V4.03 December 9, 1998
The entire package is Copyright 1986--1998 Eric Isaacson. All rights reserved.
PLEASE read Chapter 1 for legal terms and conditions, how to register for the package, and an overview of the debugger.
The D86 package consists of the two programs D86.COM, A86.COM, a source file HEXOUT.8 used by the demonstration in Chapter 2, and this manual D86MANU.TXT.
D86 is a screen-oriented assembly language debugger for the IBM-PC, compatibles, and most not-so-compatibles (Wang-PC, TI-PC, Tandy 2000, Sanyo 55x, Zenith Z-100, and DEC Rainbow). D86 is the finest debugger available, at any price under any conditions, for the following:
In contrast to software firms who attempt to restrict the distribution of their software through protection schemes, I encourage free distribution, and trust that those who use my products will pay for them. Please keep in mind the fundamental good spirit of free-distribution software as you endure the following barrage of legalities. Then evaluate the outstanding value that the D86 package offers you. I assure you that you will not be disappointed.
If you wish the latest printed copy of this manual, add $10 ($15 outside
of North America). Send payment to:
For your convenience, I accept Visa, MasterCard and American Express, by telephone or mail. My voice number is 1-812-339-1811. My fax number is 1-812-335-1611.
For the convenience of users in Great Britain, I have authorized the firm Atlantic Coast Plc to collect registrations for me. We'll try to keep the prices about the same whether you register through me or through them; it's your choice. Their address is Station Road, Colyton, Devon EX13 6HA, telephone 01297 552222.
Your registration includes the latest diskette (3.5 inch) that also includes the INSTALLD and MAPD86 tools available to registered users only. You may order further updates for $10 US, or $12 US if you are overseas. Once you register for this package, you are registered for all future versions -- you have permanent rights to execute D86 on one computer. As long as I'm in business, you can get the latest version for just the update fee.
Indiana residents need to add sales tax. At the current rate of 5%, the prices for Indiana residents are $52.50 for the D86-only package, $63 D86-only with manual, $84 extended package, $94.50 extended package with manual, $21 update and manual if already registered.
Educational institutions and training facilities MUST be registered in order to use D86 in courses. Contact me for special terms.
Companies and government agencies MUST be registered in order to use D86 for their work. Again, contact me for pricing if you wish to register D86 on more than one computer.
Thank you for enduring the legalities. They are there to protect me, and also to convince you that this is my business, from which I expect to make a living. I'll now return to a softer sell, to try to make you want to register for my products.
There is a certain amount of ambiguity about when you're still evaluating D86, and when you're really using D86 and should register for it. Some cases are clear (e.g., you're a school using D86 to teach a course); but many are not. In practical reality, it up to you to decide: you are "on your honor". Also in practical reality, most users who ought to register haven't, yet. For most, it's not dishonesty but merely procrastination. So I have provided some incentives, to prod you into registering.
One incentive is the printed manual, which only registered users can purchase. I haven't left anything out of the disk version of the manual, but the printed version is formatted and bound much more nicely than if you print it yourself.
Another incentive, included if you register both A86 and D86, is the A386/D386 package, for 32-bit programming. At this writing, A386 covers all instructions though the Pentium II, including MMX, AMD 3DNow, and the not-yet-released KNI instruction set. A386 also allows coding for USE32 and FLAT mode segments.
Another incentive is a file REG_ONLY.ZIP containing extra tools that enhance D86's usefulness. If you program in languages other than A86, and produce the program with a linker, you can use the tool MAPD86 to convert a link MAP listing into a SYM file readable by D86, so you can do symbolic debugging. If you have a 386-based machine, you can add the D command to D86, allowing you to set memory breakpoints.
Finally, there are the intangible incentives. You know you've done the right thing. You're letting me know that you appreciate what I've done. You're letting the world know that quality software can succeed when distributed as shareware.
D86 is a screen-oriented program that allows you to troubleshoot faulty computer programs written for the IBM-PC and all compatibles, Wang-PC, TI-PC, Tandy 2000, DEC Rainbow, and Sanyo computer. It "freezes" the state of your program, and allows you to investigate the values of registers, flags, and memory. You can monitor your program's execution by stepping it one instruction or procedure at a time; or you can start your program running, telling D86 to stop it when it reaches certain locations. D86 recognizes the symbol-table output of the A86 assembler, creating a symbolic disassembly of your A86 program, and allowing you to refer to locations and variables by name.
