## The Assembler Description

### ... The ASxxxx Assemblers

- Assembly Pass 1
- Assembly Pass 2
- Assembly Pass 3
- Return to the Assembler Index

####

    Assembly Pass 1

       During  pass  1, ASxxxx opens all source files and performs a
    rudimenatry assembly of each source statement.  During this pro-
    cess  all symbol tables are built, program sections defined, and
    number of bytes for each assembled source line is estimated.

       At the end of pass 1 all undefined symbols may be made global
    (external) using the ASxxxx switch -g, otherwise undefined  sym-
    bols will be flagged as errors during succeeding passes.

##### => Section Index

####

    Assembly Pass 2

       During  pass  2  the ASxxxx assembler resolves forward refer-
    ences and determines the number  of  bytes  for  each  assembled
    line.   The  number  of bytes used by a particular assembler in-
    struction may depend upon the addressing mode, whether  the  in-
    struction allows multiple forms based upon the relative distance
    to the addressed location, or other factors.   Pass  2  resolves
    these  cases  and  determines the address of all symbols.  Those
    assemblers with multiple forms are able to automatically  repeat
    pass  2 as many times as necessary to resolve all differences in
    instruction lengths and forward references.   All  other  assem-
    blers  can  manually  specify  additional passes to resolve more
    than one level of forward referencing.

##### => Section Index

####

    Assembly Pass 3

       Pass 3 by the assembler generates the listing file, the relo-
    catable output file, and the symbol tables.  Also during pass  3
    the errors will be reported.

       The  relocatable object file is an ascii file containing sym-
    bol references and definitions, program  area  definitions,  and
    the  relocatable assembled code, the linker ASLINK will use this
    information to generate an absolute load file  (Intel,  Motorola
    or Tandy CoCo Disk Basic formats).

##### => Section Index

### ... Source Program Format

- Statement Format
- Label Field
- Operator Field
- Operand Field
- Comment Field
- Return to the Assembler Index

####

    Statement Format

       A source program is composed of assembly-language statements.
    Each statement must be completed on one line.  A line  may  con-
    tain a maximum of 128 characters, longer lines are truncated and
    lost.

       An  ASxxxx  assembler  statement  may  have  as  many as four
    fields.  These fields are identified by their order  within  the
    statement  and/or  by separating characters between fields.  The
    general format of the ASxxxx statement is:

          [label:]  Operator        Operand         [;Comment(s)]

       The  label and comment fields are optional.  The operator and
    operand fields are interdependent.  The operator field may be an
    assembler  directive or an assembly mnemonic.  The operand field
    may be optional or required as defined in  the  context  of  the
    operator.

       ASxxxx  interprets  and  processes source statements one at a
    time.  Each statement causes a particular operation to  be  per-
    formed.

##### => Section Index

####

    Label Field  -

       A  label is a user-defined symbol which is assigned the value
    of the current location counter and entered into  the  user  de-
    fined  symbol  table.   The  current location counter is used by
    ASxxxx to assign memory addresses to the source  program  state-
    ments as they are encountered during the assembly process.  Thus
    a label is a means  of  symbolically  referring  to  a  specific
    statement.

       When  a program section is absolute, the value of the current
    location counter is absolute;  its value references an  absolute
    memory  address.   Similarly, when a program section is relocat-
    able, the value of the current location counter is  relocatable.
    A  relocation  bias  calculated at link time is added to the ap-
    parent value of the current location counter  to  establish  its
    effective  absolute  address  at  execution time.  (The user can
    also force the linker to relocate sections defined as  absolute.
    This may be required under special circumstances.)

       If  present,  a  label  must  be  the first field in a source
    statement and must be terminated by a colon (:).   For  example,
    if  the  value  of  the  current  location  counter  is absolute
    01F0(H), the statement:

          abcd:     nop

    assigns  the  value  01F0(H) to the label abcd.  If the location
    counter value were relocatable, the final value of abcd would be
    01F0(H)+K, where K represents the relocation bias of the program
    section, as calculated by the linker at link time.

       More  than  one label may appear within a single label field.
    Each label so specified is assigned the same address value.  For
    example,  if  the  value  of  the  current  location  counter is
    1FF0(H), the multiple labels in the following statement are each
    assigned the value 1FF0(H):

          abcd:     aq:     $abc:   nop

       Multiple labels may also appear on successive lines.  For ex-
    ample, the statements

          abcd:
          aq:
          $abc:     nop

    likewise  cause  the  same value to be assigned to all three la-
    bels.

