are there any assemblers that allow you to write code in columns?

[777]

as assembly language code is always really long, if you could have more that one column of code on the screen at once it might be easier to read?

and by assemblers i mean ones that run on a pc not a spectrum

[Alone Coder]

I don't know ones. Assembly sources usually have long comments
ALASM uses 6x6 font to see more lines of code.

[777]

it would be handy to be able to read more of the code at once, on a pc

[catmeows]

Well, many editors allow code folding. And some assemblers allow multiple instructions on line.

[Morkin]

Visual Studio Code you can right-click on a tab at the top > "split right" to create new columns.

Doesn't scroll multiple columns together but might be useful if you want to keep your eyes on/update multiple routines at once, e.g. one near the start of your code, one near the end.

[777]

does that mean the column 1 has the fist piece of code and column 2 is a continuation of that code, etc? thats what i want...

[Morkin]

does that mean the column 1 has the fist piece of code and column 2 is a continuation of that code, etc? thats what i want...

Ah right - so if you scrolled in one window/column the other would scroll too? Nah, it doesn't do that.

With modern editors you tend to get quick ways of jumping around, like with VS code there's a preview over on the right so you can quickly jump down thousands of lines of code instantly. Bit easier to get to a particular place than, say, the built-in assembler in Spin at least.

I assume there are developers here who might have suggestions on dealing with long code listings in their dev environments, as I guess dealing with long listings isn't restricted to Speccy/assembly.

[zxcygnus]

Or you can just use plain text editor KWRITE (or KATE) which is part of any Linux distribution with K Desktop Environment.

There are at least two XML files with definition for syntax highlighting. One very old from me (i am still using it with compiler AS) and one newer and better is part of assembler sjasmplus.
https://cygnus.speccy.cz/popis_syntaxhi ... r-kate.php
https://github.com/z00m128/sjasmplus/bl ... z80-sj.xml

On screenshot is color scheme "Solarized (light)"


I like much more lightweight editors, Visual Studio feels like bloatware for me. But it is just my personal preference.

[Stefan]

as assembly language code is always really long, if you could have more that one column of code on the screen at once it might be easier to read?

No, I would not find it easier to read, instead of flowing through the code I would have to keep bobbing my head up to get to the top of the next column, doing the reverse when needing to track back a few lines.

I did have a monitor in portrait mode for code for a while which I found quite pleasant.

[Bedazzle]

I did have a monitor in portrait mode for code for a while which I found quite pleasant.

Portrait for coding is a must.

[Joefish]

Maybe split your code into separate files, where files full of call functions, data, tables, etc. are brought into the main file with an 'include' statement, then use an editor that lets you view two files side-by-side?

I tend to convert binary data for graphics into assembly data statements, so I can edit them as text and label individual chunks of data. That really needs to be in separate files so that when I'm not tweaking it, I don't need to see it.

[introspec]

as assembly language code is always really long, if you could have more that one column of code on the screen at once it might be easier to read?

and by assemblers i mean ones that run on a pc not a spectrum

Yes, some assemblers allow having multiple commands per line, so you can use screen estate more wisely. I am using sjasmplus; you can find the assembler here: https://github.com/z00m128/sjasmplus
This is a screenshot of what such code can look like: