Assembly eComic - Issue 11, now available!

[NormanDunbar]

Only 4 months from the last issue and we already have another! In this issue of the somewhat irregular eMagazine, we have:

Beginners' Corner: where we discuss simply screen and file handling. Experienced readers should skip over the excruciating detail that I go into to help beginners.

Sudoku Solver: yes indeed, a Sudoku solver for 9 by 9 grids. I say "solver" but it's really a brute force algorithm using recursion and backtracking to guess which numbers will eventually provide a solution. (Or not!) There's a demonstration puzzle and a few examples to load and solve. You can make your own puzzles up and load them too -- the code will let you know if a puzzle cannot be solved.

Multiplication: a small but perfectly formed chunk of assembly code to multiply two 32 bit unsigned values to give a 64 bit product. Did you notice unsigned there? Yes, me too. I convinced myself to add in a bit of extra code and make it multiply signed numbers as well.

We also have more News and Quickies again in this issue.

As ever, you do not need the source code, that's GitHub's processing of a release, just grab the PDF from the asset list at the link below. Click the arrow to open the list if it's not already open.

https://github.com/NormanDunbar/QLAssem ... g/Issue_11


Cheers,
Norm.

[Sparrowhawk]

That's nice birthday present, thanks (what's that you say, you didn't do it just for me - I don't believe you! )

Is there an issue 1 folder anywhere, and if not is it needed to follow this along?

[NormanDunbar]

Is there an issue 1 folder anywhere, and if not is it needed to follow this along?

Ok, history lesson.

When I started writing these magazines I was using a much different publication system based on DocBook XML, which was a bit of a nightmare to type in to be honest. The publishing system was called "Publican" and as far as I know, it still exists. It was written by the guys and gals at Fedora and was tailored specifically for Fedora.

I hate Fedora, and somehow managed to shoehorn it into SuSe , which I was using as my distro back then. To be fair, it produces lovely output, but the source is pretty bad, writing in XML makes your eyes bleed -- like Java in fact!

Anyway, long story short, I changed to LaTeX. That also makes your eyes bleed but there are tools available. Issues 2 onwards were written in either raw Latex, or using Lyx, exported to LaTeX, and built into the gorgeous PDF files you have available. I also adopted a new template for the finished PDF files, to make it look like a magazine, of sorts.

So, anyway, the GitHuib repository where all the source code lives is for the issues 2 onwards, but not issue 1. However, fear not, I have attached a zipped up PDF for Issue 1 to this reply and you will notice the difference. Unfortunately, you get to write the code yourself unless I've been kind and attached the PDF zip file with the code included!

(No,. I have no idea what I'm doing today! IO need coffee!)

Cheers,
Norm.

Assembly_Language_001.pdf.zip

(172.02 KiB) Downloaded 63 times

Issue_001.code.zip

(1.89 KiB) Downloaded 55 times

[Derek_Stewart]

Hi,

Nice eComic, enjoyed reading it.

I am glad you are still writing it, this motivates me to write in assembler more...

The previous issues are available by selecting the releases link, on the Github link supplied.

[Sparrowhawk]

Thanks for the history lesson and files.
( I'll download tomorrow when I'm at my laptop again)

[NormanDunbar]

Nice eComic, enjoyed reading it.

Thanks very much Derek, it's aways nice to get feedback -- good in this case, but bad is acceptable too!

Cheers,
Norm.