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8088 Assembler and Tracer Toolkit
Windows – Installing and Getting Started

Notes:

  • Prior to downloading any software installers please review the applications's system requirements to confirm that the software is compatible with your computer. Always install the latest Windows service pack and critical updates available from http://www.windowsupdate.com.
  • If at any point while installing the software supplied on this CD, you are presented with an error message that states you do not have the correct privileges or permissions to install the software, you will need to log off and then log on as the Administrator (or as another user with administrative permissions). If you are installing this software at a company, educational institution, or other organizational site, you may need to ask your system administrator for assistance or for an appropriate password.

I. COPYING THE 8088 ASSEMBLER AND TRACER TOOLKIT SOFTWARE TO YOUR HARD DISK

  1. If you have not done so already, create a directory named tracer on your hard disk. This is where you will place all the software in the 8088 Assembler and Tracer Toolkit.
  2. If you have not done so already, browse the CD-ROM to the 8088_tra\windows directory, and copy all of its contents to the new tracer directory you just created on your hard disk.
  3. Make sure the following directories and files now exist within your new tracer directory:

    4. Directories:

    as_src
    bin
    examples
    exercises
    trce_src

    Additional files in the main tracer directory:

    asinstal.bat
    README.txt
    release.txt
    syscalnr.h

II. CONFIGURING YOUR SYSTEM

In this part of the installation process, you make sure Windows' ansi.sys driver is available to the 8088 Assembler and Tracer Toolkit. To do so, you must first locate ansi.sys, and then locate and (possibly) edit another file named config.nt. Follow these steps:

  1. Locate ansi.sys using Windows' file search feature. For example, in Windows XP, click Start > Search > For Files and directories. Make a note of where you found ansi.sys.
  2. Locate config.nt, and open it with a text editor such as Notepad. (Do NOT use a word processor such as Word, which would add formatting that would prevent the file from being read properly.).

    3. On many systems, config.nt will be in the same directory as ansi.sys. If not, you can find it with Windows' file search feature.

  3. In config.nt, look for a line containing a device indication command that directs Windows to look for the ansi.sys file in the location you found it. Depending on your system, the line may resemble one of these examples:

    4. device=%SystemRoot%\system32\ansi.sys

    or

    device=%SystemRoot%\system32\ansi.sys

    or

    device=%SystemRoot%\system\ansi.sys

  4. If no such line appears, add one, in the following format:

    5. device=c:\??????\ansi.sys

    where ?????? is replaced by the path name where ansi.sys appears on your system

  5. Save the config.nt file.

III. TESTING YOUR CONFIGURATION

  1. Reboot your computer.
  2. Display a command prompt (Start > Programs > Accessories > Command Prompt), and change to the tracer directory, using the following command:

    3. cd tracer

  3. Run the first example program. Type:

    4. t88 HlloWrld

IV. GETTING STARTED WITH THE ASSEMBLER AND TRACER SOFTWARE

Within the tracer directory, you can find precompiled sources in the bin directory. For your convenience, there are also copies of the binaries in the examples and exercise directories. Source code for the assembler is in the directory as_src. Source code for the interpreter s88 and debugger-tracer t88 is in the directory trce_src.

The only important difference between the interpreter s88 and the tracer t88 is that the interpreter does not display the tracer window, and does not accept tracer commands from standard input. All other steps independent of the tracing process are identical.

A. CREATING BINARIES

Assembler source files have an extension .s. To create a binary for a source named project.s, enter the command:

as88 project

This performs the assembly, and generates three files:

project.88 The 8088 binary
project.# A file which links the file positions in the source file to the positions in the binary file)
project.$ A copy of the source file which contains included secondary sources and satisfies preferred
conventions for the assembly process

The tracer subwindow for the source file displays the project.$ version.

B. TRACING

To trace a file, use the command t88. For example, to trace a file named project, enter the command:

t88 project

This displays the registers, stack, portions of memory, and other information in a set of windows, enabling you to observe execution.

The tracer executes exactly on assembler command when the return key is hit. To stop execution, type the command q, followed by a return. Execution stops on its own when the process itself exits.

To interpret a file without displaying the tracer window, use the s88 Command. For example, to interpret a file named project, enter the command:

s88 project

The entire assembler project uses command line terminal windows. This is commonplace on Posix compliant systems, but less typical for Windows platforms.

Some extra notes on the current implementation, known bugs, and restrictions can be found in the file release.txt in the same subdirectory as the installation files for this platform.

Good Luck,
Evert Wattel
Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam
evert@cs.vu.nl (or e.wattel@few.vu.nl)