If I were to start in Assembler...

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metalfoot
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If I were to start in Assembler...

Post by metalfoot »

What are the easiest tools to learn with?
I'm assuming Mr Jordison's IDE is one of the elements, but what books, tutorials (I see a few posted in this forum) etc would be of help if I want a good, easy-to-follow, hands-on method of learning?


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Shaun_B
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Re: If I were to start in Assembler...

Post by Shaun_B »

Hi,

There was a beginners series printed in old issues of Commodore FREE - for it, I used notepad and a command line assembler if I recall, but there are far more powerful tools available that I should have used (I think I was still at Uni at the time 'retraining'):

http://www.commodorefree.com/magazine/v ... l#ARTICLE3
http://www.commodorefree.com/magazine/v ... l#ARTICLE4
http://www.commodorefree.com/magazine/v ... l#ARTICLE6

I don't know how 'right' it is as I based it on a Z80 tutorial that I wrote a year or so earlier, but I can say that nobody complained about it to my face at the time of publication, nor did they complain when it was recycled for Commodore FREE. There would have been people who had a good laugh about it behind my back, of course, being something about the C64 and programming.

Regards,

Shaun.
BASIC Programming - making the mistakes so that you don't have to.
Circles and Squares.
Nothing I post here will stand up in a court of law.
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Melon
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Re: If I were to start in Assembler...

Post by Melon »

If you haven't already, read the excellent Commodore Free Assembly Line $00,$01 & $02 threads by satpro.
.oO( MELON64 - ONE SLiCE AiN'T ENOUGH! )Oo.
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yaztromo
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Re: If I were to start in Assembler...

Post by yaztromo »

All you need to get started is a text editor with syntax highlighting for asm and dasm cross assembler. Then test your prgs with VICE.

The tutorials on digitalerr0r are very good:
http://digitalerr0r.wordpress.com/2011/ ... n-windows/

As is the the equally great tutorials on dustlayer:
http://dustlayer.com/tutorials/

I just started learning assembler a few weeks ago. In some respects it is easier than BASIC since you have easy access to C64s hardware without all those trillions of POKE and DATA statements to get anything useful done. You don't even need to remember the hex addresses of registers since you can set them descriptive names with define statements. Assembler on C64 really is a joy these days

I also recommend downloading Machine Language for the Commodore 64 by Jim Butterfield (just google "ml4c64.txt"). It will really help your understanding of the 6510 and the C64's architecture.

And for creating sprites and graphics there is sprite-pad and char-pad. http://www.coder.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/index.htm
Prime

Re: If I were to start in Assembler...

Post by Prime »

Is your intention to code games Metalfoot?If yes I could code a few simple(1 player object,1 enemy object with simple animation)example with heavy commenting.
You can choose which sprites or game genre and I'll code a working example as to atleast attempt to make it enjoyable for you.
If your unable to create your own art assets choose from http://www.spriters-resource.com/ and i'll duplicate the sprites you desire.
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Shaun_B
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Re: If I were to start in Assembler...

Post by Shaun_B »

Of course, it's all about practise as well and what sort of learner you are. I generally do first and think later. That means things get messy that way but I also learn more by making mistakes and resolving the issues thrown up.

Regards,

Shaun.
BASIC Programming - making the mistakes so that you don't have to.
Circles and Squares.
Nothing I post here will stand up in a court of law.
Prime

Re: If I were to start in Assembler...

Post by Prime »

Shaun_B wrote:Of course, it's all about practise as well and what sort of learner you are. I generally do first and think later. That means things get messy that way but I also learn more by making mistakes and resolving the issues thrown up.

Regards,

Shaun.
I agree with Shaun things do get messy when you don't have a clear design planned(Wing it design ;) ).In my case I end up reprogramming an abundance of the code, think of it as good practice.
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Shaun_B
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Re: If I were to start in Assembler...

Post by Shaun_B »

Prime wrote:I agree with Shaun things do get messy when you don't have a clear design planned(Wing it design ;) ).In my case I end up reprogramming an abundance of the code, think of it as good practice.
Especially when it is (or it should be) fun programming, who cares? That kind of goes against my own advice, but then where is the coding standards documentation etc... for the C64?

Regards,

Shaun.
BASIC Programming - making the mistakes so that you don't have to.
Circles and Squares.
Nothing I post here will stand up in a court of law.
Prime

Re: If I were to start in Assembler...

Post by Prime »

Shaun_B wrote:
Prime wrote:I agree with Shaun things do get messy when you don't have a clear design planned(Wing it design ;) ).In my case I end up reprogramming an abundance of the code, think of it as good practice.
Especially when it is (or it should be) fun programming, who cares? That kind of goes against my own advice, but then where is the coding standards documentation etc... for the C64?

Regards,

Shaun.
You bring up a very good point about standards there really isn't any that I'm aware of.The c64 community is notorious for scrutinizing people's source code(I'm also guilty of this and not proud of it) which really is a shame as it's an ample reason others don't share.
metalfoot
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Re: If I were to start in Assembler...

Post by metalfoot »

I think maybe I'll start with working through Butterfield's book then take you up on your offer, Prime. :)

(I've got 2 weeks left in a course I'm taking and then I should have a bit more time to concentrate on learning to code.)
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