Art of Assembly Language Programming and HLA by Randall Hyde


	Errata and other notes for "The Art of Assembly Language"

The Art of Assembly Language Programming

2010/5/3:

In section 12.14, Calling Base Class Methods, AoA2e (AoA 2nd edition) states that HLA does not let you directly call methods and you must use an indirect call through the virtual method table in order to call the parent class' version of some method. As of HLA v2.8, this is no longer necessary. HLA v2.8 (and later) supports a special "super" reserved word that you can use to directly call the parent's version of some method within a child class' method. You would use the "super" keyword in a similar manner to "this", e.g.,

type
    parentClass: class
         .
         .
         .
         method m(i:int32);
         .
         .
         .
    endclass;

    childClass: class inherits( parentClass );
         .
         .
         .
         override method m;
         .
         .
         .
    endclass;

         .
         .
         .

 method childClass.m(i:int32);
 begin m;
     .
     .
     .
    
     // Call parent class' version of m:
    
     super.m( i );
     .
     .
     .
 end m;

Note that you get to use the high-level calling syntax when using the super keyword.
Of course, the calling sequence that AoA2e section 12.14 describes is still valid and useful for certain tasks. The new "super" keyword, however, is better suited for the common case of calling a parent's version of the method, however.

2010/05/10:

Page 364
Section 6.1.5
test(1, al); example: "...if bit 1 of AL contains 0, "
Should be "...if bit 0 of AL contains 0, "

2021/01/22

Table 6.11 is incorrect in the second edition. Table 6.10 was inadvertently copied for both 6.10 and 6.11. Here's the correction:

Table 6.10: FPU Condition Code Bits

Instruction

Condition Code Bits

Condition

fcom,

fcomp,

fcompp,

ficom,

ficomp

ST > source

ST < source

ST = source

ST or source undefined

ftst

ST is positive

ST is negative

ST is zero (+ or -)

ST is uncomparable

fxam

+ Unnormalized

-Unnormalized

+Normalized

-Normalized

-0

+Denormalized

-Denormalized

+NaN

-NaN

+Infinity

-Infinity

Empty register

fucom,

fucomp,

fucompp

ST > source

ST < source

ST = source

Unordered

X = Don’t care

Table 6.11: Condition Code Interpretations

Instruction(s)	Condition Code Bits
	C0	C3	C2	C1
fcom, fcomp, fcmpp, ftst, fucom, fucomp, fucompp, ficom, ficomp	Result of comparison. See previous table.	Result of comparison. See previous table.	Operands are not comparable	Result of comparison. See previous table. Also denotes stack overflow/underflow if stack exception bit is set.
fxam	See previous table.	See previous table.	See previous table.	Sign of result, or stack overflow/underflow (if stack exception bit is set).
fprem, fprem1	Bit 2 of remainder	Bit 0 of remainder	0- reduction done. 1- reduction incomplete.	Bit 1 of remainder or stack overflow/underflow (if stack exception bit is set).
fist, fbstp, frndint, fst, fstp, fadd, fmul, fdiv, fdivr, fsub, fsubr, fscale, fsqrt, fpatan, f2xm1, fyl2x, fyl2xp1	Undefined	Undefined	Undefined	Round up occurred or stack overflow/underflow (if stack exception bit is set).
fptan, fsin, fcos, fsincos	Undefined	Undefined	0- reduction done. 1- reduction incomplete.	Round up occurred or stack overflow/underflow (if stack exception bit is set).
fchs, fabs, fxch, fincstp, fdecstp, constant loads, fxtract, fld, fild, fbld, fstp (80 bit)	Undefined	Undefined	Undefined	Zero result or stack overflow/underflow (if stack exception bit is set).
fldenv, fstor	Restored from memory operand.	Restored from memory operand.	Restored from memory operand.	Restored from memory operand.
fldcw, fstenv, fstcw, fstsw, fclex	Undefined	Undefined	Undefined	Undefined
finit, fsave	Cleared to zero.	Cleared to zero.	Cleared to zero.	Cleared to zero.

Errata and other notes for "The Art of Assembly Language"

The Art of Assembly Language Programming