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Apple //e & ][+ had one built in. It was called the "monitor". You typed "CALL -151" and you started typing assembly code. You could run, save, dump memory and

Apple //e & ][+ had one built in. It was called the "monitor". You typed "CALL -151" and you started typing assembly code. You could run, save, dump memory and read registers. When I got my first 286 I was surprised I couldn't do the same thing.

kstrauser 5y ago
I had the same (SmartMon) on a C64. I didn't know at the time that it was unusual.
- panzagl 5y ago
  At the time, it wasn't...
Narishma 5y ago
You could do the same thing on your 286. PCs came with DEBUG.COM, which does the same things.
- SavantIdiot 5y ago
  I didn't know that until about a decade later, unfortunately! People forget that in 1984 information wasn't a click away. The problem with owning a Hong Kong-made 286 clone in 1984, and using pirated software, is that it was extremely hard to learn things. I was limited by the books at my local "Waldenbooks" computer section, which was about 20 books. Computer shopper and Byte magazine were kinda helpful, but I learned very, very slowly. It wasn't until I entered college that I started learning rapidly, but the focus wasn't on PCs (it was still MTS mainframes). It took until my first job writing 16-bit drivers that I finally started learning the nuts and bolts of MSDOS.
incanus77 5y ago
Built into the Commodore 128, too.
Someone 5y ago
“Monitor” was a common name for such software (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machine_code_monitor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machine_code_monitor) It is a step up from having front-panel switches (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Front_panel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Front_panel) On early mini- and microcomputers, those sometimes had to be used to enter the boot loader (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Booting#Minicomputers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Booting#Minicomputers, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Booting#Booting_the_first_microcomputers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Booting#Booting_the_first_micr...). That was a step down from mainframes, which could automatically read in a program to run at boot. It wouldn’t surprise me much if there were people alive today who still have some muscle memory to rapidly enter such a boot sequence for an Altair.
djmips 5y ago
The Apple ][ with Integer basic had a better one which had a built in mini-assembler. Very fun and useful. It was a real shame it got pushed out by the bloated Microsoft Basic. ;-)

kstrauser 5y ago

I had the same (SmartMon) on a C64. I didn't know at the time that it was unusual.

panzagl 5y ago
At the time, it wasn't...

Narishma 5y ago

You could do the same thing on your 286. PCs came with DEBUG.COM, which does the same things.

SavantIdiot 5y ago
I didn't know that until about a decade later, unfortunately! People forget that in 1984 information wasn't a click away. The problem with owning a Hong Kong-made 286 clone in 1984, and using pirated software, is that it was extremely hard to learn things. I was limited by the books at my local "Waldenbooks" computer section, which was about 20 books. Computer shopper and Byte magazine were kinda helpful, but I learned very, very slowly. It wasn't until I entered college that I started learning rapidly, but the focus wasn't on PCs (it was still MTS mainframes). It took until my first job writing 16-bit drivers that I finally started learning the nuts and bolts of MSDOS.

incanus77 5y ago

Built into the Commodore 128, too.

Someone 5y ago

“Monitor” was a common name for such software (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machine_code_monitor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machine_code_monitor) It is a step up from having front-panel switches (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Front_panel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Front_panel) On early mini- and microcomputers, those sometimes had to be used to enter the boot loader (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Booting#Minicomputers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Booting#Minicomputers, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Booting#Booting_the_first_microcomputers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Booting#Booting_the_first_micr...). That was a step down from mainframes, which could automatically read in a program to run at boot. It wouldn’t surprise me much if there were people alive today who still have some muscle memory to rapidly enter such a boot sequence for an Altair.

djmips 5y ago

The Apple ][ with Integer basic had a better one which had a built in mini-assembler. Very fun and useful. It was a real shame it got pushed out by the bloated Microsoft Basic. ;-)