News

2004/03/10 at 03:25 CET

HELLO!

Yes, I know 'hello' is a lame title... It is apparently -5°C outside and I am cold, even with a hot water bottle on my lap. :-( Anyway, I'm sorry if 'hello' is a lame title, but I'm not feeling so inspired right now.

While there is not much new content here, a lot of small updates and corrections have been made, so you might like to take a quick read through this site (or download one of the archives) in order to refresh your memory.

Wednesday, 10th March 2004 [France]

Added the 'shorter' quick finder. Now 'typical' RISC OS programmers won't have to wade through all the Thumb and VFP rubbish...
Rebuilt the downloadable archives with the new content.
Note that the off-line version does NOT say 'external link' and the like. I don't have enough time to add that.
# I've tried so hard to tell myself that you're gone but though you're still with me I've been alone all along (Evanescence; My Immortal)

Monday, 16th February 2004 [France]

As of today, the 'news' entries will no longer say '[France]' as, well, I'm not likely to return to England, and if I should move again, I'll make 'em say '[Italy]' or whatever for a while...
Been busy designing a website (for somebody else).
Continued with typo and spelling checks.
Somewhat expanded the podules document. :-)
You'd think one of these days I'd learn "seperate" is said like 'sep-er-at' and written like 'separate'. You'd think, wouldn't you?
# You used to captivate me by your resonating light, now I'm bound by the light you left behind... (Evanescence; My Immortal)

Monday, 29th December 2003 [France]

Revised the document on Floating Point.

Wednesday, 24th December 2003 [France]

Began full work on correcting all the niggles in the assembler site - from words I didn't like to typos, and screwed up HTML ( '&' and '<' in program listings, but not escaped! ).
IMPORTANT: As of today, the assembler site will (gradually) be converted to 32-bit compliant code, with notes of how to 26-bit it... rather than the other way around (as it was before).
This decision has been taken due to the following considerations:
1. Unless you are writing vector or other system code in BASIC, the BASIC assembler doesn't really care if you restore flags/registers on exit.
2. The 26/32 bit compiler/assembler tools are available, as is the Iyonix which uses RISC OS in 32 bit mode, thus...
3. The use of the 32bit PC (separate PSR) is a reality, not a theory. It's time to reflect that here...
Extended the description of APCS - now we talk about stack extensions in more detail, and there's a nifty little chart of APCS types.
All work done in these next few days will be dated 2004 as I know I won't be able to upload them until at least the 7th of January, 2004.
# Don't say I'm out of touch with this rampant chaos - your reality I know well what lies beyond my sleeping refuge The nightmare I built my own world to escape (Evanescence; Imaginary)

Tuesday, 23rd December 2003 [France]

As an experiment, I played with various permutations of example 9 (lowercase). The results have been written up as example 9b (lowercase...again).
# So go on and scream Scream at me - I'm so far away I won't be broken again I've got to breathe, I can't keep going under... (Evanescence; Going Under)

Saturday, 23rd August 2003 [France]

I have occasional access to the Internet at a local library, and they have allowed me to upload files to my website (merci beaucoup, Sandrine!), so it is high time to work on getting my website updates on my local copy 'into the wild'.

Thursday, 10th October 2002 [France]

Fixed missing </code> tag in 'modcode.html'. It was my !OvHTML application that discovered this! :-)
And it discovered a few boo-boos on this page too. Erk!

Monday, 22nd July 2002 [France]

Added information on FPA/FPE into the Quick Finder.
# Rock is deader than dead! Shock is all in your head. Your sex and your dope are all that we're fed, so f... all your protests and put 'em to bed. (Marilyn Manson; Rock is dead)

Friday, 5th July 2002 [France]

Added StrongARM CP15 information to co-processor documentation.
# I hope that you can hear me Though you're living in another world. Throwing shadows up on us... (Sylver; In your eyes (?))

