Teaching Assembly Language Programming with ZIP, a Z80 Assembly Language Interpreter Program

A teaching approach for bridging the gap between low‐level and high‐level programming using assembly language learning for small microcontrollers

“…Following current trends on the computing discipline, the authors decided a few years ago to merge assembly language programming (for computer architecture learning) with microcontrollers' technology at the Department of Communications, Informatics and Management, Epirus Educational Institute of Technology, Arta, Greece; this choice originated from the need of enriching students' educational level on software and hardware design issues for embedded computer systems 7. Educators prevailed the relevance of the assembly language programming with microcomputer technology already in the early 1980s 8, 9, while presenting interesting proposals to make the learning of microcomputer programming in assembly language more attractive to the students 10, 11. Developing a source code for a microcomputer entails good hardware knowledge, in opposition to the code development for a personal computer (PC), where accessibility to hardware, that is, time‐depended operations, I/O control to external devices, etc., can be handled as a sort of black box within programs.…”