Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!microsoft!alonzo
From: alonzo@microsoft.UUCP (Alonzo Gariepy)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.handhelds
Subject: HP28S: Babelfish
Message-ID: <9148@microsoft.UUCP>
Date: 24 Nov 89 13:54:53 GMT
References: <9085@microsoft.UUCP> <17980004@hpcvra.CV.HP.COM>
Reply-To: alonzo@microsoft.UUCP (Alonzo Gariepy)
Organization: Microsoft Corp., Redmond WA
Lines: 24

In <17980004@hpcvra.CV.HP.COM> billw@hpcvra.CV.HP.COM (Bill Wickes) writes:
> Whoa--where's my Babelfish?  I thought the 28 opcode mnemonics were
> "standard" thanks to the publication of the HP-71 IDS.  If so, why
> are we inventing new ones?  If not, then it's a shame, given that
> the operating system symbol names have not been published, and
> one set of nonstandardized names is enough.

Alas, there is no HP-28 IDS.  The HP-71 instruction set is almost the same,
but the mnemonics are poorly conceived.  I have invented new ones that are
better in most respects.  So little HP-28 assembly code has been published 
that one cannot point to a de facto standard.  The calculator's lack of I/O
and programming tools means that hex machine code is pretty much it.

I have been told that within a few months we will see an assembler for the 28 
written in portable C.  As the first real support for machine code development,
I expect that this program will set the standard.  In answer to your question,
I think it would only be appropriate to name the assembler Babelfish :-).

Your reference to system symbol names has got me thinking.  We can write a 
little utility to convert Eric Toonen's SYSEVAL map into an include file and 
thenceforth refer to these addresses by their names.

Alonzo Gariepy
alonzo@microsoft