Wednesday, 5th June 2002 [France]

Expanded the information on co-processors, with some examples of reading the processor type (from CP15, C0); and some additional details on how the FPE works.
# Do you still remember how we used to be? Coding together, hacking forever, oh the beauties of C. Both of us were dreamers, think we'd be Bill Gates, making the money, and being famous but... we'd only just begun... (Imagination, Rick's version of 'Viva forever' by the Spice Girls)

Friday, 17th May 2002

Added more details to proctype.html, and calculated MIPS/MHz.
Added document on debugging.
Various modifications to fix typos etc.
Opinion 5 - copyright and copying.
Updated 'documents' archive.
# All that matters is that you can be free to live your life the way you sincerely feel it, Cause life's too short. You don't wanna be a prisoner of your own illusions. (Sita; Happy)

Tuesday, 26th March 2002

Expanded description of processors to better cover the range.
Removed the ARM2/ARM3 differences, as it didn't tell us anything new.
Expanded and updated the history of the ARM processor to include a lot of stuff about Acorn, as Acorn's involvement/history plays a large part in the history - indeed if it was not for Acorn's strict idea of what they wanted in a processor, the ARM might never have been born.
Expanded the description of what it means to be RISC.
# And I don't want to move a thing, it might change my memory. (Dido; Here with me)

Monday, 25th March 2002

I'm now hosting Webite, as it is a full-blown web browser, written in ARM code, with source available. I can't think of a more suitable home for it... :-)

Sunday, 17th March 2002

The main index has been 'fixed' to accomodate some browser deficiencies:
- The image text, at font size 1, has been converted to font size 2 as it looked silly in Webite.
- The <li> tags no longer have trailing spaces as Oregano renders them. There was a small debate on Usenet where it turns out that I am actually the incorrect one for doing it; however I still consider this to be a deficiency as the lists render correctly with or without spaces in Fresco, Browse, ArcWeb, MSIE 3, MSIE 5.5, Opera, and, hell, even Webite does it the way I intended.
More and more of the dates are now given in ISO 8601 representation. That, basically, is YYYY/MM/DD (though some people use YYYY-MM-DD).

Saturday, 16th March 2002

I originally wrote this in the index page, but frankly it doesn't belong here. So I shall copy it here. After all, y'all read the news page, right?

Copyright © 1999-2002 Richard Murray
The content of this site is copyright. Whilst these documents have been placed in 'the public domain' (ie, here), that does not affect the copyright, which is an automatic thing.
In a nutshell - if you plan to use this yourself, or as part of a lesson you plan to teach to others, then you can hack and fiddle with the documentation and the software as you feel like it.
If, however, this content is to be sold, in any way (including a 'PD' CD-ROM, or 'free' bundled software), then you must distribute this content unmodified, and you must send me a gratis fully working/registered copy of whatever it is you are selling. I will not require you go through the formality of requesting permission if deadlines and things are problematic, but it is useful to do so in case something 'new' is just around the corner. You must, however, contact me once you have used this information, so you can send me my copy of what-have-you.
This does not apply to SparkPlug, Peter Burwood's FP instructions, or any material here that I do not have copyright over.

Please, I do not want to hear EFFisms as to what strictly constitutes 'theft' and how I lose nothing if you merely 'copy' data.
As far as I'm concerned, if you are simply here to learn assembler, then forget reading this paragraph! If, however, you intend to profit in some way which includes the use of this information and/or software, then either be willing to share, or go away. True, a billion people can download this and I lose nothing. The data is still there. However that simplistic model does not account for the time, energy, effort, and electricity expended in the creation of this site.
I don't want a long drawn debate, I just ask you to play fair.
You cannot comprehend how sucky it feels to have to state the above, which to me feels both obvious and morally justified. But, it seems that such things need to be pointed out often.
By the way, if you are a certain German person and you think I may be talking about you here... You gave me a freebie, so I call it evens. So, no, I'm not talking about you. :-)
Right. Thank god that's over. I hate writing that crap. It seems so patronising.