       A  double  colon  (::)  defines the label as a global symbol.
    For example, the statement

          abcd::    nop

    establishes the label abcd as a global symbol.  The distinguish-
    ing attribute of a global symbol is that it  can  be  referenced
    from  within an object module other than the module in which the
    symbol is defined.  References to this label  in  other  modules
    are  resolved when the modules are linked as a composite execut-
    able image.

    The legal characters for defining labels are:

            A through Z
            a through z
            0 through 9
            . (Period)
            $ (Dollar sign)
            _ (underscore)

       A  label  may  be  any  length,  however  only  the  first 79
    characters are significant and, therefore must be  unique  among
    all   labels  in  the  source  program  (not  necessarily  among
    separately compiled modules).   An  error  code(s)  (<m> or <p>)
    will  be  generated  in  the  assembly  listing  if the first 79
    characters in two or more labels are the same.  The <m> code  is
    caused  by  the  redeclaration of the symbol or its reference by
    another statement.  The <p> code is generated because  the  sym-
    bols location is changing on each pass through the source file.

       The  label  must  not  start with the characters 0-9, as this
    designates a reusable symbol with special  attributes  described
    in a later section.

##### => Section Index

####

    Operator Field  -

       The  operator field specifies the action to be performed.  It
    may consist of an instruction mnemonic (op code) or an assembler
    directive.

       When  the  operator is an instruction mnemonic, a machine in-
    struction is generated and the assembler evaluates the addresses
    of  the operands which follow.  When the operator is a directive
    ASxxxx performs certain control actions or processing operations
    during assembly of the source program.

       Leading  and  trailing  spaces  or tabs in the operator field
    have no significance;  such characters serve  only  to  separate
    the operator field from the preceding and following fields.

       An operator is terminated by a space, tab or end of line.

##### => Section Index

####

    Operand Field  -

       When  the  operator is an instruction mnemonic (op code), the
    operand  field  contains  program  variables  that  are  to   be
    evaluated/manipulated by the operator.

       Operands  may  be  expressions  or  symbols, depending on the
    operator.  Multiple expressions used in the operand  fields  may
    be  separated  by  a comma.  An operand should be preceded by an
    operator field;  if it is not, the statement will give an  error
    (<q> or <o>).   All operands following instruction mnemonics are
    treated as expressions.

       The operand field is terminated by a semicolon when the field
    is followed  by  a  comment.   For  example,  in  the  following
    statement:

          label:    lda     abcd,x          ;Comment field

    the  tab  between lda and abcd terminates the operator field and
    defines the beginning of the operand field;  a  comma  separates
    the operands abcd and x;  and a semicolon terminates the operand
    field and defines the beginning of the comment field.   When  no
    comment  field  follows,  the operand field is terminated by the
    end of the source line.

##### => Section Index

####

    Comment Field  -

       The comment field begins with a semicolon and extends through
    the end of the line.  This field is optional and may contain any
    7-bit ascii character except null.

       Comments  do not affect assembly processing or program execu-
    tion.

##### => Section Index

### ... Symbols and Expressions

####

       This  section  describes the generic components of the ASxxxx
    assemblers:  the character set, the conventions observed in con-
    structing  symbols,  and  the use of numbers, operators, and ex-
    pressions.

- Character Sets
- User-Defined Symbols
- Reusable Symbols
- Current Location Counter
- Numbers
- Terms
- Expressions
- Return to the Assembler Index

####

    Character Set

       The following characters are legal in ASxxxx source programs:

         1.  The  letters  A  through Z.  Both upper- and lower-case
             letters are acceptable.  The  assemblers,  by  default,
             are  case  sensitive,  i.e.   ABCD and abcd are not the
             same symbols.  (The assemblers can be made case  insen-
             sitive by using the -z command line option.)

         2.  The digits 0 through 9

         3.  The  characters . (period), $ (dollar sign), and _ (un-
             derscore).

         4.  The special characters listed in Tables 1 through 6.

       Tables  1  through  6  describe  the various ASxxxx label and
    field terminators, assignment operators, operand separators, as-
    sembly, unary, binary, and radix operators.

    Table 1         Label Terminators and Assignment Operators
    ----------------------------------------------------------------

            :   Colon               Label terminator.

            ::  Double colon        Label  Terminator;   defines the
                                    label as a global label.

            =   Equal sign          Direct assignment operator.

