 CA D0 FA 60
10F8 A2 02 B5 FA 48 BD 91 02

1100 95 FA 68 9D 91 02 CA D0
1108 F1 60 AD 92 02 AC 93 02
1110 4C 17 11 A5 FD A4 FE 38
1118 E5 FB 8D 91 02 98 E5 FC
1120 A8 0D 91 02 60 A9 00 F0
1128 02 A9 01 8D 95 02 20 E6
1130 17 20 55 19 20 13 11 20
1138 3C 18 90 1B 20 0A 11 B0
1140 03 4C C5 11 20 7F 11 E6
1148 FD D0 02 E6 FE 20 3B 19
1150 AC 94 02 D0 45 F0 E5 20
1158 0A 11 18 AD 91 02 65 FD
1160 85 FD 98 65 FE 85 FE 20
1168 F8 10 20 7F 11 20 0A 11
1170 B0 53 20 D1 10 20 D5 10
1178 AC 94 02 D0 1D F0 EB A2

1180 00 A1 FB AC 95 02 F0 02.
1188 81 FD C1 FD F0 0B 20 13
1190 18 20 52 19 20 AE 18 F0
1198 01 60 4C 93 10 20 01 18
11A0 20 0B 18 20 A4 18 20 6F
11A8 18 90 17 8D 89 02 AE 94
11B0 02 D0 12 20 13 11 90 0D
11B8 AD 89 02 81 FB 20 3B 19
11C0 D0 EC 4C 8E 10 4C 93 10
11C8 20 01 18 20 0B 18 20 A4
11D0 18 A2 00 20 A4 18 C9 27
11D8 D0 14 20 A4 18 9D A3 02
11E0 E8 20 06 10 C9 0D F0 22
11E8 E0 20 D0 F1 F0 1C 8E 97
11F0 02 20 77 18 90 CC 9D A3
11F8 02 E8 20 06 10 C9 0D F0

1200 09 20 6F 18 90 BC E0 20
1208 D0 EC 8E 88 02 20 55 19
1210 A2 00 A0 00 B1 FB DD A3
1218 02 D0 0A C8 E8 EC 88 02
1220 D0 F2 20 8E 11 20 3B 19
1228 AC 94 02 D0 05 20 13 11
1230 B0 DE 4C 93 10 20 39 14
1238 20 13 11 90 0D A0 2C 20
1240 E7 10 20 AB 12 20 AE 18
1248 D0 EE 20 B3 15 D0 E3 20
1250 47 19 20 13 18 20 52 19
1258 20 0E 1E 48 20 0B 13 68
1260 20 22 13 A2 06 E0 03 D0
1268 14 AC 8B 02 F0 0F AD 96
1270 02 C9 E8 B1 FB B0 1D 20
1278 A1 12 88 D0 F1 0E 96 02

1280 90 0E BD E9 1E 20 AD 15
1288 BD EF 1E F0 03 20 AD 15
1290 CA D0 D2 60 20 B7 12 AA
1298 E8 D0 01 C8 98 20 A1 12
12A0 8A 8E 88 02 20 1A 18 AE
12A8 88 02 60 AD 8B 02 20 B6
12B0 12 85 FB 84 FC 60 38 A4
12B8 FC AA 10 01 88 65 FB 90
12C0 01 C8 60 A8 4A 90 0B 4A
12C8 B0 17 C9 22 F0 13 29 07
12D0 09 80 4A AA BD 98 1E B0
12D8 04 4A 4A 4A 4A 29 0F D0
12E0 04 A0 80 A9 00 AA BD DC
12E8 1E 8D 96 02 29 03 8D 8B
12F0 02 98 29 8F AA 98 A0 03
12F8 E0 8A F0 0B 4A 90 08 4A

1300 4A 09 20 88 D0 FA C8 88
1308 D0 F2 60 B1 FB 20 A1 12
1310 A2 01 20 F1 10 CC 8B 02
1318 C8 90 F0 A2 03 C0 03 90
1320 F1 60 A8 B9 F6 1E 8D 92
1328 02 B9 36 1F 8D 93 02 A9
1330 00 A0 05 0E 93 02 2E 92
1338 02 2A 88 D0 F6 69 3F 20
1340 09 10 CA D0 EA 4C 52 19
1348 20 01 18 A9 03 20 AC 13
1350 A0 2C 4C 50 15 BD 05 01
1358 CD F8 1F D0 0B BD 06 01
1360 CD F9 1F D0 03 20 D7 18
1368 A5 97 CD 83 02 F0 0A 8D
1370 83 02 A9 10 8D 84 02 D0
1378 24 C9 FF F0 20 AD 84 02

1380 F0 05 CE 84 02 D0 16 CE
1388 85 02 D0 11 A9 02 8D 85
1390 02 A5 9E D0 08 A9 00 85
1398 97 A9 02 85 A8 AD F3 1F
13A0 48 AD F2 1F 48 08 48 48
13A8 48 6C 9E 02 8D 89 02 48
13B0 20 A4 18 20 19 19 D0 F8
13B8 68 49 FF 4C AE 12 20 39
13C0 14 AE 94 02 D0 0D 20 13
13C8 11 90 08 20 D6 13 20 AE
13D0 18 D0 EE 4C 4A 12 20 55
13D8 19 A2 2E A9 3A 20 29 18
13E0 20 52 19 20 13 18 A9 08
13E8 20 03 19 A9 08 20 B9 13
13F0 A9 12 20 09 10 A0 08 A2
13F8 00 A1 FB 29 7F C9 20 B0

1400 02 A9 2E 20 09 10 C9 22
1408 F0 04 C9 62 D0 0A A9 14
1410 20 09 10 A9 22 20 09 10
1418 20 3B 19 88 D0 DB A9 92
1420 4C 09 10 20 01 18 A9 08
1428 20 AC 13 20 B3 15 20 D6
1430 13 A9 3A 8D 6F 02 4C 5C
1438 15 20 01 18 85 FD 86 FE
1440 20 06 10 C9 0D F0 03 20
1448 06 18 4C 55 19 20 4C 18
1450 85 FD 86 FE A2 00 8E A4
1458 02 20 A4 18 C9 20 F0 F4
1460 9D 8D 02 E8 E0 03 D0 F1
1468 CA 30 14 BD 8D 02 38 E9
1470 3F A0 05 4A 6E A4 02 6E
1478 A3 02 88 D0 F6 F0 E9 A2

1480 02 20 06 10 C9 0D F0 22
1488 C9 3A F0 1E C9 20 F0 F1
1490 20 A4 15 B0 0F 20 84 18
1498 A4 FB 84 FC 85 FB A9 30
14A0 9D A3 02 E8 9D A3 02 E8
14A8 D0 D7 8E 92 02 A2 00 8E
14B0 94 02 A2 00 8E 89 02 AD
14B8 94 02 20 C3 12 AE 96 02
14C0 8E 93 02 AA BD 36 1F 20
14C8 84 15 BD F6 1E 20 84 15
14D0 A2 06 E0 03 D0 14 AC 8B
14D8 02 F0 0F AD 96 02 C9 E8
14E0 A9 30 B0 1E 20 81 15 88
14E8 D0 F1 0E 96 02 90 0E BD
14F0 E9 1E 20 84 15 BD EF 1E
14F8 F0 03 20 84 15 CA D0 D2

1500 F0 06 20 81 15 20 81 15
1508 AD 92 02 CD 89 02 F0 03
1510 4C 91 15 20 3C 18 AC 8B
1518 02 F0 2E AD 93 02 C9 9D
1520 D0 1F 20 13 11 90 0A 98
1528 D0 6F AE 91 02 30 6A 10
1530 08 C8 D0 65 AE 91 02 10
1538 60 CA CA 8A AC 80 02 D0
1540 03 B9 FC 00 91 FB 88 D0
1548 F8 AD 94 02 91 FB A0 41
1550 8C 6F 02 20 B3 15 20 E7
1558 10 20 AB 12 A9 20 8D 70
1560 02 8D 75 02 A5 FC 20 B8
1568 15 8E 71 02 8D 72 02 A5
1570 FB 20 B8 15 8E 73 02 8D
1578 74 02 A9 07 85 9E 4C 93

1580 10 20 84 15 8E 88 02 AE
1588 89 02 DD A3 02 F0 0D 68
1590 68 EE 94 02 F0 03 4C B2
1598 14 4C 8E 10 E8 8E 89 02
15A0 AE 88 02 60 C9 30 90 03
15A8 C9 47 60 38 60 CD 8C 02
15B0 D0 03 60 A9 91 4C 09 10
15B8 48 4A 4A 4A 4A 20 32 18
15C0 AA 68 29 0F 4C 32 18 8D
15C8 7D 02 08 68 29 EF 8D 7C
15D0 02 8E 7E 02 8C 7F 02 68
15D8 18 69 01 8D 7B 02 68 69
15E0 00 8D 7A 02 A9 80 8D 86
15E8 02 D0 21 AD 13 E8 10 03
15F0 4C 55 13 D8 68 8D 7F 02
15F8 68 8D 7E 02 68 8D 7D 02

1600 68 8D 7C 02 68 8D 7B 02
1608 68 8D 7A 02 A5 90 8D 82
1610 02 A5 91 8D 81 02 BA 8E
1618 80 02 20 D7 18 AD 12 E8
1620 58 AD 7C 02 29 10 F0 03
1628 4C 6F 10 2C 86 02 50 1F
1630 AD 7A 02 CD 99 02 D0 6D
1638 AD 7B 02 CD 98 02 D0 65
1640 AD 9C 02 D0 5D AD 9D 02
1648 D0 55 A9 80 8D 86 02 30
1650 14 4E 86 02 90 D2 AE 80
1658 02 9A AD F5 1F 48 AD F4
1660 1F 48 4C 1F 17 20 55 19
1668 20 30 19 8D 89 02 A0 00
1670 20 0B 19 AD 7B 02 AE 7A
1678 02 85 FB 86 FC 20 52 19

1680 A9 24 8D 8C 02 20 52 12
1688 20 E4 FF F0 FB C9 03 D0
1690 03 4C 93 10 C9 4A D0 56
1698 A9 01 8D 86 02 D0 4F CE
16A0 9D 02 CE 9C 02 AD 12 E8
16A8 C9 EE F0 04 C9 6F D0 3E
1680 A2 53 4C 85 10 A9 00 F0
16B8 12 AD 9A 02 AE 9B 02 8D
16C0 9C 02 8E 9D 02 A9 40 D0
16C8 02 A9 80 8D 86 02 20 06
16D0 10 C9 0D F0 11 C9 20 D0
16D8 5C 20 60 18 20 FC 18 20
16E0 06 10 C9 0D D0 4F 20 55
16E8 19 AD 86 02 F0 22 78 A9
16F0 A0 8D 4E E8 CE 13 E8 2C
16F8 12 E8 AD F0 1F AE F1 1F

