Re: The Second Book Of Machine Language on the Web

["Michael Pender" <mpender@hotmail.com>]

Michael J. Mahon <mjmahon@aol.com> wrote in message
20030701144034.09237.00002113@mb-m29.aol.com">news:20030701144034.09237.00002113@mb-m29.aol.com...
...snip...
> I think that this project to make useful books available on the web
> is a valuable one, and I commend those responsible.
>
> However, with regard to this particular book, I have my doubts.
> As nostalgia, it is a great contribution for all those who once
> read it and find it familar--but it can hardly be considered
> the work of a good assembly language coder.
>
> I have often said that the best way to learn to write code in a
> language is to read great code written by great coders.  This
> book does not present great code.  It might be defended as
> an introduction to coding, but it is then a _second_ introduction
> by the same author.
>
> The LADS assembler which is the focus of the exposition is
> hardly an "advanced" assembler (which would have macros
> and, at least, the ability to handle address expressions
> more complex than "label+constant").
>
...snip...
> -michael

I'll second your opinion.  I remember using the LADS assembler and IMHO it
blew big chunks.

It was flaky and *far* inferior to contemporary products such as Microsparc
Inc.'s assembler, which offered advanced macro support including an
assembler-ready version of BASIC called Macrosoft.

Michael Pender