            ==  Double equal        Direct assignment operator;
                sign                defines  the  symbol as a global
                                    symbol.

            =:  Local equal         Direct assignment operator;  de-
                                    fines the symbol as a local sym-
                                    bol.

    ----------------------------------------------------------------

    Table 2         Field Terminators and Operand Separators
    ----------------------------------------------------------------

                Tab                 Item or field terminator.

                Space               Item or field terminator.

            ,   Comma               Operand field separator.

            ;   Semicolon           Comment field indicator.

    ----------------------------------------------------------------

    Table 3         Assembler Operators
    ----------------------------------------------------------------

            #   Number sign         Immediate expression indicator.

            .   Period              Current location counter.

            (   Left parenthesis    Expression delimiter.

            )   Right parenthesis   Expression delimeter.

    ----------------------------------------------------------------

    Table 4         Unary Operators
    ----------------------------------------------------------------

            <   Left bracket        <FEDC   Produces  the lower byte
                                            value of the expression.
                                            (DC)

            >   Right bracket       >FEDC   Produces  the upper byte
                                            value of the expression.
                                            (FE)

            +   Plus sign           +A      Positive value of A

            -   Minus sign          -A      Produces   the  negative
                                            (2's complement) of A.

            ~   Tilde               ~A      Produces the 1's comple-
                                            ment of A.

            '   Single quote        'D      Produces  the  value  of
                                            the character D.

            "   Double quote        "AB     Produces the double byte
                                            value for AB.

            \   Backslash           '\n     Unix style characters
                                            \b, \f, \n, \r, \t
                                 or '\001   or octal byte values.

    ----------------------------------------------------------------

    Table 5         Binary Operators
    ----------------------------------------------------------------

            <<  Double          0800 << 4   Produces the 4 bit
                Left bracket                left-shifted   value  of
                                            0800.  (8000)

            >>  Double          0800 >> 4   Produces the 4 bit
                Right bracket               right-shifted  value  of
                                            0800.  (0080)

            +   Plus sign       A + B       Arithmetic      Addition
                                            operator.

            -   Minus sign      A - B       Arithmetic   Subtraction
                                            operator.

            *   Asterisk        A * B       Arithmetic   Multiplica-
                                            tion operator.

            /   Slash           A / B       Arithmetic      Division
                                            operator.

            &   Ampersand       A & B       Logical AND operator.

            |   Bar             A | B       Logical OR operator.

            %   Percent sign    A % B       Modulus operator.

            ^   Up arrow or     A ^ B       EXCLUSIVE OR operator.
                circumflex

    ----------------------------------------------------------------

    Table 6         Temporary Radix Operators
    ----------------------------------------------------------------

            $%,   ^b, ^B, 0b, 0B    Binary radix operator.

            $&,   ^o, ^O, 0o, 0O    Octal radix operator.
                  ^q, ^Q, 0q, 0Q

            $#,   ^d, ^D, 0d, 0D    Decimal radix operator.

            $@,   ^x, ^X, 0x, 0X    Hexadecimal radix operator.
                  ^h, ^H, 0h, 0H

            Potential  ambiguities arising from the use of 0b and 0d
            as temporary radix operators may be circumvented by pre-
            ceding  all  non-prefixed  hexidecimal  numbers with 00.
            Leading 0's are required in any  case  where  the  first
            hexidecimal  digit is abcdef as the assembler will treat
            the letter sequence as a label.

               The  decimal  point, '.', following any numerical se-
            quence not preceded by a temporary radix and  containing
            only  the  decimal  digits  0-9  will  be  treated  as a
            decimal, radix 10, value.

               When   the   'C  Style  Numbers'  option  is  enabled
            (see .enabl csn) all temporary radixs beginning with a 0
            (zero),  except  0x  and  0X,  are disabled.  Number se-
            quences beginning with 0x or 0X are interpreted as  hex,
            all other numbers beginning with 0 are octal, and numer-
            ical sequences not beginning with a 0 are decimal.

    ----------------------------------------------------------------

##### => Section Index

####

    User-Defined Symbols

       User-defined  symbols are those symbols that are equated to a
    specific value through a direct assignment statement  or  appear
    as  labels.  These symbols are added to the User Symbol Table as
    they are encountered during assembly.

    The following rules govern the creation of user-defined symbols:

         1.  Symbols  can  be  composed  of alphanumeric characters,
             dollar signs ($),  periods  (.),  and  underscores  (_)
             only.