The primary design criterion for D86 is ease of use. This is reflected in the most notable features of D86:
I have no plans to move from my present location at least through the millennium. So you can write to:
Eric Isaacson Software
or call (812)339-1811.
Sorry, I can't guarantee to return everybody's long distance calls. If you'd like to be SURE I'll get back to you, please invite me to call you back collect, or tell me to charge the cost of the call to your credit card.
I also have a section on Compuserve: just type GO ZIPKEY to any ! prompt. (ZIPKEY is the name of my other product line, a pop-up zipcode directory.) My Internet address is eric@eji.com .
PLEASE contact me if you find bugs in my programs; I'll fix them! I accept bug reports from anyone, registered or non-registered, no questions asked. It's very frustrating to hear about people telling each other about bugs, and not telling me. I still await Greg Wettstein's bug list.
To demonstrate some of the powers of D86, let's walk through a D86 session.
D86 currently requires either an IBM-PC or compatible computer, a Texas Instruments TI-PC, a Wang PC, a Tandy 2000, a DEC Rainbow, a Sirius/Vector 9000, a Zenith Z-100--ET-100, or a Sanyo 550 or 555 computer. The computer must be running MS-DOS V2.00 or later. The IBM compatibility must exist at the BIOS and video interface levels: D86 calls the BIOS to obtain keystrokes and video status information; and, on an IBM-PC, D86 writes directly to video memory at segment 0B000 (if the BIOS says monochrome) or 0B800 (if color).
If your MS-DOS machine is not one of the above-mentioned specific models, chances are it's an IBM-compatible and you'll run D86 just fine. For example, all of the "clone" computers released in the last several years are IBM-compatible. If it is one of the above non-IBM models, D86 has special BIOS code for your computer, invoked via the +B switch described the section "BIOS Switching" later in this Chapter.
D86 is fairly flexible about memory management. If there is enough memory, D86 will take the combined sizes of D86.COM and A86.COM (currently about 51K bytes), plus 64K bytes for its own stack, and leave the rest for the program being debugged. If memory is tight, D86 will reduce the memory allocated to its own stack, down to a minimum of 16K bytes. The segment occupied by the program being debugged will be similarly reduced. If the program is a COM file, you can tell this by the initial SP value, which is 0FFFE if there is a full 64K, less if there isn't. Thus, D86 will work with as little as 70K bytes beyond the operating system; but the symbols capacity and the program's memory will be severely limited in that case. It is best to have at least 166K bytes of memory available when D86 is running.
You invoke D86 by issuing the command
D86 [+Bn] [+V] [progname [command-tail]]
where progname is the name of the program you are debugging. In other words, you type a program invocation line just as if you were about to execute the program without a debugger, except that you append D86 before the line. The B and V switches can appear in either order.
The following sections describe in detail the elements of the D86 invocation line, and how D86 acts on them.
On most other debuggers, you have to give the full file name, with an explicit extension and a specific directory. With D86, you don't: D86 uses almost the same algorithm for locating a program file that COMMAND.COM does:
The one difference is that D86 will look only for one extension if you give an explicit extension (and it doesn't have to be COM, EXE, or BAT). COMMAND.COM ignores the extension you give -- I thought that was just too absurd, and didn't duplicate it.
A strange feature that I did duplicate is COMMAND.COM's lack of concern for whether the program is named COM or EXE. If the program file begins with a valid EXE header, it's treated as an EXE no matter what it is named. If not, then it's treated as a COM file.
D86 provides limited support for BAT files. (That's better than other debuggers, which provide no support.) If your program is a BAT file, D86 reads the first line of the file and pretends that that was what you typed following "D86" in your invocation. The D86 status screen (gotten via Ctrl-S) gives you this line, and tells you what BAT file it came from.
The BAT file limitations are that D86 doesn't skip over remark lines, doesn't substitute batch-file parameters, and doesn't perform console redirection specified in the batch-file line.
