Atari Assembler Editor
| Original author(s) | Kathleen O'Brien |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Shepardson Microsystems |
| Stable release |
1.0 / 1981
|
| Platform | Atari 8-bit family |
| Size | 8KB |
| Type | Assembler |
| License | Copyright © 1981 Atari Corp. Proprietary software |
The Atari Assembler Editor is a cartridge-based development system used to edit, assemble, and debug 6502 programs for the Atari 8-bit family of home computers. It was programmed by Kathleen O'Brien of Shepardson Microsystems. It was the first commercially available assembler for the Atari 8-bit computers.
In the manual, Atari recommends the Assembler Editor as a tool for writing subroutines to speed up BASIC, primarily because assembly times are extremely slow for anything but the smallest programs. The Atari Macro Assembler was offered by Atari to provide better performance and more powerful features, such as macros, but it was disk-based, copy-protected, and did not include an editor or debugger. Despite the recommendation, commercial software was written using the Assembler Editor, such as the game Galahad and the Holy Grail.
The Assembler Editor is two-pass 6502 assembler in an 8KB cartridge. Both source and object code can be in memory simultaneously, allowing repeated editing, assembly, and running of the resulting code without accessing a disk or tape drive.
The cartridge starts in EDIT mode. The programmer enters lines of assembly source into the Atari BASIC-like editor. Source text must be prefixed with a line number, or it is interpreted as a command. Errors are reported with numeric error codes.
Code is assembled with the ASM command.
The debugger, really a monitor, is entered with the BUG command. The debugger allows the viewing and changing of registers and memory locations, code tracing, single-step and disassembly.
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