Sunday, 3rd March 2002

Added 'EXT 1' to example seven by mistake (it's an ExtBASICasm instruction). Duh!
# And by five o'clock everything's dead And every third car is a cab And ignorant people sleep in their beds Like the doped white mice in the college lab (Del Amitri; Nothing ever happens)

Saturday, 2nd March 2002

'Revisited' example seven, to optimise it and make it better. :-)
# What a wicked game you play to make me feel this way. What a wicked thing to do to let me dream of you. What a wicked thing to say "You never felt this way". What a wicked thing to do to make me dream of you. (Chris Isaak; Wicked Game)

Friday, 28th December 2001

Added a PICS rating to this site; primarily so that it won't be blocked by those who are a little paranoid about their access settings!
It also supports self-censorship, as I feel more qualified to judge the content of my site than some nominated nobody. That's why I have only applied the basic 'nothing nasty here' rating to /assembler/ instead of the entire site.
Altered return-to-index links to use a section coding system, so all the documents under the 'ARM processor' section will link you back to that section, instead of the top of the page. And so on, for the other sections...
Added a section on speeding up the TaskWindow. This information was just culled from my news archives. Gratuitous thanks should be directed to Daniel Ellis by anybody and everybody who uses this patch. It is just a shame Daniel details this patch now (December 2001), instead of Acorn doing it back in '92.
Ah well...
You know? That's nearly a decade of using a slow taskwindow. I wonder how many man-hours have been lost awaiting the taskwindow to complete the given task, if you take ALL the RISC OS users affected and multiply it by 87600 hours...

...isn't it funny? A decade is a long time, but 87600 hours doesn't seem like so much. How about 5256000 minutes? Or 315360000 seconds?
This, by the way, was taking a year to be 365 days. If you care to correct these figures to account for leap years and other time displacements, that's your perogative. As I write this, it is quarter past four in the morning, so I really can't be bothered! :-)
Watched 'Wag the Dog' last night (well, five hours ago) and it is amazing to consider the film was pre-Lewinsky. Talk about life imitating art!
This has nothing to do with ARM code, it's just an anecdote to prove that I don't always sit in front of the computer... but getting me away from a cathode ray tube is a different matter entirely! :-)
# You were always brilliant in the morning smoking your cigarettes and talking over coffee Your philisophies on art, baroque moves you, do you love Mozart? And you speak of your love to others as I clumsily strum my guitar Well excuse me, 'cos I was certain you were somebody else Somebody who gave a damn, somebody more like myself (Jewel [Kilcher]; Foolish Games)

Friday, 21st December 2001

RISC OS development software beta test links removed.
# How can I explain when there are few words I can choose? How can I explain when words get broken? (Erasure; Chains of Love)

Wednesday, 19th December 2001

Finally got around to adding meta tags to these pages! :-)
# I wish I knew how it would feel to be free. I wish I could break all the chains holding me. I wish I could say all the things that I should say. Say 'em loud, say 'em clear, for the whole wide world to hear. (The Lighthouse Family; <title unknown>)

Tuesday, 20th November 2001

Fixed broken links to 'apcs.html', which is now called 'apcsintro.html'.
Fixed missing </h2> tag in 'apcsintro.html', which made the output rather fowl. Yes, like a chicken. It clucked.
Amended bit on resource allocation to point to RISC OS Ltd. I'm sure there was a csaa posting, but I don't see it in NewsAgent... Mmmm.
GREAT NEWS!
Finally, the off-line archive has been updated. I have gone through it (with Fresco and SparkFS) and made sure it all works, commented out invalid links, and added annoying "[EXTERNAL LINK]" notes to all of the links that require you to be on-line. Additionally, the main images are now included, so hopefully it can be used stand-alone as a useful resource.
The not so good news it is is now some 600K long, but that shouldn't take too long to download...
# Annie, are you okay? You okay? You okay Annie? You've been hit by, you've been struck by, a smooth criminal... Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!!!!! (Alien Ant Farm; Smooth Criminal) [I love the video]

Monday, 5th November 2001

FIXED THE PROBLEM WITH THE IMAGES...
Fleshed out the example for direct access to the parallel port (in podule.html).
Updated URLs in the links page. Added some new URLs.
Added URLs to the APCS 'my thoughts on assemblers' page, where I could find the software for download.
Added URLs to the hardware access page, where necessary.
Tidied some of the other off-site links.
Added pictures of StrongARM on LART, and Kinetic. Slightly modified from the ones downloaded from the respective sites.