You can also invoke D86 with no progname. The debugger comes up with no program loaded, allowing you to simply poke around the machine.
If D86 had a problem loading your program, you'll see all NOPs in memory instead of instructions. You can type Ctrl-S to get the status screen that tells you what the problem was.
D86 is a symbolic debugger. It uses a special .SYM file produced in one of three ways: First, if your program was produced by A86, then the .SYM file was produced by A86 at the same time. Second, if your program was produced by a high-level language such as Pascal or C, you can feed the linker's .MAP listing to the special MAPD86 tool, available to registered D86 users only. Third, you can "reverse engineer" a program by adding symbols while in D86's patch mode, then create a .SYM file with D86's W command.
(pg 10)
When invoked, D86 looks for a file with the program's name and a .SYM extension.
D86 first looks in the current directory for this file, and then in each
directory specified in the PATH environment variable. It is not necessary
for the SYM file to exist. If there is no SYM file, the debugger simply runs
with no user symbols defined. You'll also get no user symbols if the SYM
file was not of a correct format (it wasn't produced in one of the ways mentioned
in the previous paragraph, or it has been corrupted in some way). If you
were expecting symbols and didn't get any, you can press Ctrl-S to get the
status screen that tells you what the problem was.
Some of the non-IBM computers named at the start of this chapter are automatically detected by D86, so you shouldn't need any special action to use D86 with them. Others have no obvious identifying features to them, so that you need to tell D86 that you're using that computer. You do so with the switch +B followed by a machine number, as follows:
+B4 for the IBM-PC (automatic) +B5 for the Wang-PC (automatic) +B6 for the Texas Instruments PC (automatic) +B7 for the Tandy 2000 (automatic) +B8 for the Sanyo 550 or 555 +B9 for the Sirius/Victor 9000 +B10 for the DEC Rainbow (automatic) +B12 for the Zenith Z-100 and ET-100
Machines marked "automatic" are automatically detected by D86, so you shouldn't need the B switch for them (but I give one anyway just for safety).
For example, if you're running on a Sanyo, you invoke D86 via
D86 +B8 progname
Incidentally, the Sanyo interface is of interest because the BIOS is IBM-compatible but the video isn't. So invoking +B8 causes all video output to go through the BIOS, which is slow but it works on all IBM compatibles as well. So if D86 doesn't work on your BIOS-compatible machine, you can try the +B8 switch.
You can make your +B setting (and, for that matter, a +V setting) automatic by placing it into a DOS environment variable called D86. For example, if you run on a Sanyo, you issue the command
SET D86=+B8
to the DOS prompt. You can make the setting permanent by placing the above line into the AUTOEXEC.BAT file on your system disk.
The +V option can be used if you have both a monochrome and a color monitor. You invoke D86 when the operating system is on one monitor -- with the +V switch, the debugger will appear on the other monitor, and program console output will appear on the operating system's monitor.
In order for the +V option to work, you must initialize both screens by MODEing to them sometime after powering up the machine. You should also make sure that the blinking cursor is at the bottom of the screen on which the debugger will appear (the simplest way to do this is to type Enter until the prompt gets to the bottom). If you can suppress the blinking cursor, that's even better. See in your DOS operating manual for instructions on how to use MODE to switch between screens. D86 doesn't do the initialization, because I couldn't figure out how to get the BIOS to do so without blanking the screen, and you might not want the screen blanked every time you start a D86 session.
When D86 starts up, it generates a full-screen display, and awaits your debugger commands.
In the top part of the screen is a symbolic disassembly of the A86 program, with the screen cursor positioned next to the instruction pointed to by the 8086 instruction pointer.
In the lower left corner is a fixed display of the complete 8086 register set.
At the top of the second column of the register-set display is a display of the 8086 flags. Each flag displays as blank if the flag is off; a lower case letter if the flag is on:
| o | for overflow, |
| d | for direction, |
| i | for interrupts enabled, |
| s | for sign, |
| z | for zero, |
| a | for auxiliary carry, |
| e | for parity even, and |
| c | for carry. |
Across the bottom line of the screen is a display of the contents of the user stack. The display begins next to the SP register value, with the number of elements on the stack. (The stack is assumed to have 0 elements when SP is at its original value, which is 0FFFE for COM files, and a value specified in the header record for EXE files). The number of elements is followed by a colon, followed by as many of the top stack elements as fits on the line. The initial display will have zero elements; nothing is yet on the stack.
