atw: Re: Antonym for assemble

Rhonda Bracey:
You wrote:
> What about 'dismantle'?
>

Only if it's hardware.   If it's software, stick with "dissassemble".

 In the software context, "disassembly" is a term of art, and describes a 
procedure which these days is much forbidden by many licensing agreements. Last 
time I checked, it seemed likely that it was to be somewhat stupidly and 
ignorantly banned by Australian legislation.  [Therein lies another tale.]

I still have a few disassembler programs (DASM etc).  Their purpose is to allow 
you to load a (binary) executable program into memory and then convert that 
into assembly language steps (often with educated guessing being necessary 
because processor codes are often mixed in with areas of pure data storage).

There was a time when this was accepted as necessary because software companies 
released buggy code which you could only fix by disassembling it, changing some 
of the buggy instructions, and recompiling the amended program back into a new 
binary format. (Assembly code can be used by assembler programs (e.g. MASM) to 
compile a binary executable program.)

Assembly language work has generally fallen into disuse these days, except for 
certain specialised areas.  Typically, it is still particularly useful for 
embedded applications (ie where there is limited memory available) and in areas 
where speed of processing is essential.




-PeterM
peterm_5@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
**************************************************
To view the austechwriter archives, go to 
www.freelists.org/archives/austechwriter

To unsubscribe, send a message to austechwriter-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 
"unsubscribe" in the Subject field (without quotes).

To manage your subscription (e.g., set and unset DIGEST and VACATION modes) go 
to www.freelists.org/list/austechwriter

To contact the list administrator, send a message to 
austechwriter-admins@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
**************************************************

Other related posts: