Mainframe people are more likely to realize the distinction between
machine code and Assembler language because some of us have actually
been forced at some point in our life to write at the machine code
level, where you have to write in binary, octal, or hex. or decimal
numbers and manually assign memory addresses for instructions and
data. If you have worked with powerful macro assemblers with large
macro libraries, you also recognize that such Assemblers are much more
powerful that just a convenient shorthand for representing machine code
instructions.
I think conflating machine code with Assembler code is more common in
the PC world.
JC Ewing
On 12/30/24 12:43 PM, Phil Smith III wrote:
(Cross-posted to IBM-MAIN, IBMVM, and the IBM assembler list)
I just finished a book, The Impossible Fortress by Jason Rekulak, which I quite enjoyed.
Part of the plot involves characters writing code on a Commodore 64, including some
"machine code". It seemed clear from the description that they meant what I'd
call assembler; some Googling quickly found https://project64.c64.org/Software/mlcom.pdf,
a guide to such programming for the C64 which definitely seems to blur the terms.
I wrote the author, who cheerfully confirmed that yes, they're used
interchangeably in that world.
Which led me to wonder several things:
1. Which platforms call it assembler and which call it assembly? (And why?)
2. Am I odd in thinking that in our world, "machine code" is the hex that the
hardware expects, and assembler is the opcodes/mnemonics that we mostly use?
3. What are we "assembling"?
On #1, I suspect that we call it assemblER because that's what ASMXF and H and HL call
themselves as much as any other reason. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assembly_language
says in part "assembly language (alternatively assembler language...or symbolic
machine code)", which confirms that it's blurry but doesn't otherwise clarify.
It also answers, kinda, #3:
The term "assembler" is generally attributed to Wilkes, Wheeler and Gill in their 1951
book The Preparation of Programs for an Electronic Digital Computer,... who, however, used the term
to mean "a program that assembles another program consisting of several sections into a single
program".
So perhaps the two a-words aren't even really appropriate! Too late now, of
course...
What say ye? Does any of this conflict with your usage/thoughts?
...phsiii
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Joel C Ewing
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