To the right of the registers are 6 lines, numbered 1 through 6. On these lines, you can generate windows into 8086 memory, displaying bytes, words, or ASCII text in a variety of formats. The windows can be located either at absolute memory locations, or be pointed to by any of the 8086 registers. The commands you issue to generate these windows are described in Chapter 6.
There are 5 kinds of activities you perform in D86:
A primary part of the D86 command language is the A86 assembly language. With it, you can jump to different areas of your program, set your registers, perform arithmetic, and call any of the procedures of your program. Simply type in any legal A86 instruction, and it will be executed immediately.
JMP and RET instructions cause the program counter (and thus also the disassembly) to move to the indicated destination. CALL instructions cause the entire procedure to be executed.
WARNING: The immediate-execution feature is a little tricky if you are in a multi-segment program, or if you jump to exotic parts of the 86 memory space (i.e., into MSDOS, ROM, video memory, or the interrupts table). This is because D86 needs a buffer in which to put the immediate-execution command. The buffer should be in your program's CS segment, so that commands such as jumps and near calls execute correctly. So D86 must always search in CS for a satisfactory buffer. Here is how D86 finds it:
In cases 1 and 3 above, the segment containing the buffer is the program's CS segment, unless that is out of range (below the program's original CS, or above the top of available program memory). If the program CS is out of range, the program's original CS is used instead. In that case, immediate instructions such JMP, RET, and CALL will not work correctly.Note that the above caveats do not apply to single stepping.
D86 allows you to alter 8086 memory in two ways: first, you can issue immediate assembly language commands which, when executed, store values in memory. The other method is to enter a special mode, in which you enter instructions directly into 8086 memory.
(pg 12)
You enter this mode by typing the F7 (PatchMem) key. The screen cursor jumps
from the left edge of the line at the current program counter, into the middle
of the line where the instruction is. You start typing over the instruction,
to signal that you are clobbering the instruction that was there. If you
did not intend to enter this mode, you can backspace back to the start of
the instruction, and type a carriage return.
Each line you type in is checked for errors. If there was an error, a message is displayed, the cursor remains at the same location, and you try again. If there was no error, the cursor moves beyond the newly-assembled line, and you can type in another line.
To exit the memory programming mode, you type any of the control key commands at the beginning of the line.
You can deposit data into the 8086 memory space by using the programming mode described in the above section. Simply enter DB and/or DW statements instead of instructions. Note that ASCII strings can be entered with the DB instruction; and that arrays can be initialized via the DUP operator in a DB or DW statement.
Patch mode also allows you to do something that you cannot do in immediate execution mode: add symbols to the program. You can do so by either:
There are several uses for this. First, you might want to create an abbreviation, by equating a short name to a long one, or to a hard-to-remember constant value. Second, you might want to "reverse engineer" a program for which you have a .COM file, but not the A86 source code. Each time you add a label, the disassembly becomes more readable. Third, you might want to label code that you have added in patch mode.
After you have added symbols to the table, you can save the resulting expanded table with the W command. Simply type W followed by the Enter key at the main debugger command level.
Forward referencing is allowed when you are in patch mode. You must be careful, however, to resolve any forward references you have made, before leaving patch mode.
D86 has a set of functions invoked by single keys. Keys which switch the display (for example, to show a help screen) can be pressed in any context, to be acted upon immediately. Other keys, such as the single-stepping keys, can be invoked any time D86 is awaiting the beginning of an assembly language command.
There are numerous keys that let you control the switchable window in the upper right corner of the screen. The F10 and Alt-F10 keys let you toggle between windows, giving you a "tour" of what's available. Various keys accessed by using the "Ctrl" key as a shift key let you move directly to the window of your choice.
The keys in this section are acted upon in any debugger context, whether you are in the main command mode or in the middle of one of the other modes (typing in a debugger command, an immediate-execute line, a patch-memory line, or a memory window specification):
In help mode, toggles you between the help windows available in the current context.