1700 8D 82 02 8E 81 02 A9 3B
1708 A2 00 8D 48 E8 8E 49 E8
1710 AE 80 02 9A 78 AD 81 02
1718 85 91 AD 82 02 85 90 AD
1720 7A 02 48 AD 7B 02 48 AD
1728 7C 02 48 AD 7D 02 AE 7E
1730 02 AC 7F 02 40 4C 8E 10
1738 20 4C 18 8D 98 02 8E 99
1740 02 A9 00 8D 9A 02 8D 9B
1748 02 20 5D 18 8D 9A 02 8E
1750 9B 02 4C 93 10 20 E6 17
1758 8D A0 02 8E A1 02 20 5D
1760 18 8D 8D 02 8E 8E 02 20
1768 5D 18 8D 8F 02 8E 90 02
1770 20 06 10 C9 0D F0 0A 20
1778 06 10 C9 57 D0 03 EE 8C

1780 02 20 3C 18 AE 94 02 D0
1788 18 20 0A 11 90 13 AC 8C
1790 02 D0 1A B1 FB 20 C3 12
1798 AA BD F6 1E D0 06 20 E7
17A0 10 4C 93 10 AC 8B 02 C0
17A8 02 D0 33 F0 03 8C 8B 02
17B0 88 38 B1 FB AA ED 8D 02
17B8 C8 B1 FB ED 8E 02 90 1E
17C0 88 AD 8F 02 F1 FB C8 AD
17C8 90 02 F1 FB 90 10 88 18
17D0 8A 6D A0 02 91 FB C8 B1
17D8 FB 6D A1 02 91 FB 20 3B
17E0 19 88 10 FA 30 9E 20 4C
17E8 18 85 FD 86 FE 20 5D 18
17F0 8D 92 02 8E 93 02 20 A4
17F8 18 20 60 18 85 FB 86 FC

1800 60 20 4C 18 B0 F6 20 60
1808 18 B0 03 20 5D 18 85 FD
1810 86 FE 60 A5 FC 20 1A 18
1818 A5 FB 48 4A 4A 4A 4A 20
1820 32 18 AA 68 29 0F 20 32
1828 18 48 8A 20 09 10 68 4C
1830 09 10 18 69 F6 90 02 69
1838 06 69 3A 60 A2 02 B5 FA
1840 48 B5 FC 95 FA 68 95 FC
1848 CA D0 F3 60 A9 00 8D 97
1850 02 20 A4 18 C9 20 F0 F9
1858 20 84 18 B0 08 20 A4 18
1860 20 6F 18 90 07 AA 20 6F
1868 18 90 01 60 4C 8E 10 A9
1870 00 8D 97 02 20 A4 18 C9
1878 20 D0 09 20 A4 18 C9 20

1880 D0 0F 18 60 20 99 18 0A
1888 0A 0A 0A 8D 97 02 20 A4
1890 18 20 99 18 0D 97 02 38
1898 60 C9 3A 08 29 0F 28 90
18A0 02 69 08 60 20 06 10 C9
18A8 0D D0 F8 4C 93 10 A5 9B
18B0 C9 EF D0 07 08 20 CC FF
18B8 85 9E 28 60 20 C6 18 AD
18C0 13 E8 6A 90 F7 60 20 AE
18C8 18 D0 0B 20 D7 18 A9 03
18D0 85 B0 A9 00 85 AF 60 08
18D8 78 AD 40 E8 09 10 8D 40
18E0 E8 A9 7F 8D 4E E8 A9 3C
18E8 8D 11 E8 A9 3D 8D 13 E8
18F0 AD EE 1F 85 90 AD EF 1F
18F8 85 91 28 60 8D 7B 02 8E

1900 7A 02 60 8D 89 02 A0 00
1908 20 52 19 B1 FB 20 1A 18
1910 20 3B 19 CE 89 02 D0 F0
1918 60 20 6F 18 90 0B A2 00
1920 81 FB C1 FB F0 03 4C 8E
1928 10 20 3B 19 CE 89 02 60
1930 A9 7C 85 FB A9 02 85 FC
1938 A9 05 60 E6 FB D0 07 E6
1940 FC D0 03 EE 94 02 60 98
1948 48 20 55 19 68 A2 2E 20
1950 29 18 A9 20 2C A9 0D 4C
1958 09 10 A2 00 BD 76 1F 20
1960 09 10 E8 E0 1C D0 F5 A0
1968 3B 20 47 19 AD 7A 02 20
1970 1A 18 AD 7B 02 20 1A 18
1978 20 52 19 AD 81 02 20 1A

1980 18 AD 82 02 20 1A 18 20
1988 30 19 20 03 19 4C 93 10
1990 4C 8E 10 20 4C 18 20 FC
1998 18 20 5D 18 8D 82 02 8E
19A0 81 02 20 30 19 8D 89 02
19A8 20 A4 18 20 19 19 D0 F8
19B0 F0 DB 20 60 1C AE 80 02
19B8 9A 6C 94 00 4C 8E 10 A0
19C0 01 84 D4 88 84 D1 84 96
19C8 84 9D A9 02 85 DB A9 A3
19D0 85 DA 20 06 10 C9 20 F0
19D8 F9 C9 0D F0 1A C9 22 D0
19E0 DB 20 06 10 C9 22 F0 36
19E8 C9 0D F0 0B 91 DA E6 D1
19F0 C8 C0 10 F0 C7 D0 EA AD
19F8 87 02 C9 4C D0 E1 AD 00

1A00 C0 C9 40 D0 06 20 22 F3
1A08 4C 12 1A C9 4C D0 AD 20
1A10 56 F3 20 BC 18 A5 96 29
1A18 10 D0 E1 4C 93 10 20 06
1A20 10 C9 0D F0 D2 C9 2C D0
1A28 F0 20 6F 18 29 0F F0 C3
1A30 C9 03 F0 FA 85 D4 20 06
1A38 10 C9 0D F0 BA C9 2C D0
1A40 E6 20 F9 17 20 06 10 C9
1A48 2C D0 F4 20 60 18 85 C9
1A50 86 CA 20 06 10 C9 20 F0
1A58 F9 C9 0D D0 EC AD 87 02
1A60 C9 53 D0 F7 AD 00 C0 C9
1A68 40 D0 06 20 A4 F6 4C 93
1A70 10 C9 4C D0 D4 20 E3 F6
1A78 4C 93 10 20 01 18 20 3B

1A80 19 20 3B 19 20 0B 18 20
1A88 52 19 20 13 11 90 0A 98
1A90 D0 15 AD 91 02 30 10 10
1A98 08 C8 D0 0B AD 91 02 10
1AA0 06 20 1A 18 4C 93 10 4C
1AA8 8E 10 20 01 18 20 C0 1A
1AB0 4C 93 10 20 55 19 A2 2E
1AB8 A9 24 20 29 18 20 13 18
1AC0 20 2F 1B 20 E6 1A 20 52
1AC8 19 20 CC 1A 20 CF 1A 20
1AD0 52 19 A2 04 A9 30 18 0E
1AD8 92 02 2E 93 02 69 00 20
1AE0 09 10 CA D0 EF 60 A5 FC
1AE8 A6 FB 8D 93 02 8E 92 02
1AF0 20 52 19 A5 FC 20 FA 1A
1AF8 A5 FB AA 20 52 19 8A 29

1B00 7F C9 20 08 B0 0A A9 12
1B08 20 09 10 8A 18 69 40 AA
1B10 8A 20 09 10 C9 22 F0 04
1B18 C9 62 D0 0A A9 14 20 09
1B20 10 A9 22 20 09 10 28 B0
1B28 05 A9 92 20 09 10 60 20
1B30 52 19 A6 FB A5 FC AC 00
1B38 C0 C0 40 D0 03 4C D9 DC
1B40 C0 4C D0 03 4C 83 CF 4C
1B48 8E 10 20 5B 1B B0 F8 20
1850 52 19 20 13 18 20 C3 1A
1B58 4C 93 10 A2 04 A9 00 85
1B60 FC 20 17 1C 20 83 1B 85
1B68 FB 20 78 1B 20 92 1B CA
1B70 D0 F7 08 20 52 19 28 60
1B78 20 06 10 C9 0D F0 0F C9

1B80 20 F0 0B C9 30 90 C0 C9
1B88 3A B0 BC 29 0F 60 68 68
1B90 18 60 85 FE A5 FC 48 A5
1B98 FB 48 06 FB 26 FC 06 FB
1BA0 26 FC 68 65 FB 85 FB 68
1BA8 65 FC 85 FC 06 FB 26 FC
1BB0 A5 FE 65 FB 85 FB A9 00
1BB8 65 FC 85 FC 60 20 17 1C
1BC0 8D 93 02 48 48 20 52 19
1BC8 20 52 19 68 20 1A 18 20
1BD0 52 19 68 AA A9 00 20 36
1BD8 1B 20 52 19 20 CC 1A 4C
1BE0 93 10 20 F4 1B 20 52 19
1BE8 20 13 18 20 2F 1B 20 E6
1BF0 1A 4C 93 10 A2 0F A9 00
1BF8 85 FB 85 FC 20 17 1C 20

1C00 83 1B 20 11 1C 20 78 1B
1C08 20 11 1C CA D0 F7 4C 52
1C10 19 4A 26 FB 26 FC 60 20
1C18 A4 18 C9 20 F0 F9 60 A9
1C20 02 4D 4C E8 8D 4C E8 4C
1C28 93 10 20 0B 18 4C F6 17
1C30 20 2A 1C 18 A5 FB 65 FD
1C38 85 FB A5 FC 65 FE 85 FC
1C40 4C 50 1C 20 2A 1C 20 13
1C48 11 84 FC AD 91 02 85 FB
1C50 20 52 19 20 13 18 4C 93
1C58 10 20 60 1C 00 6C EC 1F
1C60 78 AD E5 02 AE E6 02 85
1C68 92 86 93 AD 9E 02 AE 9F
1C70 02 85 90 86 91 58 60 20
1C78 2A 1C 20 3C 18 20 52 19

1C80 A0 00 8C 92 02 8C 93 02
1C88 20 13 11 90 11 AD 94 02
1C90 D0 18 A0 00 18 B1 FB 6D
1C98 92 02 8D 92 02 98 6D 93
1CA0 02 8D 93 02 20 3B 19 4C
1CA8 88 1C AD 93 02 20 1A 18
1CB0 AD 92 02 20 1A 18 4C 93
1CB8 10 AD A2 02 D0 04 A5 9E
1CC0 D0 06 68 A8 68 AA 68 40
1CC8 AD 6F 02 C9 11 D0 7D A5
1CD0 D8 C9 18 D0 ED A5 C4 85
1CD8 FD A5 C5 85 FE A9 19 8D
1CE0 9C 02 A0 01 20 8C 1E C9
1CE8 3A F0 1A C9 2C F0 16 C9
1CF0 24 F0 12 CE 9C 02 F0 CA
1CF8 38 A5 FD E9 28 85 FD B0