Thursday, 1st November 2001 [UK]

Updated the RISC OS Programmer's Initiative information and CJE's URL.
# You make believe that nothing is wrong until you're crying. You make believe that life is so long until you're dying. (Limp Bizkit; <title unknown>)

Monday, 24th September 2001 [France]

Updated the Floating Point details; and added the bits about accuracy and speed. I was surprised by the results of the FP speed test.
Revising the APCS section.
Added details of hardware access, and some rudimentary examples of working with the hardware.
# Hey, you should have seen us! We were on our way to Venus, hey, hey! (OMD; Walking on the milky way)

Friday, 22nd September 2001 [France]

The Autumn equinox is tonight, 2001-09-23 at 00:04h.
Added the pseudo-instructions document, to cater for things which were not instructions, but were available in the assembler.
Amended a few links as is appropriate.
Tidied the assorted lyrics on this page, and provided references (when known). They aren't necessarily things that I like and/or bought; just stuff I happened to be listening to as I write this, whether from the Dido CD, or radio, or MTV...
# You have the bravest heart, the strongest emotions. After all the harm I've caused, you still want my loving. I can't believe I still receive so much affection from your side If you could give me one more chance, I'd love to turn the tide.
(Sylver; Turn the tide)

Thursday, 5th July 2001 [France]

Added 'Processor setup via co-processor 15' page. Scoured all my CD-ROMs for PDF and HTML datasheets.
It's not of terrifically great use, but it is some of that esoteric stuff that might come in handy in really geeky pub quizzes!
Extended unsqueeze instructions to cope with a squeezed file that didn't seem to follow the same rules, but was too close to be something different. I'm guessing the newer StrongARM-aware squeeze does it slightly differently.
# Everytime you need me, you know I will be there, a love beyond compare. Say you will. Say you care. (Fragma; Every time you need me)

Sunday, 1st July 2001 [France]

Well, I knew Sky was unplugging it's analogue transmissions. But I've discovered I'm paying the going rate for Sky package + a movie channel; and all I'm getting is two bloody channels. Hell, even Sky News has gone!
More (flames) comments in the version notes of !Teletext.
To add insult to injury, the Sky teletext is a pathetic shadow of it's former self. Damn.

Nothing to do with ARM, I'm just mighty annoyed and feel I should tell the world.
You, dear reader, have the option of ignoring this rubbish... which, let's face it, is the only option available to sane people... :-)

Thursday, 28th June 2001 [France]

Well, I'll be damned. All the detail here and nothing obvious about 'how to write assembler programs in BASIC'. Okay, so I'm a twat. Did I ever claim otherwise? :-)
Added pictures of processors to the processor types page. Soon, I'll amalgamate the arm 2/250/3 description into that, and remove the former.
Can you help?
Some of the non-original pictures have been edited, but can you identify them? All have been retrieved from the public domain so I don't see any problems with using them here. But if it's your picture, I'll be more than happy to credit you. Email me.
Same goes for a processor that I don't have - namely ARM250, and ARM7500(FE). I have a picture of the Kinetic, and also one of the StrongARM, so I don't need them. What would be nice is if somebody has a really tight shot of the ARM1. The close-up is simply the same JPEG at increased magnification. Not too useful really.
Of course, if you have a better picture than one I have already, then hey! Send it to me please...
Amended the main index page to have two processor pictures. Moved the intro text to rationale.
Created the 'notation' page, to stop people asking why I wasn't using 'standard' notation such as 103EAh.
# And here we stand, in old England's land; shattered glass on the ground.
(Erasure; Crown of Thorns)

Monday, 30th April 2001

Following a glitch with the counter cgi, I decided to reimplement the counter as a bit of in-line php3. This way, it records all accesses rather than just those who have images switched on.
Later...
It seems you can't start with zero, you must start with 1. Don't ask me...!
# Can you be the one that sets my shadow free?
(Billie Piper; Walk of life)

Tuesday, 10th April 2001

The Quick Finder now links you to the relevant part of the linked page. So when you are looking for TEQ, you don't need to wade through loads of stuff to get there. Also, some of the more obscure links (ADR) might be harder to locate in a generalised text (god, did that make any sense?).
Added a document on memory schemes and multitasking. A lot of it hasn't much relevence to the RISC OS environment. However something useful when you are programming is to be aware of other options, other ideas, other concepts.
Funnies.
# To you I belong.
(B*witched; To you I belong (duh!))

