The art of assembly language-the wrong idea (III.)

Section II combination language

First, the structural basis

Material civilization has today's achievements, because the human master the basic structure of matter. The kinds of matter are infinite, but they are all composed of basic elements, so long as we can get certain results according to certain rules.
Although computer technology is changing with each passing day, the change of application software is endless, and its basic factor is very limited. The combination language of various microprocessors, it is the basic structure of computer software, any action to be completed through the program, is through the combination of language instruction group, step-by-step implementation.
Because of the complexity of the computer structure, a variety of tasks are extremely refined, even a senior senior programmer, the end of his life is limited to a number of fixed programs to study, it is difficult to take a macro position to understand the whole picture. Coupled with the pressure of market demand, outsiders inexplicable their mystery, the bureau is busy, so no one can make a comprehensive assessment.
The combinatorial language first became the victim of misunderstanding, including the application of its system engineer, and all agreed that it was "difficult to learn", (Chinese is also a combination of the application, the combination of which is the concept of human.) Coincidentally, people in superficial understanding, are regarded as afraid. In fact, Grand is now the scientific one, and the scientific essence lies in the classification and application of the system. The question is whether we can sum up some rules of study and application, and simplify the process of combination to meet various application categories.

Second, personal experience

I personally feel very deeply about this, I was a complete layman, 1978 first contact with the computer, in less than two weeks time, on the learning of computer operations, and the application of "Cangjie language" design to complete the "input" program. At that time, I thought that the bacon language is easy to learn and easy to use, is the best tool on the computer.
Later, I began to design the "Cangjie vector word" program in the language of culture, two words per second, and Acer, who worked with me, suggested that I use a combination language, and they said that the program was fast and that the base language was not competent. If the combination of language, efficiency can be increased 10 times times, which began my bond with the combination of language. September 1979 We officially launched a Chinese-designed, with a complete computer function, can be used in tens of thousands of of the text of the "Tianlong China computer."
Acer used three senior engineers, using the Z80 MCZ system, with six months of time to complete the vector group Word and System program, memory space accounted for 60KB, processing speed of about 30 words per second.
This is the first time I discovered the power of the combination of language, under the scrutiny, to understand the whole computer work principle. Simply put, the combination language is the combination of all the functions of the computer control instructions, using it, you can directly control the computer.
Other higher-order languages, just to make it easier for people to use some form of formality to turn a person's ideas into a process of instruction, is equivalent to the way to indulge people who drive, built a dense web of highways. It was only a few minutes to walk to the place, the result of the car to travel, but it takes half an hour to spend.
1980, I decided to do it myself, and redesigned a set of more words, more beautiful style of the group Word program. Only three months of time, the result is not only the memory space reduced by One-third, the speed is 10 times times faster, reaching 300 words per second. This product is the "Hancock" used on the 1 apple machine.
1983, after analysis, I found that the previous program is not concise, technology is not mature. I firmly believe that the application of Chinese font in the computer will be the fundamental factor of the survival and decline of Chinese culture, not only worth betting their own time and energy, and it is necessary. So I lost everything again, design, add more parameters, and according to the principle of human identification, design into the third generation to the fifth generation and many other glyph generator. Each generation, the speed is obviously increased, the function is also constantly strengthened. In this repeated exploration, we tried various feasible ways to fully understand the characteristics and strengths of the combination language.
Because of the flexible nature of the combination language, I found it to be like a painter's paintbrush, just for profit, you can use it to draw a variety of cheap and fast goods; once put into their own ideals and the mind, the brush is no longer just a pen, and become the interface between the people and the outside world, painting the work immediately sublimation into art, into a higher realm!
1985, I again redesign planning, the use of human intelligence principles, the people to write, the concept of literacy into the data structure, the program is only used to explain the data, control the computer interface. The font of the font can be achieved without a degree of amplification, fonts, glyphs can be arbitrarily changed (each word can produce hundreds of millions of kinds of deformation). And in addition to today's various dictionaries have received more than 60,000 words, can also be composed of the Chinese rule in full compliance with the new Word 6 million, sufficient for the future new era of the application of ideas.
Not only that, the group word speed has been increased, each second can be composed of 30*30 Glyph 2000! Of course it is now 15MHz 80286, nearly six times times faster than the previous 4.75 MHz Z80. However, the improvement of the new program, the increase in its function, the complexity of the processing process is far from the year comparable.
These results, with a lot of special data structure techniques, cannot be accomplished through higher-order languages. Since the program made with the combination language can be greatly improved, this shows that the combination of language is very flexible and efficient. If not painful under painstaking study, the program finished, can carry out even if the matter, how can understand the mystery?
Therefore, I do not think that the combination of language is only a programming language, it is a tool to create art, it can be endowed with ignorance of the electronic machine a "life", from ignorance and then know, from the knowledge and wisdom. Through the research and exploration of combinatorial language, I have sorted out some laws and written this book to make it easier to understand and apply. However, in order to truly develop the combination of language into art, young friends have yet to continue their efforts, in this information age, to open up a new world.
Meaningless notes can be woven into a wonderful music, irregular colors can be turned into a colorful world, why the computer machine instructions, can not be structured information of the rational world?
This is art, as an artist, we must dedicate their own efforts to the truth, good, beautiful as the highest state.
To achieve this goal, we must seriously prepare for action, and then step by step to pursue.