1D00 E1 C6 FE D0 DD 8D 87 02
1D08 20 45 1E B0 B5 AD 87 02
1D10 C9 3A D0 11 18 A5 FB 69
1D18 08 85 FB 90 02 E6 FC 20
1D20 D6 13 4C 39 1D C9 24 F0
1D28 1A 20 0E 1E 20 AB 12 A9
1D30 00 8D 8C 02 A0 2C 20 4F
1D38 12 A9 00 85 9E 4C 4A 12
1D40 4C C2 1C 20 3B 19 20 B3
1D48 1A 4C 39 1D C9 91 D0 F0
1D50 A5 D8 D0 EC A5 C4 85 FD
1D58 A5 C5 85 FE A9 19 8D 9C
1D60 02 A0 01 20 8C 1E C9 3A
1D68 F0 1A C9 2C F0 16 C9 24
1D70 F0 12 CE 9C 02 F0 15 18
1D78 A5 FD 69 28 85 FD 90 E1

1D80 E6 FE D0 DD 8D 87 02 20
1D88 45 1E 90 03 4C C2 1C AD
1D90 87 02 C9 3A F0 06 C9 24
1D98 F0 1D D0 27 20 15 1E 38
1DA0 A5 FB E9 08 85 FB B0 02
1DA8 C6 FC 20 D9 13 A9 00 85
1DB0 9E 20 40 1E 4C 96 10 20
1DB8 15 1E 20 D5 10 20 B6 1A
1DC0 4C AD 1D 20 15 1E A5 FB
1DC8 A6 FC 85 FD 86 FE A9 10
1DD0 8D 9C 02 38 A5 FD ED 9C
1DD8 02 85 FB A5 FE E9 00 85
1DE0 FC 20 0E 1E 20 AB 12 20
1DE8 13 11 F0 07 B0 F3 CE 9C
1DF0 02 D0 E0 EE 8B 02 AD 8B
1DF8 02 20 B9 13 A2 00 A1 FB

1E00 8E 8C 02 A9 2C 20 4D 19
1E08 20 52 12 4C AD 1D A2 00
1E10 A1 FB 4C C3 12 A9 83 85
1E18 C8 85 FE A9 00 85 C7 A9
1E20 28 85 FD A0 C0 A2 04 88
1E28 B1 C7 91 FD 98 D0 F8 C6
1E30 C8 C6 FE CA D0 F1 A2 27
1E38 A9 20 9D 00 80 CA 10 FA
1E40 A9 13 4C 09 10 C0 28 D0
1E48 02 38 60 20 8C 1E C9 20
1E50 F0 F3 88 20 75 1E AA 20
1E58 75 1E 85 FB 86 FC A9 FF
1E60 8D A2 02 85 A7 A5 AA F0
1E68 0A A5 A9 A4 C6 91 C4 A9
1E70 00 85 AA 18 60 20 8C 1E
1E78 20 99 18 0A 0A 0A 0A 8D

1E80 97 02 20 8C 1E 20 99 18
1E88 0D 97 02 60 B1 FD C8 29
1E90 7F C9 20 B0 02 09 40 60
1E98 40 02 45 03 D0 08 40 09
1EA0 30 22 45 33 D0 08 40 09
1EA8 40 02 45 33 D0 08 40 09
1EB0 40 02 45 B3 D0 08 40 09
1EB8 00 22 44 33 D0 8C 44 00
1EC0 11 22 44 33 D0 8C 44 9A
1EC8 10 22 44 33 D0 08 40 09
1ED0 10 22 44 33 D0 08 40 09
1ED8 62 13 78 A9 00 21 81 82
1EE0 00 00 59 4D 91 92 86 4A
1EE8 85 9D 2C 29 2C 23 28 24
1EF0 59 00 58 24 24 00 1C 8A
1EF8 1C 23 5D 8B 1B A1 9D 8A

1F00 1D 23 9D 8B 1D A1 00 29
1F08 19 AE 69 A8 19 23 24 53
1F10 1B 23 24 53 19 A1 00 1A
1F18 5B 5B A5 69 24 24 AE AE
1F20 A8 AD 29 00 7C 00 15 9C
1F28 6D 9C A5 69 29 53 84 13
1F30 34 11 A5 69 23 A0 D8 62
1F38 5A 48 26 62 94 88 54 44
1F40 C8 54 68 44 E8 94 00 B4
1F48 08 84 74 B4 28 6E 74 F4
1F50 CC 4A 72 F2 A4 8A 00 AA
1F58 A2 A2 74 74 74 72 44 68
1F60 B2 32 B2 00 22 00 1A 1A
1F68 26 26 72 72 88 C8 C4 CA
1F70 26 48 44 44 A2 C8 0D 20
1F78 20 20 20 50 43 20 20 49

1F80 52 51 20 20 53 52 20 41
1F88 43 20 58 52 20 59 52 20
1F90 53 50 41 42 43 44 46 47
1F98 48 4C 4D 4E 51 52 53 54
1FA0 57 58 2C 3A 3B 24 23 22
1FA8 2B 2D 4F 5A 4B 25 26 45
1FB0 4D 14 38 17 25 11 35 12
1FB8 9D 11 B5 16 C8 11 BF 19
1FC0 BE 13 55 17 B9 16 5A 19
1FC8 BF 19 29 11 C9 16 B5 19
1FD0 48 13 23 14 93 19 AA 1A
1FD8 4A 1B BD 1B 30 1C 43 1C
1FE0 7B 1A 1F 1C 59 1C E2 1B
1FE8 77 1C B2 19 00 10 55 13
1FF0 EB 15 B9 1C C6 15 8E 10
1FF8 BC 18 30 35 32 37 38 31

Program 3. Checksum For Micromon Plus.

10 DATA 15965,14778,13059,14282,14
    416,17693,12979,12903,1767
    6,21760
20 DATA 14416,17693,12979,12903
100 Q=23296
110 FOR BLOCK=1TO8
120 FOR BYTE=0TO127
130 X=PEEK(Q+BYTE):CK=CK+X
140 NEXT BYTE
150 READ SUM
160 IF SUM <> CK THEN PRINT" ERROR ~
    IN BLOCK #"BLOCK:GOTO170
165 PRINT"                  BLOCK"
    BLOCK" IS CORRECT
170 CK=0:Q=Q+128
180 NEXT BLOCK
190 PRINT"ANY REMAINING PROBLEMS AR
    E EITHER WITHIN THE FINAL"
200 PRINT"SHORT BLOCK OR WITHIN DAT
    A STATEMENTS IN THIS PROGR
    AM."

Program 4. Micromon Plus.

5B00 78 A5 90 A6 91 CD EE 6F
5B08 D0 05 EC EF 6F F0 30 8D
5810 9E 02 8E 9F 02 AD EE 6F
5B18 AE EF 6F 85 90 86 91 A5
5B20 92 A6 93 8D E5 02 8E E6
5B28 02 AD 3C 5F AE 3D 5F 8D
5B30 E3 02 8E E4 02 AD F0 6F
5B38 AE F1 6F 85 92 86 93 AD
5B40 3E 5F AE 3F 5F E0 80 B0
5B48 08 85 34 86 35 85 30 86
5B50 31 A9 10 8D 84 02 8D 85
5B58 02 A9 00 8D 86 02 8D A2
5B60 02 8D E7 02 8D E8 02 58
5868 00 A2 0C DD 15 5F D0 13
5B70 8D 87 02 8A 0A AA BD 22
5B78 5F 85 FB BD 23 5F 85 FC

5B80 6C FB 00 CA 10 E5 4C 8E
5B88 60 20 39 64 20 13 61 90
5B90 17 20 EF 60 8E 8C 02 20
5B98 52 62 20 AB 5B 20 AB 62
5BA0 20 93 5C 20 AE 68 D0 E4
5BA8 4C 9B 60 A2 1E 20 F1 60
5BB0 A0 00 B1 FB 20 60 5C CC
5BB8 8B 02 C8 90 F5 60 A5 B0
5BC0 C9 03 D0 19 20 06 60 AA
5BC8 A9 04 E0 0D F0 09 20 6F
5BD0 68 29 1F C9 04 90 AF 20
5BD8 E3 5B 4C 9B 60 20 CC FF
5BE0 4C 93 60 85 B0 85 D4 20
5BE8 09 5C AE 00 C0 E0 40 D0
5BF0 0B 20 BA F0 20 2D F1 A5
5BF8 96 D0 E2 60 E0 4C D0 5D

5C00 20 D5 F0 20 48 F1 4C F7
5C08 5B A9 00 85 96 8D FC 03
5C10 85 0D 8D E8 02 60 20 39
5C18 64 AE 94 02 D0 10 20 13
5C20 61 90 0B 20 31 5C 20 93
5C28 5C 20 AE 68 D0 EB 4C A8
5C30 5B A2 05 20 F1 60 20 13
5C38 68 A2 02 20 F1 60 A9 10
5C40 20 03 69 A9 10 20 B9 63
5C48 A2 04 20 F1 60 A0 10 A2
5C50 00 A1 FB 20 60 5C 20 3B
5C58 69 88 D0 F5 60 4C 8E 60
5C60 29 7F C9 20 B0 02 A9 20
5C68 4C 09 60 20 06 60 C9 0D
5C70 F0 19 C9 20 D0 03 20 17
5C78 6C C9 58 F0 50 20 71 5D

5C80 8E E8 02 A2 02 20 A7 5C
5C88 4C 9B 60 A2 04 20 C1 5C
5C90 4C 9B 60 20 55 69 AE E7
5C98 02 F0 31 CE E7 02 D0 2C
5CA0 AE E8 02 F0 1A A2 06 20
5CA8 C1 5C A2 14 20 F1 60 BD
5CB0 A3 02 20 09 60 E8 EC E8
5CB8 02 D0 F4 A2 03 D0 02 A2
5CC0 09 20 55 69 CA D0 FA A9
5CC8 39 8D E7 02 60 A9 00 8D
5CD0 E7 02 8D E8 02 4C 9B 60
5CD8 20 09 5C 20 CC FF 20 06
5CE0 60 C9 0D F0 16 C9 24 F0
5CE8 24 48 20 9E 5D 68 20 09
5CF0 60 20 06 60 C9 0D D0 F6
5CF8 4C DD 5B 20 52 69 20 C5

5D00 5D 20 06 60 C9 0D F0 F0
5D08 20 09 60 D0 F4 A2 00 20
5D10 82 5D 20 8B 5D 20 55 69
5D18 20 55 69 A0 03 D0 02 A0
5D20 02 84 D1 A9 08 85 AF 20
5D28 06 60 AA A4 96 D0 36 20
5D30 06 60 A4 96 D0 2F C6 D1
5D38 D0 ED 20 36 6B 20 52 69
5D40 20 06 60 F0 05 20 09 60
5D48 D0 F6 20 55 69 A9 00 85
5D50 AF 20 E4 FF F0 C9 D0 05
5D58 20 E4 FF F0 FB C9 20 F0
5D60 F7 C9 03 D0 BA 20 12 5E
5D68 20 55 69 4C 93 60 20 17
5D70 6C C9 22 D0 7B A2 00 20
5D78 06 60 C9 0D F0 0C C9 22