If you do not have a memory display window, but do have at least one memory line specification, this key takes you from any other window to the memory display window, continuing from the end of the last line display.
If you have no memory line specifications set up, this key is ignored.
If you do not have a memory display window, this key will go to one, just like the Ctrl-N key.
All the remaining keys in this chapter can be invoked any time the debugger is in its main command mode, awaiting the first key of a debugger command or immediate assembly line. They change the value of the Instruction Pointer (IP register), and thus they change the disassembly display.
None of the control keys in this section cause any program code to be executed, other than the equivalent of a JMP instruction, to the place that the disassembly cursor winds up.
(pg 14)
WARNING: On some debuggers, you can change the location of what is being
disassembled without changing the IP register value.
I've decided on a "what you see is what you get" philosophy, since you may well be moving the IP cursor to effect a jump in the program (for example, you might use the Down-Arrow key to experimentally skip over the execution of one or more instructions in the program). If your intention was just to look around the program before continuing execution at the place you left off, you may use the Home key to return to the place where execution last halted.
Visually, the disassembly cursor moves down by one instruction line.
In addition to immediate-execution assembly language commands, there is a set of commands recognized by the debugger. They are identified by the first keyword on the line being a single letter (i.e., the second character of the line is a non-letter, usually a comma or Enter).
Most of the debugger commands consist of their single-letter identifier, followed by a comma, followed by one or more general operands, separated by commas. General operands can be one of the following:
Many of the examples given below will be given in double quotes. Note that the double quotes are not part of the command. You are encouraged to try out the example on the debugger, by typing the string within the quotes, not including the quotes, and always followed by the Enter key. Note further that the double-quoted string may be broken across two lines of this manual, but that does not mean you should type an Enter where the string is broken -- debugger commands always consist of a single line, always terminated by Enter.
Following is a description of the debugger commands recognized:
You follow the B with zero, one, or two general operands. If there are zero operands (the B is followed immediately by an Enter), then both fixed breakpoints are cleared. If there are one or two operands, then the fixed breakpoints are set to the operands.
Note that previously-set breakpoints can be implicitly cleared, by overwriting them with other breakpoints. If your B command has one operand, and there was one breakpoint previously set, the debugger sets the unused breakpoint, so that both remain in effect. If your B command has one operand, and both breakpoints were previously set, the most recently set breakpoint is saved, and the older breakpoint is overwritten.
The status screen, displayed by typing Ctrl-S, shows you the B-command breakpoints in effect.
Examples: if you type "b,numout", the debugger will set a breakpoint at location NUMOUT, which should be a label in the program being debugged. You may start and stop the program many times, and the breakpoint will stay there. You may even allow the program to stop at NUMOUT repeatedly; the breakpoint is not cleared even if the program stops there. If you subsequently type the command "b,01000", then there will be breakpoints at both NUMOUT and location hex 01000. If you then type "b,01200", the first breakpoint NUMOUT is overwritten; the two breakpoints now in effect are 01000 and 01200. The 01000 breakpoint will be next in line to be overwritten. You may clear both breakpoints by typing "b". There is no way to clear one breakpoint at a time.
The trap occurs after the instruction causing the access, so you should press the Up-arrow key to see the instruction.
You follow the "D" with a comma, followed by a specification parameter. The parameter consists of up to three characters, at most one each from the following categories:
You terminate the specification parameter with a comma, then provide one or two numbers to specify the memory location you are trapping. If you provide two numbers, the first is the segment register value and the second is the offset. If you provide only one number, it is the offset -- the value of DS is used as the segment register value. As with all value parameters in D86, you can give a register name or a label instead of a number. You can also leave out the address entirely, to preserve the previous address setting of that breakpoint register.
Note that the 386 requires Word and Doubleword breakpoints to be aligned in memory. If you provide an odd address for a Word breakpoint, the 386 will ignore the bottom bit of your address. Similarly, the 386 will ignore the bottom two bits of your address for a Doubleword breakpoint.