         2.  The  first  character  of a symbol must not be a number
             (except in the case of local symbols).

         3.  The  first  79  characters of a  symbol must be unique.
             A  symbol  can be  written  with  more  than  79  legal
             characters, but the 80th  and subsequent characters are
             ignored.

         4.  Spaces and Tabs must not be embedded within a symbol.

##### => Section Index

####

    Reusable Symbols

       Reusable  symbols are specially formatted symbols used as la-
    bels within a block of coding that has been delimited as a reus-
    able symbol block.  Reusable symbols are of the form n$, where n
    is a decimal integer from 0 to 65535,  inclusive.   Examples  of
    reusable symbols are:

          1$
          27$
          138$
          244$

       The range of a reusable symbol block consists of those state-
    ments between two normally constructed  symbolic  labels.   Note
    that a statement of the form:

          ALPHA = EXPRESSION

    is a direct assignment statement but does not create a label and
    thus does not delimit the range of a reusable symbol block.

       Note  that  the  range  of a reusable symbol block may extend
    across program areas.

       Reusable symbols provide a convenient means of generating la-
    bels for branch instructions and other  such  references  within
    reusable symbol blocks.  Using reusable symbols reduces the pos-
    sibility of symbols with multiple definitions appearing within a
    user  program.   In  addition,  the use of reusable symbols dif-
    ferentiates entry-point labels from other labels, since reusable
    labels cannot be referenced from outside their respective symbol
    blocks.  Thus, reusable symbols of the same name can  appear  in
    other  symbol blocks without conflict.  Reusable symbols require
    less symbol table space  than  normal  symbols.   Their  use  is
    recommended.

       The  use  of  the  same reusable symbol within a symbol block
    will generate one or both of the <m> or <p> errors.

    Example of reusable symbols:

            a:      ldx     #atable ;get table address
                    lda     #0d48   ;table length
            1$:     clr     ,x+     ;clear
                    deca
                    bne     1$

            b:      ldx     #btable ;get table address
                    lda     #0d48   ;table length
            1$:     clr     ,x+     ;clear
                    deca
                    bne     1$

##### => Section Index

####

    Current Location Counter

       The  period  (.) is the symbol for the current location coun-
    ter.  When used in the operand  field  of  an  instruction,  the
    period   represents  the  address  of  the  first  byte  of  the
    instruction:

            AS:     ldx     #.      ;The period (.) refers to
                                    ;the address of the ldx
                                    ;instruction.

       When  used  in  the  operand field of an ASxxxx directive, it
    represents the address of the current byte or word:

            QK = 0

            .word   0xFFFE,.+4,QK   ;The operand .+4 in the .word
                                    ;directive represents a value
                                    ;stored in the second of the
                                    ;three words during assembly.

       If  we  assume  the  current  value of the program counter is
    0H0200, then during assembly, ASxxxx  reserves  three  words  of
    storage  starting  at  location  0H0200.   The  first  value,  a
    hexadecimal constant FFFE, will be stored  at  location  0H0200.
    The  second  value represented by .+4 will be stored at location
    0H0202, its value will be 0H0206 ( = 0H0202  +  4).   The  third
    value  defined  by  the  symbol  QK  will  be placed at location
    0H0204.

       At the beginning of each assembly pass, ASxxxx resets the lo-
    cation counter.  Normally, consecutive memory locations are  as-
    signed  to  each  byte  of  object code generated.  However, the
    value of the location counter can be changed  through  a  direct
    assignment statement of the following form:

          . = . + expression

       The  new  location  counter can only be specified relative to
    the current location counter.  Neglecting to specify the current
    program  counter  along with the expression on the right side of
    the assignment operator will generate the <.> error.   (Absolute
    program areas may use the .org directive to specify the absolute
    location of the current program counter.)

    The following coding illustrates the use of the current location
    counter:

            .area   CODE1   (ABS)   ;program area CODE1
                                    ;is ABSOLUTE

            .org    0H100           ;set location to
                                    ;0H100 absolute

    num1:   ldx     #.+0H10         ;The label num1 has
                                    ;the value 0H100.
                                    ;X is loaded with
                                    ;0H100 + 0H10

            .org    0H130           ;location counter
                                    ;set to 0H130

    num2:   ldy     #.              ;The label num2 has
                                    ;the value 0H130.
                                    ;Y is loaded with
                                    ;value 0H130.

