"Stefan M. Ranguelov" <ranguelo@INFORMATIK.HU-BERLIN.DE> wrote:
> It was the first time i have seen a processor with two different
> assembler mnemonics.

What?  You never used a Z-80?

Intel used to assert a copyright on their mnemonics, so Zilog invented their
own (plus mnemonics for their new instructions).  The Zilog mnemonics made
*much* more sense than the Intel ones.  However, someone (TDL?) came up with
extensions to the Intel mnemonic set to cover the new Zilog instructions.

Microsoft's Macro-80 assembler (an awesome assembler for its day) handled
both sets.  I used Zilog mnemonics by choice, but Z-80 programmers often had
to deal with other people's 8080 code, so they tended to be fluent in both.

On the PIC, it's easy enough to write macros for MPASM to support the
Parallax mnemonics.  Last I checked, the Parallax assembler didn't offer
user-defined macros, so the reverse wasn't true.

I would mind the Parallax stuff so much, if they had simply had their
assembler emit an error (or at least a warning) if you tried to use a
mnemonic that generated two instructions immediately following a skip.

Cheers,
Eric