Subject: system programming and compiler construction

Topic: Macros & Macro processors

Difficulty: Low

Macro Assembler

• A macro processor functionally independent of the assembler, and the output of the macro processor will be a part of the input into the assembler.

• A macro processor, similar to any other assembler, scans, and processes statements. Often, the use of a separate macro processor for handling macro instructions leads to less efficient program translation because many functions duplicated by the assembler and macro processor.

• To overcome efficiency issues and avoid duplicate work by the assembler, the macro processor generally implemented within pass 1 of the assembler.

• The integration of macro processor and assembler often referred to as macro assembler. Such implementations will help in eliminating the overheads of creating intermediate files, thus improving the performance of integration by combining similar functions.

• Similarly, The advantages of a macro assembler are as follows:

It ensures that many functions need not implemented twice. Results in fewer overheads because many functions combined and do not need to create intermediate (temporary) files. It offers more flexibility in programming and allows the use of all assembler features in combination with macros.

Debug Monitor

A debug monitor is very powerful graphical or console mode tool that monitors all the activities that are handled by the WinDriver Kernel. You can use the debug monitor to see how each command that is sent to the kernel is executed. A WinDriver Kernel is a driver development toolkit inside ones computer that simplifies the creation of drivers. A driver is used in a computer so that the computer can read the devices that are in the computer or that get attached to the computer. If you were to hook up a printer to your computer, you would first need to install its driver so that the computer could create graphics or a console so that you could control your printer through the computer. The same thing goes for audio devices, internet devices, video devices.

A debug monitor, simply put, is a tool that helps to find and reduce the number of bugs and defects in a computer program or any electrical device within or attached to the computer in order to make it act the way it should. While the driver is being created and downloaded, the debug monitor helps it work properly.

If the debugging monitor locates a bug or defect in any of the equipment, it will first try to reproduce the problem which will allow a programmer to view each string that was within the bug or defect range and try to fix it. A programmer is a technician who has learned the basic format of computers that make them run. These are strings of technical information that most people using computers will never see.

The programmer will delete strings or add new ones and then use the debug monitor to re-create the driver download to see if he fixed the problem. This can be a tedious task with all the processes that run in the computer, but the debug monitor helps to make it a lot easier.