Overview
In
this
tutorial, I will be showing you what is needed to make/assemble
Asm programs. We'll even learn some DOS commands!
Required
hardware
The following items are needed to create/run Asm programs:
- TI-83 Plus (this is kind of important)
- TI-Graph Link or Equivalent (actually optional)
- IBM compatible PC
Required
software
The following programs are needed to
write/assemble
Asm programs:
-TI-Graph link software (only if using TI-Graph Link)
-*TASM cross assembler/linker
-*Objhex (Objhex is a program I made in C that converts Binary
files to hexadecimal code)
-*Virtual TI (optional, I'll show you how to use it later)
-**Asm.bat (a batch file I will show you how to make, don't worry
about it yet)
-Any word processor (Notepad is prefered)
-Windows 3.x, 95, 98, 2000, or greater
*Available at www.ticalc.org, www.calc.org, or other
calculator
websites. Your best bet is to look in their program archives.
**Included with this Help File
What
is this?
If you are new to Asm programming, you
have
probably never heard of the software mentioned above. The TASM
assembler/linker assembles the program you've written in z80
assembly language. Nobody would have heard of ObjHex because I
made it (It is programmed in C). The only reason I use it is
because I have never used Obj83 (I just recently found out what
it was for:). They both do the same thing, but I'd prefer you use
ObjHex because I worked hard on it. If you want proof that it
isn't just a renamed Obj83, give me an e-mail, I'll show you the
source code for it! Virtual TI is a calculator
emulator, I'll tell you how to use it
later. If
you don't know what Windows is, you probably shouldn't be using
this help file, because you wouldn't be able to. Notepad is a
word processor, we will type in the source code for our programs
here.
What
we're going
to do
Now, we need to organize the files into
folders
("Directory" is the DOS term for folder).
Create a new
folder
called "LearnAsm".
You may call this folder anything you want as long as you know
what it is. Now, inside this folder, create four more new
folders, name them: "TASMassembler", "ObjHex",
"Virtual TI", and "MyPrgms". Extract the
contents of the TASM zip file to "TASMassembler", the
ObjHex zip file to "ObjHex", and so forth with the rest
of them. Leave the "MyPrgms" folder alone for now, we
will save all the programs you make to this folder. Now copy the
contents of "ObjHex" to "TASMassembler".
Before we get to the batch file, make sure if you're using the TI-Graph
Link software that it's installed correctly in it's own seperate
folder.
Now, here's the batch file.
Open the "LearnAsm"
folder. Now right click and select New, then click on text
document. Name it "asm.bat". Note the file extension is
.bat. Now open it. Copy and paste the following text into it.
Just to let you know, these are MS-DOS commands (Microsoft Disk Operating System). DOS was developed by Microsoft in the late 80's. It is simple to use if you know how. What do these commands mean? Well, look below:
Save the file and then move it to the "TASMassembler" folder ("Directory" is the DOS term for folder for those who are DOS illiterate...). Take a look at the batch file. Try to understand it, know what it is doing at a specific point in time. It'll make things a lot clearer.
Important!
Assembly programs must be written in z80
assembly language. Though to be sent to the calculator, they must
be assembled and converted to
ASCII
(Hexadecimal code). Once on the calculator, they
may be run as is, or compiled in to the calc's native language.
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