Examples: D,R1,ES,0400 sets a byte data read-or-write breakpoint, using the 386's register number 1, at memory location ES:0400. D,-1 would clear that breakpoint. D,R1 would set it again with its previous value. D,W,MY_VAR sets a Word breakpoint, using the 386's register number 0, at location DS:MY_VAR -- the trap will occur if either byte of the variable MY_VAR is written to (but MY_VAR should be aligned to an even address for this to work).
If the D command is enabled, you'll get a one-line display of the data breakpoint registers in the status window (invoked via Ctrl-S). The registers are presented in order: 0,1,2,3. The breakpoint type is given, followed by the 5-digit absolute memory address of the breakpoint.
If you provide a second operand to F, it is a "retreat number". For example, "F 2,10" assumes that you are looking for a 2-byte sequence, and you have retreated 10 bytes from the starting location for your search. When the string is found, F will retreat 10 bytes from that string. That way you can view the instructions that preceded the found string. I use this feature when I am searching for BIOS and DOS interrupt calls in a program. I want to retreat before the calls, to see what function numbers were loaded into registers. I can use the F3 key to repeat the searches, giving me a sequence of disassembly displays with the interrupt in the middle.
F with no operands returns CS:IP to the marked location, in case you want to use F7 to deposit another string to be searched.
If you have never pressed Shift-F7 in this session, the marked location is 0C000 of the program's starting segment. That's often a good "scratchpad" area for small programs, far from both the program and the stack.
(pg 18)
Whenever you start the program, at least one instruction from the program
will be executed, even if there is a breakpoint at the current instruction
pointer location. This means you can set a breakpoint at the current location;
instructing the program to return to the debugger the next time it gets back
to the current location.
You can mark the beginning of the keystrokes to be saved in one of several ways. The K,F command will flush all recorded keystrokes from D86's memory buffer, letting you "start fresh". The S,F command also does this; it resets the entire debugging session as well (cancelling the effects of any default scripts or manually-typed keystrokes). The Ctrl-M key can be typed in any debugger context to mark the beginning of keystrokes to be saved by the next save command, without actually flushing the previous keystrokes -- the debugger remains in whatever context it was in, the marker will revert to the start of the session after the next keystroke-save operation, and the Undo command will play back from the start of the session.
The command K,S,filename will save debugger keystrokes in a file named filename.D8K ("filename" can be any name you wish, and you do not need to explicitly give the D8K extension in the command). The file will begin with keystrokes marked by the last command described in the above paragraph; if no such specification was given, the file starts at the beginning of the entire debugger session. Commands and keys dealing with keystroke scripts are not themselves recorded. If you issued a previous playback command, or if a playback occurred by default, the keystrokes from those playbacks are included as if you had typed them manually.
Alternatively, you can save ALTx.D8K files from any debugger context by pressing the Ctrl-K key, followed by the Alt-key you wish to associate with the key sequence. For example, suppose you wish to save the keystroke sequence for the memory-window specification for a complicated structure. You wish the sequence to include the format of the structure, but not its location-specification. You can do this by pressing Ctrl-M to mark the beginning of the recording, the digit 0 to move to the beginning of the first free memory window, the specification (e.g., B3WB1,), the Ctrl-K key, and the Alt-S key. The debugger silently saves the keystroke sequence in a file called ALTS.D8K. From now on, whenever you type the Alt-S key, the keystrokes 0B3WB1, will be played back, leaving you ready to type only the location where you want the memory structure to be displayed.
(pg 19)
The command K,P,filename will play back the keystroke script file filename.D8K
that you previously saved. This form, while more cumbersome to invoke, allows
you to use a greater variety of file names. All keystroke playback files
can be either in the current directory, or any directory named in your PATH
environment variable.
For example, note that function 3F hex is the READ function for MSDOS version 2. If you want to trap whenever this READ function is invoked, you can issue the command O,03F and then start up your program with the G command. Another example: suppose you want to insure that a program does not make any of the new Version 3 DOS calls, 59 hex and above. You can issue the command O,059,0FF and then start your program.
NOTE: if the second operand is less than the first, then the range wraps around through zero. For example, O,059,030 traps on 059 through 0FF, and also 0 through 030-- both version 3 and version 1 calls.
