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Geek Culture / OS Assembler

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Dark Java Dude 64
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Posted: 1st Jan 2011 03:32 Edited at: 1st Jan 2011 03:36
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Hello all, i was wondering what the assembler in an Operating System does. I know the layers are hardware, firmware, assembler, kernel, shell. My dad is an expert programmer but not for windows, so his and I's guess is that an exe is just a bunch if assembly code, and then the OS gives the assembler the code, which converts it to machine code which is then run by the computer at the hardware level. Is this true? If not, what does the assembler do?

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Benjamin
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Posted: 1st Jan 2011 04:21
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An OS doesn't necessarily 'have' an assembler. An assembler is just something that compiles assembly to machine code (and the linker creates the exe file).

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Dextro
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Posted: 1st Jan 2011 04:53
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"Assembly" is just fancy name given to readable machine language .
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Dark Java Dude 64
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Posted: 1st Jan 2011 05:15
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I see, i get this from a wikipedia article that had a diagram thing. I was thinking that that is how programs can use dll's, so how do they use them?

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Kevin Picone
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Posted: 1st Jan 2011 05:18
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Just to add to that.

Assembly for those that might be unsure is the 'human readable' text form of a CPU's actual instruction set. An Assembler translates this text form into a binary representation, aka the Machine Code that the CPU understands.


Hmm, I wonder what's coming in 2011?
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Kevin Picone
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Posted: 1st Jan 2011 05:30
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Quote: "I see, i get this from a wikipedia article that had a diagram thing. I was thinking that that is how programs can use dll's, so how do they use them?"


It's easiest pictured as a master->slave relationship.

So the Program (Master), which may be Written in any language - Requests the address (location in memory) of a FUNCTION(s) within the DLL (slave) it wants to use. Once it has the address, it can call this function just as if it was built into the program.

You can think of a DLL as being just a collection of commonly grouped functions. The purpose of which is to allow other programs to use the functionally they enclose, without the program auther having to reivent the wheel each time.


Hmm, I wonder what's coming in 2011?
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Dark Java Dude 64
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Posted: 1st Jan 2011 19:47
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That make a lot of sense, thanks!

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