5D80 F0 08 9D A3 02 E8 E0 40
5D88 90 ED 60 86 D1 A9 A3 85
5D90 DA A9 02 85 DB 20 CC FF
5D98 20 F3 5D 4C C9 5D A9 08
5DA0 85 D4 85 B0 AC 00 C0 C0
5DA8 40 D0 0B 20 BA F0 A9 6F
5DB0 20 28 F1 4C F7 5B C0 4C
5DB8 D0 36 20 D5 F0 A9 6F 20
5DC0 43 F1 4C F7 5B A9 6F 85
5DC8 D3 A9 08 85 D4 85 AF AC
5DD0 00 C0 C0 40 D0 0B 20 B6
5DD8 F0 A5 D3 20 64 F1 4C F7
5DE0 5B C0 4C D0 0B 20 D2 F0
5DE8 A5 D3 20 93 F1 4C F7 5B
5DF0 4C 8E 60 A9 08 85 D4 A9
5DF8 60 85 D3 AD 00 C0 C9 40

5E00 D0 06 20 66 F4 4C F7 5B
5E08 C9 4C D0 E4 20 A5 F4 4C
5E10 F7 5B A9 00 85 AF AD 00
5E18 C0 C9 40 D0 03 4C 8F F3
5E20 C9 4C D0 CC 4C CE F3 A9
5E28 02 2C 4C E8 08 A9 0E 28
5E30 F0 02 09 80 20 09 60 4C
5E38 93 60 20 09 5C 20 6E 5D
5E40 20 8B 5D 20 06 60 8D FB
5E48 00 20 06 60 8D FC 00 20
5E50 12 5E 20 52 69 A9 24 A2
5E58 20 20 29 68 20 13 68 4C
5E60 93 60 20 60 6C 00 6C 3E
5E68 5F A0 08 84 D4 A0 4C 8C
5870 87 02 A0 00 4C C4 69 20
5878 17 6C 29 9F 4C 34 5E 4C

5880 8E 60 20 A4 68 20 6F 68
5888 29 1F C9 04 90 F1 85 D4
5890 20 2A 6C A5 FD A6 FE 8D
5898 92 02 8E 93 02 20 3C 68
5EA0 A5 D4 20 E3 5B A9 02 20
5EA8 09 60 20 52 69 20 13 61
5EB0 90 0F AE 94 02 D0 0A A1
5EB8 FB 20 1A 68 20 3B 69 D0
5EC0 E9 A9 03 20 09 60 20 EF
5EC8 60 20 CC FF 20 F8 60 4C
5ED0 7D 6C 20 09 5C 20 01 68
5ED8 20 6E 5D 86 D1 20 04 5F
5EE0 20 8D 5D 20 06 60 20 06
5EE8 60 A9 00 85 AF AD 00 C0
5EF0 C9 40 D0 06 20 52 F3 4C
5EF8 01 5F C9 4C D0 81 20 8C

5F00 F3 4C 12 6A AD 00 C0 C9
5F08 40 D0 03 4C 0A F4 C9 4C
5F10 D0 EA 4C 49 F4 50 C4 49
5F18 CD 40 3E DA 4A CB CC 5E
5F20 55 59 BE 5B 89 5B 6B 5C
5F28 16 5C D8 5C D8 5C 27 5E
5F30 3A 5E 62 5E 69 5E 77 5E
5F38 82 5E D2 5E 69 5B 00 5B
5F40 31 30 32 31 38 31 AA AA

VIC Micromon

VIC machine language programmers: here’s one of the most valuable tools there is for working in machine language. Thirty-four commands are at your disposal including single-step, hex conversion, search, EPROM routines, and a relocator. If you aren’t yet working with machine language, the instructions for entering and using this program are easy to follow. As presented, this program takes up 4K of memory from $4000 (16384 decimal) to $4FFF (20479), but there are instructions for locating it elsewhere in RAM memory. To enter Micromon directly, see the Tiny PEEKer/POKEr program with Supermon 64 (in this Appendix). The commands for VIC Micromon are the same as the PET/CBM version except as noted below.

VIC Micromon Instructions

Initialize Memory And Screen Pointers

.I 1000 1E00 1E

Define low memory as $1000 and high memory as $1E00 regardless of the memory present. The screen is defined to start at the $1E page of memory. The screen memory should always be on an even page within the range of $1000 to $1E00. Odd page values result in incorrect setup and operation of the VIC display. Although 3K of RAM can be added at $400 to $FFF, this memory is not accessible for use as screen memory.

Memory pages at $000 and $200 are accessible, but are not usable since they are used for BASIC and kernal storage, working buffers, and stack area. If the screen page is within the low to high memory range specified, there can be usage conflict of the screen memory pages. If the “I” command is used and exit is made to BASIC, the NEW command must be invoked in the BASIC environment to clean up the memory pointers used by BASIC.

Jump To Micromon Subroutine

.J 2000

The subroutine at $2000 is called while remaining in the VIC Micromon environment. The assembly language subroutine should exit by using a RTS instruction, which causes a return to the command input section of VIC Micromon. The machine image as shown by the Register display command is not used, nor is it disturbed when the subroutine returns to the VIC Micromon.

Load

.L 2000 "TEST FILE" 01

Search for and, if found, load into memory the data file on device #1 named TEST FILE. If the name is not specified, the first file found is loaded. The data is loaded into memory starting at location $2000. The last address loaded is determined by the length of the binary data file. If the device number is not specified, it defaults to device #1, which is the VIC cassette tape. The original memory addresses and name of the last file read can be inspected by doing a Memory display of the tape buffer which is at $375 for VIC Micromon.

Print Switcher

.P

If the output is to the screen, then switch the ouput to the RS-232 channel (device #2). If the output is not to the screen, restore the output to the screen with the RS-232 channel left active until the RS-232 output buffer is drained. Note that opening the RS-232 channel grabs 512 bytes for I/O buffering from the top of memory.

.P 0000

Regardless of the output, clear the RS-232 channel and set output to the screen.

.P CCBB

If the output is to the screen, set CC into the RS-232 command register at location $294 and BB into the RS-232 control register at location $293. Output is then switched to the RS-232 channel. This command is invalid if output is not currently to the screen.

Command Register Format

Field	Use	Value	Description
7,6,5 4 3,2,1 0	Parity Options Duplex Unused Handshake	–0 0 0 1 0 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 0 1 0 1	Parity disabled Odd parity Even parity Mark transmitted Space transmitted Full duplex Half duplex 3 line x line

Control Register Format

Field	Use	Value	Description
7 6,5 4 3,2,1,0	Stop Bits Word Length Unused Baud Rate	0 1 0 0 0 1 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 0	1 stop bit 2 stop bits 8 bits 7 bits 6 bits 5 bits User rate 50 Baud 75 110 134.5 150 300 600 1200 1800 2400

Save

.S 2000 3000 "TEST FILE" 01

Save memory from $2000 up to, but not including, $3000 onto device #1, which is the VIC cassette tape. If the device number is not specified, it defaults to device #1. The name TEST FILE is placed in the file header for the file saved.

Verify

.V 2000 "TEST FILE" 01

Search for and verify, if found, the data file on device #1 named “TEST FILE.” If the name is not specified, the first file found is verified. The data is verified by reading the file and comparing it to the data in memory starting at location $2000. If not specified, the device defaults to device #1. If there is a mismatch, the message ERROR is output to the screen at the end of the file verification.

Command End Tone

.(

Enable the command end tone. A continuous tone will be generated at the end of execution of the next command. The tone can be turned off but still be enabled by just hitting the carriage return. No tone is generated if there is a syntax error while inputting the next command.

.)

Disable the command end tone.

Program EPROM

.π 2800 2FFF 00

Program the 2716 type EPROM via the EPROM programmer on the VIC User I/O port with data read from memory starting at location $2800 and ending at location $2FFF. The last input parameter specifies in hex the starting 256 byte page offset on the EPROM. If the low order byte of the starting memory address is zero and the offset is zero, then the programming starts with the first byte of the EPROM. For example, to program only the last byte of the 2K EPROM with a data byte from location $2FFF in memory, the command would be:

.π 2FFF 2FFF 07

During programming, a compare of EPROM to memory is done for each data byte just after it is written to the EPROM. Any mismatch due to failure to program the EPROM results in output to the screen of the mismatched memory location. If programming must be terminated early, just hit the STOP key. No other means should be used to abort EPROM programming. A warm restart or power down while programming can damage the EPROM.

Read EPROM

.£ 2000 27FF 00

Load memory starting at location $2000 and ending at location $27FF with data read from the EPROM via the EPROM programmer on the VIC User I/O port. The last input parameter specifies in hex the starting 256 byte page offset on the EPROM. If the low order byte of the starting memory address is zero and the offset is zero, then reading starts with the first byte of the EPROM. For example, to read only the last byte of the 2K EPROM and load that byte into memory at location $10FF, the command would be:

.£ 10FF 10FF 07

During memory load, a compare of EPROM to memory is done for each data byte just after it is written to memory. Any mismatch because of failure to write the memory with data from the EPROM results in output to the screen of the mismatched memory location. The STOP key can be used to terminate the command early.

Compare EPROM

. = 3000 37FF 00

Compare memory starting at location $3000 and ending at location $37FF with data read from the EPROM via the EPROM programmer on the VIC User I/O port. The last input parameter specifies in hex the starting 256 byte page offset on the EPROM. If the low order byte of the starting memory address is zero and the offset is zero, then the reading starts with the first byte of the EPROM. For example, to read only the last byte of the 2K EPROM and compare that with the data byte in memory at location $37FF, the command would be:

.=37FF 37FF 07

Any mismatch between the EPROM and corresponding memory data results in output to the screen of the mismatched memory location. The STOP key can be used to terminate the command early.

