Month: October 2012

If you learn one instruction a day, you will know a workable subset of instructions in two months – not bad for a technologically challenging language like assembler.  Here is a short video that will help you master the ED instruction.  Learn to convert data from packed decimal to a printable character format.  Discover the two common mistakes that beginners usually make.  Watch the results in VisibleZ.

Learn a new instruction today.  Here’s a link to a short video that covers UNPK, the mainframe instruction that converts packed fields to zoned decimal.  All the videos and tutorials are found here.

I just posted the first of many short instructional videos that cover specific mainframe instructions here. The link to it is on my assembler resources page here. The first video covers the PACK instruction. I’ll try to post one video each day, five days a week, so join in and learn assembly language one instruction at a time. Each video will cover instruction semantics, examples of using the instruction, and demo executions of the instruction in VisibleZ. The notes for each instruction are included in a Powerpoint document. You can already find some introductory assembler videos on the resources page. If you have an instruction you would like to hear about soon, drop me a line and let me know. I’ll try to build a video for it as soon as possible.

I’ll be teaching an assembler class again in spring semester at Columbus State University, so lately I’ve been thinking about what I want to do with the class.  I’ll be teaching IBM mainframe assembler again, and I’m planning to record Camtasia lectures for the entire class.  I’ll make them available on the VisibleZ website as they become available.  Most of the lectures will appear in December during the winter break.  The rest will appear as the semester progresses.  I have a few lectures already recorded and available.  My plans are to make the lectures shorter, perhaps 15 minutes or less, to promote their use. I’ll also be using VisibleZ, which has completely changed my approach to teaching assembler.  Seeing is believing, so if you haven’t tried it, now is the time.  I can’t think of a better way to get up to speed on IBM assembler concepts than to load an object program into VisibleZ and watch it execute one instruction at a time.