The Crossbow family of cross-assemblers brings an integrated
approach to crafting assembly language programs for microcomputer and
microcontroller based systems. Central to this approach is an
intuitive interface to the various design tools and a rapid
turn-around in the edit/assemble/test cycle.
Crossbow accelerates the development process by combining the most
important development functions: assembly, editing, and testing, into
a single customizable program, and it implements these features on
the best machine for performing complex tasks in a simple fashion:
the Macintosh.
Crossbow's assembler takes advantage of the increased memory
capacity and intuitive user interface of the Macintosh family to
achieve extremely fast and pleasantly interactive assembly language
development. The assembler supports modular assembly with
conditional, macro, and sectioned assembly and accepts nested file
inclusion up to 64 levels.
Crossbow generates object files in Intel Hex, Motorola S-records or
absolute binary, and optionally sends the output directly to the
target processor or an emulating device for even faster turn-around.
Tabulated source listings and symbol tables appear as new windows for
immediate inspection or they may be sent directly to disk for
archive. The assembler accepts both Intel and Motorola directives and
radix specifiers for programmers comfortable with existing standards,
as well as accepting the IEEE-694 directives and specifiers for
compatibility with future standards.
Assembly is performed entirely in memory to achieve better than
100,000 lines per minute throughput on a Power Macintosh. Errors
encountered during assembly return control to the editor with the
offending file in the front-most window, the insertion point
positioned at the offending operator, and an alert box shown
explaining the problem.
Crossbow's editor is a full-featured programmer's editor with
capabilities tailored for manipulating assembly language source
programs. Crossbow extends the standard Macintosh editing facilities
by providing block and auto indent, independent tab settings,
selection print and save, character and block case translation, and
side by side window comparison. A separate Windows menu helps
organize the multiple resizable and relocatable edit windows, all of
which accept source files with lengths limited only by the available
memory.
Crossbow's search-and-replace capabilities provide the programmer
with unique tools for creating and maintaining programs. Search
options include partial or whole word match, wrap-around at end of
file, selectable case sensitivity, and GREP (advanced wild card)
search and replace.
Crossbow also lets the assembly language programmer limit searches to
specific fields in the assembly source to include any combination of
labels, opcodes, operands and comments. For programs composed of
multiple source modules, Crossbow optionally searches across all open
windows or across a list of include files optionally created by the
assembler.
Crossbow's built-in terminal emulator lets the programmer
immediately see the effects of modifications to assembled programs.
The emulator operates at baud rates from 300 to 57,600, from either
serial port, with selectable parity, data bits, stop bits, and
XON-XOFF handshaking. File transfers to and from the target system
use either XMODEM protocol or ASCII transfers with options to select
character and line delays, and leading and trailing string
sequences.
The terminal updates the screen fast enough to keep up with the
highest baud rates, and maintains a userp;sizable review buffer
to capture data scrolling off the screen. Emulation options provide a
hexadecimal display mode for debugging data flow, and a background
mode to test software on the target system while editing or
assembling new programs.
This manual assumes that most readers are familiar with both
assembly language programming and the basic operation of a Macintosh
computer. Thus, the early sections of the manual attempt to present
only the information needed to start working with a new assembler.
Experienced programmers should scan the sections on installation,
assembler syntax, directives, and menu options. The editor and
terminal emulator work as expected from a Macintosh program, and the
more advanced features may be learned as needed.
Copy the Crossbow application program and the example and
documentation folders from the distribution diskette to your hard
disk or a folder on your hard disk.
Start Crossbow by double-clicking on either the application icon or the icon of a document created by Crossbow. Starting by double-clicking a document icon opens that document in the front-most edit window ready for assembly or editing. Starting from the application icon launches Crossbow with the startup characteristics selected in the Assembly Options and Terminal Preferences dialogs.
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