            .area   CODE2   (REL)   ;program area CODE2
                                    ;is RELOCATABLE

            . = . + 0H20            ;Set location counter
                                    ;to relocatable 0H20 of
                                    ;the program section.

    num3:   .word   0               ;The label num3 has
                                    ;the value
                                    ;of relocatable 0H20.

            . = . + 0H40            ;will reserve 0H40
                                    ;bytes of storage as will
            .blkb   0H40            ;or
            .blkw   0H20

       The  .blkb  and .blkw directives are the preferred methods of
    allocating space.

##### => Section Index

####

    Numbers

       ASxxxx  assumes that all numbers in the source program are to
    be interpreted in decimal radix unless otherwise specified.  The
    .radix  directive  may  be used to specify the default as octal,
    decimal, or hexidecimal.  Individual numbers can  be  designated
    as  binary, octal, decimal, or hexidecimal through the temporary
    radix prefixes shown in table 6.

       Negative  numbers  must  be preceded by a minus sign;  ASxxxx
    translates such numbers into two's  complement  form.   Positive
    numbers may (but need not) be preceded by a plus sign.

       Numbers are always considered to be absolute values, therefor
    they are never relocatable.

##### => Section Index

####

    Terms

       A  term is a component of an expression and may be one of the
    following:

         1.  A number.

         2.  A symbol:
             1.  A  period (.) specified in an expression causes the
                 current location counter to be used.
             2.  A User-defined symbol.
             3.  An undefined symbol is assigned a value of zero and
                 inserted in the User-Defined  symbol  table  as  an
                 undefined symbol.

         3.  A single quote followed by a single ascii character, or
             a double quote followed by two ascii characters.

         4.  An  expression enclosed in parenthesis.  Any expression
             so enclosed is evaluated and reduced to a  single  term
             before  the remainder of the expression in which it ap-
             pears is evaluated.  Parenthesis, for example,  may  be
             used  to  alter the left-to-right evaluation of expres-
             sions, (as in A*B+C versus A*(B+C)), or to apply a  un-
             ary operator to an entire expression (as in -(A+B)).

         5.  A unary operator followed by a symbol or number.

##### => Section Index

####

    Expressions

       Expressions  are  combinations  of  terms  joined together by
    binary operators.  Expressions reduce to a value.   The  evalua-
    tion  of  an expression includes the determination of its attri-
    butes.  A resultant expression value may be one of  three  types
    (as  described  later  in this section):  relocatable, absolute,
    and external.

    Expressions are evaluate with an operand hierarchy as follows:

            *       /       %       multiplication,
                                    division, and
                                    modulus first.

            +       -               addition and
                                    subtraction second.

            <<      >>              left shift and
                                    right shift third.

            ^                       exclusive or fourth.

            &                       logical and fifth.

            |                       logical or last

            except that unary operators take precedence over binary
            operators.

       A  missing  or  illegal  operator  terminates  the expression
    analysis, causing error codes <o> and/or  <q>  to  be  generated
    depending upon the context of the expression itself.

       At assembly time the value of an external (global) expression
    is equal to the value of the absolute part of  that  expression.
    For  example,  the expression external+4, where 'external' is an
    external symbol, has the value of 4.  This expression,  however,
    when  evaluated  at link time takes on the resolved value of the
    symbol 'external', plus 4.

       Expressions,  when  evaluated  by  ASxxxx,  are  one of three
    types:  relocatable, absolute, or external.  The following  dis-
    tinctions are important:

         1.  An  expression is relocatable if its value is fixed re-
             lative to the base address of the program area in which
             it appears;  it will have an offset value added at link
             time.  Terms that contain labels defined in relocatable
             program  areas  will  have  a relocatable value;  simi-
             larly, a period (.)  in  a  relocatable  program  area,
             representing  the value of the current program location
             counter, will also have a relocatable value.

         2.  An  expression  is  absolute if its value is fixed.  An
             expression whose terms are numbers and ascii characters
             will  reduce  to  an absolute value.  A relocatable ex-
             pression or term minus a relocatable term,  where  both
             elements  being  evaluated  belong  to the same program
             area, is an absolute expression.  This is because every
             term  in  a  program area has the same relocation bias.
             When one term is subtracted from the other the  reloca-
             tion bias is zero.

         3.  An  expression  is  external (or global) if it contains
             one or more global  references  that  are  not  defined
             within  the current program.  Thus, an external expres-
             sion is only partially defined following  assembly  and
             must be resolved at link time.

##### => Section Index

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###### Last Updated: May 2026