TRS-80 Assembly Language Programming

written by Matthew Reed

At one time in the TRS-80 world, the name William Barden was linked to assembly language programming. This book was one of the main reasons why. TRS-80 Assembly Language Programming, along with Programming the Z80 by Rodnay Zaks, helped introduce a whole generation of TRS-80 programmers to assembly language.

The book contains two sections: the first devoted to general concepts and the second to programming methods. There are eleven chapters:

1. TRS-80 and Z80 Architecture
2. Z80 Instructions
3. Z80 Addressing
4. Assembly Language Programming
5. T-BUG and Debugging
6. Moving Data in Bytes, Words, and Blocks
7. Arithmetic and Compare Operations
8. Logical Operations, Bit Operations, and Shifts
9. Strings and Tables
10. I/O Operations
11. Common Subroutines

There are also two appendices which list the Z80 instruction set.

Although TRS-80 Assembly Language Programming focuses on the TRS-80 Model I (the Model III had not yet been released), most of the information is also applicable to the Model III and Model 4. Actually, most of the book is generic enough so that it could be used to learn with any Z80 computer.

The best part of TRS-80 Assembly Language Programming is William Barden’s gentle style. He helps to make a complicated subject such as assembly language programming simpler by breaking it down into manageable pieces. Most people considered this book essential for anyone who wanted to learn about TRS-80 assembly language programming. I would still recommend it to anyone with that interest today.

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