Re: New Apple II blog

["Michael J. Mahon" <mjmahon@aol.com>]

mdj wrote:
> On Oct 23, 2:26 pm, heuser.mar...@freenet.de wrote:
> > On Oct 22, 9:09 pm, JJ Sonick <jj.lawre...@gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >
> >
> > > Oh, and I forgot to say: comments very much welcome here and
> > > on the blog!
> > Your first few entries make up for an interesting read!
> >
> > While learning assembly I found it best to NOT rely too much in typing
> > in printed example programs. You not only may find errors but they
> > also
> > tend to be rather extensive for what they do - and often you don't
> > have
> > a real need for these programs or routines. Short assembly programs
> > can
> > be as demonstrative and don't take too much of your time.
>
> With this in mind, a good way to learn (and the way I did it) is to
> disassemble the Apple II Monitor routines (including the Console
> driver). Short routines abound in there, and the skills you acquire
> using the Monitor to disassemble itself are invaluable.

...not to mention that the Monitor is "master grade" code that anyone
can learn a lot from.  ;-)

Assuming that you understand algorithms, and we're mainly talking about
style and "vocabulary", I've always maintained that the best way to
learn to write well in any language (including computer languages) is
to read a lot of great literature in that language.

The Apple II Monitor is certainly great literature in 6502 M/L.  It's
not without a few places that can be tweaked (so you have something to
motivate you!), but overall, it achieves its objectives with grace and
beauty.

-michael

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