Friday, 6th April 2001

Corrected the 'short' (read: incorrect) file extensions in the site archive.
Added the forum link to the assembler bit. Nobody used it off the main site, so maybe I can target it.
This forum is regular HTML. It doesn't need Java or anything like that. Works just fine with Fresco...
It has been pointed out that the background image could make it hard to read the index page. So I have cleaned it up, dropped in a different logo image, and the regular ARM as a seperator. Does this look tidier?
Added the Quick Finder page.
Included the newer OPT settings, thanks to Matthias Seifert.
# Dear Isabel, I hope you're well, and what you've done is right...
(Dido; Isabel)

Monday, 26th March 2001

Converted the archives to Zip deflate format, tested with SparkPlug and tested reading directly from archive with SparkFS and Fresco.
Tested one archive with WinZip, seemed okay, but didn't have time (the computer wasn't mine) to test them all - but I don't anticipate any problems.

Please note, though, that in order to get the BASIC programs to compile, you will need access to a RISC OS machine. Brandy doesn't have a built-in assembler (logically!). Your other alternative is to convert the code to assemble with the SDK or ADS. Refer to www.arm.com for more information.
Created new section, 32 bit operation, and jiggled things around.
Added page on 32 bit rules.
Added a bit on how to unsqueeze the long involved way.
Added 'Another newsflash!'. I'm not messing with you, you can download the C development suite beta and use it for 60 days!
Added the where you might find ARM page.
# My friends make me smile, if only for a while, you can make me whole again.
(Atomic Kitten (!); Whole again)

Friday, 23rd March 2001

Corrected truth table for BIC instruction.

Wednesday, 7th March 2001

Retitled the processor section to "The ARM processor",
moved the "RISC vs CISC" there.
Added section on "The pipeline".
Added section on "The cache".
Added the "Sanity warning". :-)
Updated the "Processor Types" with differences between ARM610/ARM710 and added ARM7500/7500FP.
I'd appreciate assistance with processors not covered that exist (do ARM4-5 exist? ARM8+?) and better details of ARM1 and StrongARM, can anybody help?
Added red warnings to code that is known not to be 32-bit compliant. Altered code that had no actual need to preserve flags.

Tuesday, 27th February 2001

Added 'search' option, to make it easier for you to find things.
The example for the module code is messy. So I've put the module code page up on its own without an example. I'll add the example later, when it is 'nicer'.

Monday, 5th February 2001

Code tested on an ARM 6 processor. All works as expected apart from proctype which fails to identify the processor. It only recognises up to ARM 3.
I'll fix this when I discover a fool-proof method of detecting the processor type.
Had 4040 hits today (not this one day, just accumulated!). Not bad, give it a few months and it'll probably overtake the rest of my website (since it was originally created!). It is already top of the statistics report.
Added the rationale and linked in this news page.
If you want to come and see what has changed, look here...
Slight modification of the index menu.
Updated PSR document to describe 32 bit operation, including some basic code to set the Z flag in 32 bit mode, and test it in 26 bit mode. Kinda useless really, but in current versions of RISC OS, kinda useless is a good description of 32 bit code. Shame, really...

Saturday, 3rd February 2001

I started a page on writing relocatable modules while over in France last year, but did not want to write too much 'cos all I had was the Arthur PRMs (!). So I've updated it and am continuing. Surprisingly, not much has changed, aside from a load of waffle about instantiations (count how many times that word appears in the document!).
I'm in the process of finishing off a little example module. It is five o'clock in the morning now, because I wanted to say the first build of the working module was performed at 05:04 03/02/01.
Yes people, I really am that sad...

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