Commands for VIC Micromon

VIC Micromon Instruction

Command

SIMPLE ASSEMBLER
BREAK SET
COMPARE MEMORY
DISASSEMBLER
EXIT VIC MICROMON
FILL MEMORY
GO RUN
HUNT MEMORY
INITIAL MEMORY & SCREEN PTRS
JUMP TO SUBROUTINE
LOAD MEMORY FROM DEVICE
MEMORY DISPLAY
NEW LOCATER
OFFSET OR BRANCH CALCULATE
PRINT SWITCHER
QUICK TRACE
REGISTER DISPLAY
SAVE MEMORY TO DEVICE
TRANSFER MEMORY
VERIFY MEMORY FROM DEVICE
WALK CODE
EXIT TO BASIC
ASCII CONVERSION
DECIMAL CONVERSION
HEXADECIMAL CONVERSION
BINARY CONVERSION
CHECKSUM MEMORY
COMMAND END TONE ENABLE
COMMAND END TONE DISABLE
ADDITION
SUBTRACTION
LOAD MEMORY FROM EPROM
PROGRAM EPROM FROM MEMORY
COMPARE EPROM TO MEMORY

A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
V
W
X
"
#
$
%
&
(
)
+
-
£
π
=

Of the set of commands available on the PET version of Micromon, only two were removed in the conversion to the VIC. These were the K (Kill Micromon) and Z (change character sets) commands. The K command is not necessary since the VIC doesn’t have the TIM monitor. The function of the Z command, which is to change character sets, is already provided for on the VIC by pressing the VIC shift and Commodore keys at the same time. The rest of the commands described for the PET Micromon (see elsewhere in this appendix) all apply identically to the commands for VIC Micromon, with the exception of the LOAD and SAVE commands, which have different formats.

VIC Micromon is always entered from VIC BASIC by a SYS 16384 when it resides at $4000 to $4FFF. Either the E (Exit VIC Micromon) or the X (Exit to BASIC) command would be used to exit VIC Micromon and return to the BASIC environment. The difference between these two commands is that the X command leaves the VIC Micromon vectors in the IRQ and BRK interrupt vector locations while in the BASIC environment. Also, the tape buffer is left defined as beginning at $375. Thus, certain IRQ interrupt conditions such as the moving of the cursor to the top or bottom of the screen with output from a D, M, or $ command displayed will cause scrolling and reentry into VIC Micromon. Also, if a BRK instruction is executed, VIC Micromon will be reentered via its BRK interrupt handler.

The E command restores the IRQ and BRK interrupt vectors and resets the tape buffer pointer to a value of $33C prior to exit to the VIC BASIC environment. Thus all active linkages and vectors to VIC Micromon are removed, and the VIC behaves as if VIC Micromon never existed. In particular, the E command should be used to exit VIC Micromon when the normal VIC cassette tape LOAD, SAVE, and VERIFY commands are to be used in the BASIC environment. Otherwise, invalid results are likely to occur with some tape operations.

Both the E and X commands expect the stack pointer value (as shown for SP by the Register display command) to be the same as when VIC Micromon was first entered via the BASIC SYS command. If the value of SP or the part of the stack pointed to by SP is overwritten, such as by the execution of faulty code, a clean exit to BASIC by the E and X commands is unlikely. However, both the E and X commands do check if BASIC has been initialized, and if not, exit to BASIC is via an indirect jump to the address given at location $0000. The address given in location $0000 is $E378, which is the entry to initialize BASIC. In this case, the value of SP and the contents of the stack aren’t important. Once in BASIC and regardless of how the exit from VIC Micromon was made, any subsequent access to VIC Micromon at $4000 is always by a SYS16384.

VIC Micromon as given here is located from $4000 to $4FFF. It can be relocated to any 256 byte page boundary by making the changes, as shown in the following example, which relocate VIC Micromon from $4000 to $6000.

The example begins with VIC Micromon at $4000 and ends with a relocated VIC Micromon in RAM at $6000 as well as the original at $4000.

.T 4000 4FFF 6000
.N 6000 6003 2000 4000 4FFF
.N 6012 6E6D 2000 4000 4FFF
.N 6FB5 6FFE 2000 4000 4FFF W

Location	Old Value	New Value
6018 602A 6392 6650 66E7 6897	45 43 4C 45 45 43	65 63 6C 65 65 63

In order to access the relocated VIC Micromon at $6000, exit using the E command and then from BASIC use SYS24576.

Cartridge And Checksum

The VIC-20 treats cartridge programs located at $A000 in a special way. On power-up, a test is made for the existence of the $A000 cartridge program, and if one exists, an indirect jump is made to the address specified at location $A000. This jump is made after the stack pointer is initialized, but before anything else is done. Because kernal initialization has not occurred, any cartridge program using kernal i/O routines must do kernal initialization before using those routines.

VIC Micromon as presented here has the kernal initialization calls built in so that it can easily be relocated and used as a cartridge program at $A000. Besides making the changes to relocate it to $A000, the only additional changes are to the first four bytes of VIC Micromon.

Location	Contents
A000 A001 A002 A003	09 A0 C7 FE

Power-up with VIC Micromon installed as a cartridge at $A000 will result in immediate entry into VIC Micromon. Because BASIC is not initialized when the E or X command is used after power-up, the exit to BASIC will be via an indirect jump to the address given in location $0000, which is the entry to initialization of BASIC. Once in BASIC, subsequent access of VIC Micromon at $A000 must be made to location $A012, which is done via a SYS40978.

There is one last point, or rather one last byte, in VIC Micromon which is not used for anything other than to make the 4K byte checksum of VIC Micromon come out to a rounded up page value. For example, the VIC Micromon from $4000 to $4FFF has a data byte value of $E6 at location $4FFF that results in a checksum of $BF00. This provides an easy way to verify the integrity of VIC Micromon without having to memorize or look up a checksum.

Three Notes On VIC Micromon

Using the VIC Micromon tape commands L, S, and V on a VIC-20 with 3K of RAM installed at $400 to $FFF will result in overwrite of $400 to $438 with file header characters (blanks). This is due to the tape buffer being relocated to $375 while in VIC Micromon from the normal $33C. The normal VIC cassette commands will work properly and not overwrite this area when you EXIT from VIC Micromon. This is because VIC Micromon restores the tape buffer pointer value to $33C when an EXIT is done. This problem does not occur if the 3K RAM at $400 to $FFF is not installed.

If the I (Initialize memory and screen pointers) command was used in VIC Micromon and you EXIT, then the RUN/STOP plus RESTORE should be used in addition to the NEW command to clean up the BASIC environment.

Any binary image saved on cassette tape with the VIC Micromon “S” command can be loaded in the normal VIC-20 BASIC environment by using the command: LOAD"",1,1 which looks for the next program on tape and LOADs it into the same part of memory that it came from (see page 9 of VIC-20 Programmer’s Reference Guide).

Checksum

There’s a good amount of typing to do to enter the VIC Micromon program. Use the following BASIC program (after you’ve SAVEd a copy of your efforts) to locate any errors you might have made.

Program 1. Micromon Checksum.

1 IFPEEK(20478)=67ANDPEEK(20479)=73THENRUN10
2 PRINT"VIC20 MICROMON LOAD &":PRINT"VERIFIC
   ATION PROGRAM.":PRINT
3 PRINT:PRINT:PRINT"AT LEAST 4K BYTES OF":PR
   INT"RAM MUST BE INSTALLED"
4 PRINTOUT 16384 ($4000) ELSE":PRINT"LOAD WI
   LL FAIL.": PRINT
5 PRINT"IF LOADED & VERIFIED":PRINT"OK, MICR
   OMON WILL BE":PRINT"ENTERED AUTOMATIC
   ALLY."
6 LOAD"",1,1
10 DATA 13328,16867,15061,13732,14507,13829,1
   3267,12747,16288,13920
20 DATA 14355,11977,11877,13583,11338,15173,1
   2337,14852,14051,15713
30 DATA 13442,15242,14746,15059,13134,15848,1
   5858,17856,13327,8601
40 DATA 12171,10074
100 Q=16384
110 FOR BLOCK=1TO32
120 FOR BYTE=0TO127
130 X=PEEK(Q+BYTE):CK=CK+X
140 NEXT BYTE
150 READ SUM
160 IF SUM <> CK THEN PRINT"ERROR IN BLOCK #"B
    LOCK:ERR=1:GOTO170
165 PRINT"BLOCK #"BLOCK" OK"
170 CK=0:Q=Q+128
180 NEXT BLOCK
190 IFERR=ITHENPRINT"LOAD FAILED":END
200 SYS16384

Program 2. VIC Micromon.

4000 78 4C 15 40 41 30 C3 C2
4008 CD 20 8D FD 20 52 FD 20
4010 18 E5 20 F9 FD A9 DF A2
4018 45 8D 16 03 8E 17 03 AD
4020 14 03 AE 15 03 C9 91 D0
4028 04 E0 43 F0 09 8D 60 03
4030 8E 61 03 20 94 48 A9 75
4038 85 B2 A9 80 8D 8A 02 85
4040 9D A2 D6 20 5D 4E 8E 48
4048 03 8E 64 03 58 00 CE 3D
4050 03 D0 03 CE 3C 03 20 AE
4058 45 A2 42 A9 2A 4C 3D 49
4060 A9 3F 20 D2 FF A9 00 2C
4068 A9 0F 8D 0E 90 20 AE 45
4070 A9 2E 20 D2 FF A9 00 8D
4078 4E 03 8D 56 03 8D 64 03

4080 A2 7F 9A 20 8C 48 C9 2E
4088 F0 F9 C9 20 F0 F5 A2 24
4090 DD 90 4F D0 13 8D 49 03
4098 8A 0A AA BD B5 4F 85 FB
40A0 BD B6 4F 85 FC 6C FB 00
40A8 CA 10 E5 4C 60 40 A2 02
40B0 D0 02 A2 00 B4 FB D0 09
40B8 B4 FC D0 03 EE 56 03 D6
40C0 FC D6 FB 60 A9 00 8D 4E
40C8 03 20 13 42 A2 09 20 38
40D0 49 CA D0 FA 60 A2 02 B5
40D8 FA 48 BD 53 03 95 FA 68
40E0 9D 53 03 CA D0 F1 60 AD
40E8 54 03 AC 55 03 4C F4 40
40F0 A5 FD A4 FE 38 E5 FB 8D
40F8 53 03 98 E5 FC A8 0D 53

4100 03 60 A9 00 F0 02 A9 01
4108 3D 57 03 20 CB 47 20 AE
4110 45 20 F0 40 20 21 48 90
4118 18 20 E7 40 90 7F 20 59
4120 41 E6 FD D0 02 E6 FE 20
4128 1F 49 AC 56 03 D0 6E F0
4130 E8 20 E7 40 18 AD 53 03
4138 65 FD 85 FD 98 65 FE 85
4140 FE 20 D5 40 20 59 41 20
4148 E7 40 B0 51 20 AE 40 20
4150 B2 40 AC 56 03 D0 46 F0
4158 EB A2 00 A1 FB AC 57 03
4160 F0 02 81 FD C1 FD F0 0B
4168 20 F8 47 20 38 49 20 E1
4170 FF F0 2A 60 20 E6 47 20
4178 A1 49 F0 1E AE 56 03 D0

4180 1C 20 F0 40 90 17 60 20
4188 54 48 8D 4B 03 20 7C 41
4190 AD 4B 03 81 FB 20 1F 49
4198 D0 F3 4C 60 40 4C 68 40
41A0 20 74 41 20 8C 48 C9 27
41A8 D0 12 20 8C 48 9D 65 03
41B0 E8 20 A4 49 F0 20 E0 20
41BB D0 F3 F0 1A 8E 59 03 20
41C0 5F 48 90 D6 9D 65 03 E8
41C8 20 A4 49 F0 09 20 57 48
41D0 90 C8 E0 20 D0 EE 8E 4A
41D8 03 20 AE 45 A2 00 A0 00
41E0 B1 FB DD 65 03 D0 0A C8
41E8 E8 EC 4A 03 D0 F2 20 68
41F0 41 20 1F 49 20 7C 41 B0
41F8 E3 20 2B 44 20 F0 40 90

4200 0D A0 2C 20 C4 40 20 6F
4208 42 20 E1 FF D0 EE 20 B6
4210 45 D0 8A 20 2D 49 20 F8
4218 47 20 38 49 20 C9 4D 48
4220 20 CF 42 68 20 E6 42 A2
4228 06 E0 03 D0 14 AC 4D 03
4230 F0 0F AD 58 03 C9 E8 B1
4238 FB B0 1D 20 65 42 88 D0
4240 F1 0E 58 03 90 0E BD E9
4248 4E 20 99 45 BD EF 4E F0
4250 03 20 99 45 CA D0 D2 60
4258 20 7B 42 AA E8 D0 01 C8
4260 98 20 65 42 8A 8E 4A 03
4268 20 FF 47 AE 4A 03 60 AD
4270 4D 03 20 7A 42 85 FB 84
4278 FC 60 38 A4 FC AA 10 01

4280 88 65 FB 90 01 C8 60 A8
4288 4A 90 0B 4A B0 17 C9 22
4290 F0 13 29 07 09 80 4A AA
4298 BD 98 4E B0 04 4A 4A 4A
42A0 4A 29 0F D0 04 A0 80 A9
42A8 00 AA BD DC 4E 8D 58 03
42B0 29 03 8D 4D 03 98 29 8F
42B8 AA 98 A0 03 E0 8A F0 0B
42C0 4A 90 08 4A 4A 09 20 88
42C8 D0 FA C8 88 D0 F2 60 B1
42D0 FB 20 65 42 A2 01 20 CE
42D8 40 CC 4D 03 C8 90 F0 A2
42E0 03 C0 03 90 F1 60 A8 B9
42E8 F6 4E 8D 54 03 B9 36 4F
42F0 8D 55 03 A9 00 A0 05 0E
42F8 55 03 2E 54 03 2A 88 D0

4300 F6 69 3F 20 D2 FF CA D0
4308 EA 4C 38 49 20 E6 47 A9
4310 03 20 9E 43 A0 2C 4C 3C
4318 45 00 00 00 A9 3C 8D 13
4320 91 20 3A 43 A9 FF 8D 12
4328 91 A5 FB A0 18 20 34 43
4330 A5 FF A0 14 8D 10 91 8C
4338 11 91 A0 1C 8C 11 91 60
4340 20 54 48 85 FF 20 AE 45
4348 20 6E 41 20 7C 41 20 1C
4350 43 AD 49 03 0A 08 90 17
4358 A1 FB 8D 10 91 78 A9 C4
4360 8D 19 91 A9 3C 8D 11-91
4368 A9 20 2C 1D 91 F0 FB 20
4370 3A 43 58 8E 12 91 A9 0C
4378 8D 11 91 AD 10 91 28 B0

4380 04 10 02 81 FB C1 FB F0
4388 03 20 68 41 20 1F 49 D0
4390 B7 A9 4C 48 A9 77 48 08
4398 48 48 48 6C 60 03 8D 4B
43A0 03 48 20 8C 48 20 00 49
43A8 D0 F8 68 49 FF 4C 72 42
43B0 20 2B 44 AE 56 03 D0 0D
43B8 20 F0 40 90 08 20 C8 43
43C0 20 E1 FF D0 EE 4C 0E 42
43C8 20 AE 45 A2 2E A9 3A 20
43D0 0E 48 20 38 49 20 F8 47
43D8 A9 08 20 EA 48 A9 08 20
43E0 AB 43 20 38 49 20 38 49
43E8 A9 12 20 D2 FF A0 08 A2
43F0 00 A1 FB 29 7F C9 20 B0
43FB 02 A9 2E 20 D2 FF A9 00

4400 85 D4 EA EA EA EA EA EA
4408 EA EA EA EA 20 1F 49 88
4410 D0 DF 4C DF 4A 20 E6 47
4418 A9 08 20 9E 43 20 B6 45
4420 20 C8 43 A9 3A 8D 77 02
4428 4C 48 45 20 E6 47 85 FD
4430 86 FE 20 A4 49 F0 03 20
4438 EB 47 4C AE 45 20 31 48
4440 85 FD 86 FE A2 00 8E 66
4448 03 20 8C 48 C9 20 F0 F4
4450 9D 4F 03 E8 E0 03 D0 F1
4458 CA 30 14 BD 4F 03 38 E9
4460 3F A0 05 4A 6E 66 03 6E
4468 65 03 88 D0 F6 F0 E9 A2
4470 02 20 A4 49 F0 22 C9 3A
4478 F0 1E C9 20 F0 F3 20 90
4480 45 B0 0F 20 6C 48 A4 FB
4488 84 FC 85 FB A9 30 9D 65
4490 03 E8 9D 65 03 E8 D0 D9
4498 8E 54 03 A2 00 8E 56 03
44A0 A2 00 8E 4B 03 AD 56 03
44A8 20 87 42 AE 58 03 8E 55
44B0 03 AA BD 36 4F 20 70 45
44B8 BD F6 4E 20 70 45 A2 06
44C0 E0 03 D0 14 AC 4D 03 F0
44C8 0F AD 58 03 C9 E8 A9 30
44D0 B0 1E 20 6D 45 88 D0 F1
44D8 0E 58 03 90 0E BD E9 4E
44E0 20 70 45 BD EF 4E F0 03
44E8 20 70 45 CA D0 D2 F0 06
44F0 20 6D 45 20 6D 45 AD 54
44F8 03 CD 4B 03 D0 7F 20 21

4500 48 AC 4D 03 F0 2F AD 55
4508 03 C9 9D D0 20 20 F0 40
4510 90 01 88 C8 D0 6F 98 2A
4518 AE 53 03 E0 82 A8 D0 03
4520 B0 03 38 B0 60 CA CA 8A
4528 AC 4D 03 D0 03 B9 FC 00
4530 91 FB 88 D0 F8 AD 56 03
4538 91 FB A0 41 8C 77 02 20
4540 B6 45 20 C4 40 20 6F 42
4548 A9 20 8D 78 02 8D 7D 02
4550 A5 FC 20 9F 45 8E 79 02
4558 8D 7A 02 A5 FB 20 9F 45
4560 8E 7B 02 8D 7C 02 A9 07
4568 85 C6 4C 68 40 20 70 45
4570 8E 4A 03 AE 4B 03 DD 65
4578 03 F0 0D 68 68 EE 56 03

4580 F0 03 4C A0 44 4C 60 40
4588 E8 8E 4B 03 AE 4A 03 60
4590 C9 30 90 03 C9 47 60 38
4598 60 CD 4E 03 D0 1A 60 48
45A0 4A 4A 4A 4A 20 17 48 AA
45A8 68 29 0F 4C 17 48 A9 0D
45B0 20 D2 FF A9 0A 2C A9 91
45B8 4C D2 FF 8D 3F 03 08 68
45C0 29 EF 8D 3E 03 8E 40 03
45C8 8C 41 03 68 18 69 01 8D
45D0 3D 03 68 69 00 8D 3C 03
45D8 A9 80 8D 48 03 D0 26 A9
45E0 C0 8D 2E 91 A9 3F 8D 2E
45E8 91 20 94 48 D8 68 8D 41
45F0 03 68 8D 40 03 68 8D 3F
45F8 03 68 8D 3E 03 68 8D 3D

4600 03 68 8D 3C 03 AD 14 03
4608 8D 44 03 AD 15 03 8D 43
4610 03 BA 8E 42 03 58 AD 3E
4618 03 29 10 F0 03 4C 4E 40
4620 2C 48 03 50 1F AD 3C 03
4628 CD 5B 03 D0 6B AD 3D 03
4630 CD 5A 03 D0 63 AD 5E 03
4638 D0 5B AD 5F 03 D0 53 A9
4640 80 8D 48 03 30 12 4E 48
4648 03 90 D2 AE 42 03 9A A9
4650 45 48 A9 BA 48 4C 06 47
4658 20 AE 45 20 14 49 8D 4B
4660 03 A0 00 20 F2 48 AD 3D
4668 03 AE 3C 03 85 FB 86 FC
4670 20 38 49 A9 24 8D 4E 03
4678 20 16 42 20 E4 FF F0 FB

4680 C9 03 D0 03 4C 68 40 C9
4688 4A D0 4E A9 01 8D 48 03
4690 D0 47 CE 5F 03 CF 5E 03
4698 AD 21 91 C9 FE D0 3A A2
46A0 53 4C 5B 40 A9 00 F0 12
46A8 AD 5C 03 AE 58 03 8D 5E
46B0 03 8E 5F 03 A9 40 D0 02
46B8 A9 80 8D 48 03 20 A4 49
46C0 F0 0F C9 20 D0 56 20 45
46C8 48 20 E3 48 20 A4 49 D0
46D0 4B 20 AE 45 AD 48 03 F0
46D8 1F 78 A9 A0 8D 2E 91 A9
46E0 5F 8D 2E 91 A9 DF A2 45
46E8 8D 44 03 8E 43 03 A9 49
46F0 A2 00 8D 28 91 8E 29 91
46F8 AE 42 03 9A 78 AD 44 03

4700 AE 43 03 20 98 48 AD 3C
4708 03 48 AD 3D 03 48 AD 3E
4710 03 48 AD 3F 03 AE 40 03
4718 AC 41 03 40 4C 60 40 20
4720 31 48 8D 5A 03 8E 5B 03
4728 A9 00 8D 5C 03 8D 5D 03
4730 20 42 48 8D 5C 03 8E 5D
4738 03 4C 68 40 20 CB 47 8D
4740 62 03 8E 63 03 20 42 48
4748 8D 4F 03 8E 50 03 20 42
4750 48 8D 51 03 8E 52 03 20
4758 A4 49 F0 0A 20 CF FF C9
4760 57 D0 03 EE 4E 03 20 21
4768 48 AE 56 03 D0 18 20 E7
4770 40 90 13 AC 4E 03 D0 1A
4778 B1 FB 20 87 42 AA BD F6

4780 4E D0 06 20 C4 40 4C 68
4788 40 AC 4D 03 C0 02 D0 33
4790 F0 03 8C 4D 03 88 38 B1
4798 FB AA ED 4F 03 C8 B1 FB
47A0 ED 50 03 90 1E 88 AD 51
47A8 03 F1 FB C8 AD 52 03 F1
4780 FB 90 10 88 18 8A 6D 62
47B8 03 91 FB C8 B1 FB 6D 63
47C0 03 91 FB 29 1F 49 88 10
47C8 FA 30 9E 20 31 48 85 FD
47D0 86 FE 20 42 48 8D 54 03
47D8 8E 55 03 20 8C 48 20 45
47E0 48 85 FB 86 FC 60 20 31
47E8 48 B0 F6 20 45 48 B0 03
47F0 20 42 48 85 FD 86 FE 60
47F8 A5 FC 20 FF 47 A5 FB 48

4800 4A 4A 4A 4A 20 17 48 AA
4808 68 29 0F 20 17 48 48 8A
4810 20 D2 FF 68 4C D2 FF 18
4818 69 F6 90 02 69 06 69 3A
4820 60 A2 02 B5 FA 48 B5 FC
4823 95 FA 68 95 FC CA D0 F3
4830 60 A9 00 8D 59 03 20 8C
4838 48 C9 20 F0 F9 20 6C 48
4840 B0 08 20 8C 48 20 57 48
4848 90 07 AA 20 57 48 90 01
4850 60 4C 60 40 20 74 41 A9
4858 00 8D 59 03 20 8C 48 C9
4860 20 D0 09 20 8C 48 C9 20
4868 D0 0F 18 60 20 81 48 0A
4870 0A 0A 0A 8D 59 03 20 8C
4878 48 20 81 48 0D 59 03 38

4880 60 C9 3A 08 29 0F 28 90
4888 02 69 08 60 20 A4 49 D0
4890 FA 4C 65 40 A9 91 A2 43
4898 8D 14 03 8E 15 03 60 20
48A0 A4 49 F0 37 20 E6 47 A5
48A8 FB 05 FC F0 22 A5 9A C9
48B0 03 D0 9E A5 FB 8D 93 02
48B8 A5 FC 8D 94 02 A9 02 AA
48C0 A8 20 BA FF 20 C0 FF A2
48C8 02 20 C9 FF 4C 75 40 A9
48D0 02 20 C3 FF A9 03 85 9A
48D8 4C 68 40 A5 9A C9 03 F0
48E0 DC D0 F1 8D 3D 03 8E 3C
48E8 03 60 8D 4B 03 A0 00 20
48F0 38 49 B1 FB 20 FF 47 20
48F8 1F 49 CE 4B 03 D0 F0 60

4900 20 57 48 90 08 A2 00 81
4908 FB C1 FB D0 69 20 1F 49
4910 CE 4B 03 60 A9 3E 85 FB
4918 A9 03 85 FC A9 05 60 E6
4920 FB D0 09 E6 FF E6 FC D0
4928 03 EE 56 03 60 98 48 20
4930 AE 45 68 A2 2E 20 0E 48
4938 A9 20 4C D2 FF 20 0E 48
4940 A2 00 BD 76 4F 20 D2 FF
4948 E8 E0 1C D0 F5 A0 3B 20
4950 2D 49 AD 3C 03 20 FF 47
4958 AD 3D 03 20 FF 47 20 38
4960 49 AD 43 03 20 FF 47 AD
4968 44 03 20 FF 47 20 14 49
4970 20 EA 48 4C 68 40 4C 60
4978 40 20 31 48 20 E3 48 20

4980 42 48 8D 44 03 8E 43 03
4988 20 14 49 8D 4B 03 20 8C
4990 48 20 00 49 D0 F8 F0 DB
4998 20 CF FF C9 20 F0 F9 D0
49A0 06 20 F0 47 20 CF FF C9
49A8 0D 60 A0 01 84 BA A9 00
49B0 A2 65 A0 03 20 BD FF A8
49B8 20 E6 47 AD 49 03 C9 53
49C0 D0 08 20 A4 49 F0 AF 20
49CB EB 47 20 98 49 F0 29 C9
49D0 22 D0 A3 20 CF FF C9 22
49D8 F0 0B 91 BB E6 B7 C8 C0
49E0 51 90 F0 B0 91 20 A4 49
49E8 F0 0E 20 57 48 29 1F F0
49F0 85 85 BA 20 98 49 D0 D9
49F8 A9 00 85 B9 AD 49 03 C9

4A00 53 D0 0C A9 FB A6 FD A4
4A08 FE 20 D8 FF 4C 68 40 49
4A10 4C F0 02 A9 01 A6 FB A4
4A18 FC 20 D5 FF A5 90 29 10
4A20 F0 EA A9 69 A0 C3 20 1E
4A28 CB 4C 60 40 20 E6 47 20
4A30 A5 40 4C 68 40 20 E6 47
4A38 20 1F 49 20 1F 49 20 F0
4A40 47 20 38 49 20 F0 40 90
4A48 0A 98 D0 15 AD 53 03 30
4A50 10 10 08 C8 D0 0B AD 53
4A58 03 10 06 20 FF 47 4C 68
4A60 40 4C 60 40 20 E6 47 20
4A68 7A 4A 4C 68 40 20 AE 45
4A70 A2 2E A9 24 20 0E 48 20
4A78 F8 47 20 EA 4A 20 A0 4A

4A80 20 38 49 20 86 4A 20 89
4A88 4A 20 38 49 A2 04 A9 30
4A90 18 0E 54 03 2E 55 03 69
4A98 00 20 D2 FF CA D0 EF 60
4AA0 A5 FC A6 FB 8D 55 03 8E
4AA8 54 03 20 38 49 A5 FC 20
4AB0 B4 4A A5 FB AA 20 38 49
4AB8 8A 29 7F C9 20 08 B0 0A
4AC0 A9 12 20 D2 FF 8A 18 69
4AC8 40 AA 8A 20 D2 FF A9 00
4AD0 85 D4 EA EA EA EA EA EA
4AD8 EA EA EA EA 28 B0 C0 A9
4AE0 92 2C A9 14 2C A9 22 4C
4AE8 D2 FF 20 38 49 A6 FB A5
4AF0 FC 4C CD DD 20 05 4B B0
4AF8 41 20 38 49 20 F8 47 20

4B00 7D 4A 4C 68 40 A2 04 A9
4B08 00 85 FC 20 C2 4B 20 2B
4B10 4B 85 FB 20 22 4B 20 3D
4B18 4B CA D0 F7 08 20 38 49
4B20 28 60 20 A4 49 F0 0F C9
4B28 20 F0 0B C9 30 90 0B C9
4830 3A B0 07 29 0F 60 68 68
4B38 18 60 4C 60 40 85 FE A5
4B40 FC 48 A5 FB 48 06 FB 26
4B48 FC 06 FB 26 FC 68 65 FB
4B50 85 FB 68 65 FC 85 FC 06
4858 FB 26 FC A5 FE 65 FB 85
4B60 FB A9 00 65 FC 85 FC 60
4868 20 C2 4B 8D 55 03 48 48
4B70 20 38 49 20 38 49 68 20
4B78 FF 47 20 38 49 68 AA A9

4B80 00 20 F1 4A 20 38 49 20
4B88 86 4A 4C 68 40 20 9F 4B
4B90 20 38 49 20 F8 47 20 EA
4B98 4A 20 A0 4A 4C 68 40 A2
4BA0 0F A9 00 85 FB 85 FC 20
4BA8 C2 4B 20 2B 4B 20 BC 4B
4BB0 20 22 4B 20 BC 4B CA D0
4BB8 F7 4C 38 49 4A 26 FB 26
4BC0 FC 60 20 8C 48 C9 20 F0
4BC8 F9 60 20 54 48 8D 88 02
4BD0 A6 FB A4 FC 20 8A FE A6
4BD8 FD A4 FE 20 7B FE 20 18
4BE0 E5 20 A4 E3 4C 68 40 20
4BE8 F0 47 4C DB 47 20 E7 4B
4BF0 18 A5 FB 65 FD 85 FB A5
4BF8 FC 65 FE 85 FC 4C 0D 4C

4C00 20 E7 4B 20 F0 40 84 FC
4C08 AD 53 03 85 FB 20 38 49
4C10 20 F8 47 4C 68 40 A9 F0
4C18 2C A9 00 8D 0B 90 4C 65
4020 40 78 20 52 FD 58 A9 3C
4C28 85 B2 AE 42 03 9A A5 73
4C30 C9 E6 F0 95 6C 00 C0 20
4C38 E7 4B 20 21 48 20 38 49
4C40 A0 00 8C 54 03 SC 55 03
4C48 20 F0 40 90 1B AC 56 03
4C50 D0 16 18 B1 FB 6D 54 03
4C58 8D 54 03 98 6D 55 03 8D
4C60 55 03 20 1F 49 4C 48 4C
4C68 AD 55 03 20 FF 47 AD 54
4C70 03 20 FF 47 4C 68 40 AD
4C78 64 03 D0 04 A5 C6 D0 03

4C80 4C 56 FF AD 77 02 C9 11
4C88 D0 7D A5 D6 C9 16 D0 F0
4C90 A5 D1 85 FD A5 D2 85 FE
4C98 A9 17 8D 5E 03 A0 01 20
4CA0 51 4E C9 3A F0 1A C9 2C
4CA8 F0 16 C9 24 F0 12 CE 5E
4CB0 03 F0 CD 38 A5 FD E9 16
4CB8 85 FD B0 E1 C6 FE D0 DD
4CC0 8D 49 03 20 0A 4E B0 B8
4CC8 AD 49 03 C9 3A D0 11 18
4CD0 A5 FB 69 08 85 FB 90 02
4CD8 E6 FC 20 C8 43 4C F4 4C
4CE0 C9 24 F0 1A 20 C9 4D 20
4CE8 6F 42 A9 00 8D 4E 03 A0
4CF0 2C 20 13 42 A9 00 85 C6
4CF8 4C 0E 42 4C 56 FF 20 1F

4D00 49 20 6D 4A 4C F4 4C C9
4D08 91 D0 F0 A5 D6 D0 EC A5
4D10 D1 85 FD A5 D2 85 FE A9
4D18 17 8D 5E 03 A0 01 20 51
4D20 4E C9 3A F0 1A C9 2C F0
4D28 16 C9 24 F0 12 CE 5E 03
4D30 F0 15 18 A5 FD 69 16 85
4D38 FD 90 E1 E6 FE D0 DD 8D
4D40 49 03 20 0A 4E 90 03 4C
4D48 56 FF AD 49 03 C9 3A F0
4D50 06 C9 24 F0 1D D0 27 20
4D58 D0 4D 38 A5 FB E9 08 85
4D60 FB B0 02 C6 FC 20 CB 43
4D68 A9 00 85 C6 20 05 4E 4C
4D70 70 40 20 D0 4D 20 B2 40
4D78 20 70 4A 4C 68 4D 20 D0

