[Year 12 SofDev] Slightly off topic question

[Baas, Benjamin B]

Thank you for the resources Robert,

I have been looking into the architecture issues and have found a nice 68K assembler and simulator that works on Windows which might suite my needs.

Link for interested people: http://www.easy68k.com/

Cheers,

Ben.

From: sofdev [mailto:sofdev-bounces at edulists.com.au] On Behalf Of timmer at westnet.com.au
Sent: Wednesday, 13 December 2017 2:22 PM
To: Year 12 Software Development Teachers' Mailing List <sofdev at edulists.com.au>
Subject: Re: [Year 12 SofDev] Slightly off topic question


Hello Benjamin
I have, about a million years ago (actually it was the late 1980's and unfortunately, a lot of my material is now unreadable - because of changes in technology, not because of content!).
But back then I was teaching on Acorn machines which had a native BASIC (BBC BASIC), into which you could embed 6502 assembly language.
If I were going to do it now, I'd be looking for an emulator (or equivalent) of some of the early microprocessors or their assembly language; for example the Motorola 6800, Mostek 6502, Intel 8080 or 8086.
The main reason is that assembly language is closely tied to a processor's architecture, and to really understand assembly language programming, you have to have a fairly solid idea of how the machine itself works (at least from the point of view of how data is moved from place to place and what those places are).
Modern processors are incredibly sophisticated compared with the simple machines listed above, and I think that that sophistication would get in the way of learning assembly language (but maybe I'm wrong). Early processors are easy to understand and so are their assembly languages (on that score I would prefer the 6800 since it is probably the most straightforward of the four).
Perhaps there are modern platforms for teaching assembly language so all of the above may be out of date!
Anyhow, I've attached two docs that may be of interest: one I prepared for an Information Systems class (2004) when we had to teach something about architecture; and the other I prepared for a Y10 programming class (2007) where I was trying to give some idea of the difference between high and low level languages.

Regards
Robert T-A



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Subject:
[Year 12 SofDev] Slightly off topic question

Hi all,


Off topic question but has anyone taught assembly programming in the class room? I have a group of year 9’s that are interested in learning assembly and if they’re interested I’ll teach it.


Cheers,


Ben.


Benjamin Baas
 Alkira Secondary College
•   Nurture Ave, Cranbourne North | PO Box 4314, Narre Warren South 3805
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Alkira Secondary College believes in Personalised learning for all, and  Respect for the individual



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