On 2020-03-08, mm0fmf  wrote:

> On 08/03/2020 14:18, Martin Gregorie wrote:
>
>> On Sun, 08 Mar 2020 13:57:47 +0000, mm0fmf wrote:
>>
>>> On 08/03/2020 13:03, Martin Gregorie wrote:
>>>
>>>> so I found its collation sequence rather nasty - and still do.
>>>
>>> You need to learn 8086 assembler then. Instruction set support for
>>> EBCDICASCII.
>>
>> Nah, just need to implement a suitable Java Comparable class
>
> Java: another Dodo language like COBOL.
>
> XLAT was added to the original 8086 instruction set by Intel at IBM's
> request specifically for speeding up conversions to and from EBCDIC.
> Load DS:BX with the table address, element index in to AL and
> XLAT loads AL with the byte at DS:BX + AL.

I guess the IBM folks missed the 360's TR instruction.

> I wrote some 8086 code that specifically used it in maybe 1985 ISTR.
> Never used it again and was surprised to see it has made it's way into
> the 64bit instruction set.  Last 80x86 assembler I wrote was 1996 for an
> 80186EB embedded thing. Luckily I've only needed ARM (assorted sizes)
> and MIPS since then in the job that pays the bills and some PIC 8bit for
> hobbyjobbies.

I was heavily into assembly language back in the mainframe days, and
had fun writing 8080 assembly code on my CP/M box.  However, 8086/8088
assembly language just got too kludgy for me, even before you got into
all the segment register headaches.  Fortunately, C came along, and I
gratefully made the switch().  :-)

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