4D80 4D A5 FB A6 FC 85 FD 86
4D88 FE A9 10 8D 5E 03 38 A5
4D90 FD ED 5E 03 85 FB A5 FE
4D98 E9 00 85 FC 20 C9 4D 20
4DA0 6F 42 20 F0 40 F0 07 B0
4DA8 F3 CE 5E 03 D0 E0 EE 4D
4DB0 03 AD 4D 03 20 AB 43 A2
4DB8 00 A1 FB 8E 4E 03 A9 2C
4DC0 20 33 49 20 16 42 4C 68
4DC8 4D A2 00 A1 FB 4C 87 42
4DD0 A6 D2 20 D7 4D A6 F4 E8
4DD8 86 AD 86 FE A2 00 86 AC
4DE0 A9 2C 85 FD A0 CE E8 88
4DE8 B1 AC 91 FD 98 D0 F8 C6
4DF0 AD C6 FE CA 10 F1 A9 20
4DF8 A6 D2 86 FE 84 FD A0 2B

4E00 91 FD 88 10 FB A9 13 4C
4E08 D2 FF C0 16 D0 02 38 60
4E10 20 51 4E C9 20 F0 F3 88
4E18 20 3A 4E AA 20 3A 4E 85
4E20 FB 86 FC A9 FF 8D 64 03
4E28 85 CC A5 CF F0 0A A5 CE
4E30 A4 D3 91 D1 A9 00 85 CF
4E38 18 60 20 51 4E 20 81 48
4E40 0A 0A 0A 0A 8D 59 03 20
4E48 51 4E 20 81 48 0D 59 03
4E50 60 B1 FD C8 29 7F C9 20
4E58 B0 02 09 40 60 BD 98 4D
4E60 20 D2 FF E8 D0 F7 60 00
4E68 00 00 00 00 00 00 0D 56
4E70 49 43 32 30 20 4D 49 43
4E78 52 4F 4D 4F 4E 20 56 31

4E80 2E 32 20 20 20 42 49 4C
4E88 4C 20 59 45 45 20 32 32
4E90 20 4A 41 4E 20 20 38 33
4E98 40 02 45 03 D0 08 40 09
4EA0 30 22 45 33 D0 08 40 09
4EA8 40 02 45 33 D0 08 40 09
4EB0 40 02 45 B3 D0 08 40 09
4EB8 00 22 44 33 D0 8C 44 00
4EC0 11 22 44 33 D0 8C 44 9A
4EC8 10 22 44 33 D0 08 40 09
4ED0 10 22 44 33 D0 08 40 09
4ED8 62 13 78 A9 00 21 81 82
4EE0 00 00 59 4D 91 92 86 4A
4EE8 85 9D 2C 29 2C 23 28 24
4EF0 59 00 58 24 24 00 1C 8A
4EF8 1C 23 5D 8B 1B A1 9D 8A

4F00 1D 23 9D 8B 1D A1 00 29
4F08 19 AE 69 A8 19 23 24 53
4F10 1B 23 24 53 19 A1 00 1A
4F18 5B 5B A5 69 24 24 AE AE
4F20 A8 AD 29 00 7C 00 15 9C
4F28 6D 9C A5 69 29 53 84 13
4F30 34 11 A5 69 23 A0 D8 62
4F38 5A 48 26 62 94 88 54 44
4F40 C8 54 68 44 E8 94 00 B4
4F48 08 84 74 B4 28 6E 74 F4
4F50 CC 4A 72 F2 A4 8A 00 AA
4F58 A2 A2 74 74 74 72 44 68
4F60 B2 32 B2 00 22 00 1A 1A
4F68 26 26 72 72 88 C8 C4 CA
4F70 26 48 44 44 A2 C8 0D 20
4F78 20 20 20 50 43 20 20 49

4F80 52 51 20 20 53 52 20 41
4F88 43 20 58 52 20 59 52 20
4F90 53 50 41 42 43 44 46 47
4F98 48 4C 4D 4E 51 52 28 54
4FA0 57 58 2C 3A 3R 24 23 22
4FA8 2B 2D 4F 49 4A 25 26 45
4FB0 56 29 3D 5C FF AA 49 9F
4FB8 48 3D 44 1F 47 02 41 F9
4FC0 41 87 41 A4 46 A0 41 AA
4FC8 49 B0 43 3C 47 A8 46 40
4FD0 49 16 4C 06 41 B8 46 2A
4FD8 4C 0C 43 15 44 79 49 64
4FE0 4A F4 4A 68 4B ED 4B 00
4FE8 4C 35 4A CA 4B 2C 4A 8D
4FF0 4B 37 4C 21 4C AA 49 19
4FF8 4C 40 43 40 43 40 43 49

Supermon64

Supermon64 is your gateway to machine language programming on the Commodore 64. Supermon, in several versions, has been popular over the years as a major programming tool for Commodore users. Supermon64 itself is in machine language, but you can type it in without knowing what it means. Using the Tiny PEEKer/POKEr (Program 1), or via the built-in monitor of a PET, type it in and SAVE it. The fastest way to check for errors is to type in Program 3 on a regular PET. Then load Supermon64 into the PET. It will come in above your BASIC. Then RUN the checksum and it will report the location of any errors. Type POKE 8192,0 and hit RETURN. Then type POKE 44,32 followed by NEW.

Enter the following:

Program 1. Tiny PEEKer/POKEr.

100 PRINT "TINY PEEKER/POKER"
110 X$="*":INPUT X$:IF X$="*" THEN END
120 GOSUB 500
130 IF E GOTO 280
140 A=V
150 IF J>LEN(X$) GOTO 300
160 FOR I=0 TO 7
170 P=J:GOSUB 550
180 C(I)=V
190 IF E GOTO 280
200 NEXT I
210 T=0
220 FOR I=0 TO 7
230 POKE A+I,C(I)
240 T=T+C(I)
250 NEXT I
260 PRINT "CHECKSUM=";T
270 GOTO 110
280 PRINT MID$(X$,1,J);"??":GOTO 110
300 T=0
310 FOR I=0 TO 7
320 V=PEEK(A+I)
330 T=T+V
340 V=V/16
350 PRINT " ";
360 FOR J=1 TO 2
370 V%=V
380 V=(V-V%)*16
390 IF V%>9 THEN V%=V%+7
400 PRINT CHR$(V%+48);
410 NEXT J
420 NEXT I
430 PRINT "/";T
440 GOTO 110
500 P=1
510 L=4
520 GOTO 600
550 P=J
560 L=2
600 E=0
610 V=0
620 FOR J=P TO LEN(X$)
630 X=ASC(MID$(X$,J))
640 IF X=32 THEN NEXT J
650 IF J>LEN(X$) GOTO 790
660 P=J
670 FOR J=P TO LEN(X$)
680 X=ASC(MID$(X$,J))
690 IF X<>32 THEN NEXT J
700 IF J-P<>L GOTO 790
710 FOR K=P TO J-1
720 X=ASC(MID$(X$,K))
730 IF X<58 THEN X=X-48
740 IF X>64 THEN X=X-55
750 IF X<0 OR X>15 GOTO 790
760 V=V*16+X
770 NEXT K
780 RETURN
790 E=-1
800 RETURN

This program is a very tiny monitor. It will allow you to enter information into memory, eight bytes at a time. To do this: wait for the question mark, and then type in monitor-format the address and contents:

? 0800 00 1A 08 64 00 99 22 93

The program will return a checksum value to you, which you can use to insure that you have entered the information correctly. To view memory, type in only the address: the contents will be displayed.

Completing The Job

When you have finished entering all that data, you can make Supermon64 happen quite easily. Three last POKE commands and a CLR:

POKE 44,8
POKE 45,235
POKE 46,17
CLR

You have Supermon64. Save it with a conventional BASIC SAVE before you do anything else.

Now you may RUN it – and learn how to use it.

NOTE: Before entering the hex numbers with Tiny PEEKer/POKEr, type in the memory partitioning POKES: POKE 8192,0 and POKE 44,32, and then type NEW. When you’ve finished entering all the hex numbers, type: POKE 44,8: POKE 46,17: CLR. You can then SAVE Supermon64 in the ordinary, BASIC way, to tape or disk. It’s ready now to LOAD or RUN. Note also that the checksum program on page 333 checks 129 bytes at a time. This can have the effect of attributing a typing error to the wrong block if the error occurs near the beginning or the end of a block.

• Simple assembler

 .A 2000 LDA #$12
 .A 2002 STA $8000,X
 .A 2005 (RETURN)

In the above example the user started assembly at 2000 hex. The first instruction was load a register with immediate 12 hex. In the second line the user did not need to type the A and address. The simple assembler prompts with the next address. To exit the assembler type a return after the address prompt. Syntax is the same as the disassembler output.

• Disassembler

.D 2000
(SCREEN CLEARS)
2000 A9 12       LDA #$12
2002 9D 00 80    STA $8000,X
2005 AA          TAX
2006 AA          TAX

(Full page of instructions)

Disassembles 22 instructions starting at 2000 hex. The three bytes following the address may be modified. Use the CRSR keys to move to and modify the bytes. Hit return and the bytes in memory will be changed. Supermon64 will then disassemble that page again.

• Printing disassembler

.P 2000,2040
 2000 A9 12       LDA #$12
 2002 9D 00 80    STA $8000,X
 2005 AA          TAX

    ....

 203F A2 00       LDX #$00

To engage printer, set up beforehand:

OPEN 4,4:CMD4

• Fill memory

.F 1000 1100 FF

Fills the memory from 1000 hex to 1100 hex with the byte FF hex.

• Go run

.G

Go to the address in the PC register display and begin RUN code. All the registers will be replaced with the displayed values.

.G 1000

Go to address 1000 hex and begin running code.

• Hunt memory

.H C000 D000 'READ

Hunt through memory from 0000 hex to D000 hex for the ASCII string read and print the address where it is found. A maximum of 32 characters may be used.

.H C000 D000 20 D2 FF

Hunt through memory from 0000 hex to D000 hex for the sequence of bytes 20 D2 FF and print the address. A maximum of 32 bytes may be used.

• Load

.L

Load any program from cassette #1.

.L "RAM TEST"

Load from cassette #1 the program named RAM TEST.

.L "RAM TEST",08

Load from disk (device 8) the program named RAM TEST. This command leaves BASIC pointers unchanged.

• Memory display

.M 0000 0080
.: 0000 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07
.: 0008 08 09 0A 0B 0C 0D 0E 0F

Display memory from 0000 hex to 0080 hex. The bytes following the .: can be altered by typing over them, then typing a return.

• Register display

.R

     PC  IRQ  SR AC XR YR SP
    0000 E62E 01 02 03 04 05

Displays the register values saved when Supermon64 was entered. The values may be changed with the edit followed by a return.

• Save

.S "PROGRAM NAME",01,0800,0C80

SAVE to cassette #1 memory from 0800 hex up to but not including OC80 hex and name it PROGRAM NAME.

.S "0:PROGRAM NAME",08,1200,1F50

SAVE to disk drive #0 memory from 1200 hex up to but not including 1F50 hex and name it PROGRAM NAME.

• Transfer memory

.T 1000 1100 5000