AS ASSEMBLER README

AS is the generic term for the assembler. The assm directory is actually a set
of both assemblers, support utilities, and different environments and
implementations.

AS itself is a portable multitarget assembler written in Pascal. It is an
advanced macro assembler, and features "zero pass" or pass free methodology
that completely removes all multipass issues from assembly.

AS is quite old, and the first version was written as one of the first major
programs under the new Pascal compiler for Z80 that was operational in January
of 1980. The assembler was operational later that year with a companion ln
written in assembly for speed an memory purposes. This makes AS, at this 
writing, 27 years old. However, it has been almost continually updated since
the 1980s. The ln program was long ago converted to Pascal code.

The modular aspect of AS means that the main code that runs the assembler is in
the as directory. Each assembler for each target machine lives in its own
separate directory, and uses the modules built in the as directory to finish a
complete assembler.

In addition to the assembler machine directories, there is a utilities directory
utl, which contains various machine independent support tools. For example, 
today as files are constructed with the help of automatic source file 
generation.

There are a series of environment directorys under assm, each of which contains
files and support details on a particular environment. Some of these are quite
complex. For example, the Windows directory needs a file converter similar in
complexity to a linker in order to convert as output files to .exe files.

Here then are the different directories:

as      Main assembler code.
ln      Linker code.

i8080   Machine specific assembler for Intel 8080 series processors.
i8051   Machine specific assembler for Intel 8051 series processors.
Z80     Machine specific assembler for Z80 series processors.
Z280    Machine specific assembler for Z280 series processors (the Z280 was 
        cancelled due to processor bugs).
i80586	Machine specific assembler for the 80x86 series Intel/AMD processors.
mpc7400	Machine specific assembler for PowerPC series processors (unfinished).
sm4000  Machine specific assembler for MIPS 4000 series processors (unfinished).
sparcv9 Machine specific assembler for Sparc v9 series processors (unfinished).

utl		Assembler general utilities.
dbz80	A Z80 debugger written in Z80 assembly language. Considered obsolete.
db		A general debugger writen in Pascal. Presently implements I8080 only.
doc		Support/design documents for AS.

windows Windows environment specific support and utilities.
unix	Unix (linux) environment specific support and utilities.
pcdos	PC/DOS environment specific support and utilities.