SECOND NOTE: The EXIT function, hex 4C is always trapped by D86, regardless of your O-command settings. The only way you should be able to exit from D86 is via the Q-command. (If you do succeed in exiting some other way, I want to hear about it. In that case, D86 will become very confused if you reinvoke it before rebooting the computer.)
The command S,C,srcfile,destfile copies the file named "srcfile" to the file named "destfile". The command S,D,filename deletes the file named "filename". The command S,R resets the debugging session: all open user files are closed, standard input and output are "rewound" if they had been redirected to disk files, the current drive and directory are restored, the debugged program is is reloaded from the disk, and the default keystroke script, if any, is rerun. The command S,F does the same as S,R except the keystroke script is not rerun: this allows you to redefine what your starting script will be.
D86 writes the program from location 0100 in the original code segment, up to the end-of-file location saved when the program was loaded, and possibly extended by a patch-memory operation while at the end of the program. Any symbols added while in the patch-memory mode are saved in the symbols file, so that you can "reverse engineer" programs for which you do not have source, and save the symbol table results you have gleaned.
The debugger allows you to set up windows into your program memory space. Using these windows, you can view memory in a variety of formats. The windows will remain in effect until you cancel them; updating themselves automatically if the memory changes.
There are six single-line memory windows always present, in the lower right portion of the screen. In addition, you can have the upper-right window display a 14-line page of memory values.
A single-line memory window line consists of a specification, typed in by you, followed by a display, supplied by the debugger.
To type in a specification on any one of window lines 1 through 6, simply type the associated digit, 1 through 6, when the debugger is in its main command mode. You can also specify the first blank window line by typing the digit 0 (providing some flexibility for keystroke scripts). The cursor will jump to the beginning of the memory-window line you are specifying. You then type in a display format specification, followed by the address of memory you want displayed.
The simplest form of the display format specification is a single letter, signifying one of the display types available. The choices are:
| B | for hexadecimal bytes |
| W | for hexadecimal words |
| N | for decimal bytes |
| D | for decimal words |
| Q | for octal bytes |
| O | for octal words |
| T | for text; each byte reduced to one ASCII display character |
| A | for ASCII text, each byte occupying 2 display characters (the exact display is spelled out later in this chapter) |
| C | for ASCII text, occupying 2 bytes if needed, otherwise one |
A format specification of one of the above letters will cause the debugger to display the array of bytes starting at the address you specify, in the format indicated by the letter, as long as there is room on the line. All letters in a format specification (or in any other context in the debugger) can be typed in either upper or lower case.
The format specification should be terminated by a comma. After the comma (and an optional space), you type the address of memory you want displayed. This consists of two values, the segment followed by the offset. The values should be separated by a comma. You can omit the segment value if you wish: in that case, the current value of DS is used. The debugger reminds you that you have specified this option by following what you type with 2 commas instead of one.
The value you type can take one of the following forms:
After you type the address specification, you hit the Enter key, and the debugger fills out the rest of the line with the memory display.
For example, if you want to display hex bytes starting at 01000 hex on display line 2, you type 2b,01000<Enter>. The cursor jumps to the line immediately when you type the 2, and it displays the b,01000 on the line as you type it. The b says you want hex bytes, and the 01000 has a leading zero to signify a hexadecimal address, not decimal. When you press the Enter key, the debugger displays two commas, followed by the hex bytes. If the memory is zeroed, you will see 00 00 00 00 00 etc. to the end of the display line.
Any memory display window that you specify will remain in effect, always updated to show the latest memory contents, until you explicitly erase it. To erase a window, you type the number of the window, followed by a blank. The line will also be erased if you start typing a format specification, and you hit the Enter key before you get to your address specification.
(pg 22)
In the coming sections, many of the examples assume (and they say so) that
your display is blank before you type in the example. You can always get
a blank display by typing in each number followed by a blank: "1 2 3 4 5
6 ".
If you accidentally type a digit and DON'T want to erase the line your cursor has jumped to, press the Esc key to return to the main command mode.
You may continue a memory display window onto the next line, by placing a double quote mark " at the beginning of the next line.
You may do this in one of two ways: you may type the number of the next line, followed by the double quote mark; or you may simply type the double quote mark at the command level. The first method allows you to specify which window line you want continued, if there is more than one. The second method is more convenient to use. It places the quote mark on the last blank line that immediately follows a non-blank line.
You may continue placing " marks on as many lines as you have, creating a multi-line display.
The debugger follows the " mark with the address of memory being displayed, followed by the memory, according to the start of the type specification of the line being continued. The memory display is aligned with the display of above line.
If you are creating a multi-line display, and your specification is a long one, you may wish to start the display at the beginning of the next line, rather than after the specification on the first line. This will often give you more room. You do this by terminating the format specification with a slash / instead of a comma. For example, to display many hex bytes at the array BYTE_ARRAY, type 1b/byte_array<Enter> followed by five double quote marks, when the memory display is empty.
Instead of having all your bytes or words on a line displayed in the same format, you can mix your formats. You do this by providing more than one letter in your format specification. The debugger will display one memory unit for each letter-type you specify. The line will be filled out with the last type given. For example, if you type 3nwb,01000<Enter>, you will get a display on memory line 3 of the decimal byte at 01000, the hex word at 01001, and an array of hex bytes starting at 01003.
You may precede any letter in a format specification with a number up to 255. The effect is the same as if you had repeated the letter the given number of times. For example, if you type 1 to go to memory line 1, followed by 4w10tb,02000<Enter>, you will get 4 hex words at 02000, 10 text characters at 02008, and an array of hex bytes from 02012 filling out the rest of the line.
You may also end your format specification with a number up to 255. This will cause the entire specification to be repeated the given number of times. If there is room on the line for the full number given, the display will stop there -- there will be no repeating of the last type byte. If there is not room on the line for the full number of global iterations, the debugger will stop at the end of the last iteration that would fit. For example, the specification b8 causes 8 hex bytes to be displayed, and the remainder of the display line to be blank. The specification b3w9 will cause the debugger to try to output 9 records, each consisting of a hex byte followed by 3 hex words. After putting out 2 such records, the debugger will see that there is not room for a third full record, so it will stop. This stopping at the record boundary allows you to continue the display, with correct alignment, on subsequent lines.
In general, the debugger provides a space between each unit (byte or word) it displays. There is an exception, however: the debugger will not space between adjacent text characters (A,C, or T specifications).
There are special specifiers G, J, and M, described in the section below, that allow you to override the debugger's spacing policies.
In addition to the 9 letters already mentioned that specify data types, there are 9 other letters, and 2 other characters, that cause the debugger to perform special actions. Following is a complete description of all 20 non-digit characters that can occur within a format specification:
The A specification is used when you need guaranteed display length for proper alignment of continuation lines; and you do not want the potential loss of information provided by the single-byte T specification.
| FD | specifies a 4-byte Doubleword (single precision) number |
| FQ | specifies an 8-byte Quadword (double precision) number |
| FT | specifies a Ten-byte number-- 8087 extended precision. |
The most common usage of Z is to display the memory just output by a moving output pointer. For example, in the 8086 debugger, you could specify bz,es,di to display the hex bytes most recently output by the STOSB instruction.
(pg 25)
Note that Z makes sense only in a limited number of contexts. You will almost
certainly want to use Z only as the second letter of a two-letter specification,
as in the example above. I further recommend that you use a format letter
that generates a fixed length display; i.e., B,W,Q,O,T, or C. If you use
a variable length display (N,D, or A), the debugger will be as pessimistic
as possible about the number of display characters needed, so that the display
will likely terminate before the end of the line.
A continuation of a Z-line will produce the same output as the original line. If you want to continue beyond the address given, repeat the specification without the Z.
You may cause the switchable window in the upper right quadrant of the screen to display 14 lines of memory, continuing from the last of the lines you specified within the 6-line memory area. To do this, you:
Once you have set up a 14-line window, you may page through memory with the Ctrl-N (Next memory page) and Ctrl-P (Previous memory page) keys, described in Chapter 4.
If, after having pressed Ctrl-N or Ctrl-P several times, you wish to return to the first window continuing from the address you specified, you may do so by typing the digit (1 to 6) of the last specification line, followed immediately by the Esc key to preserve the specification settings. The memory window will be reset to its continuation value. For example, if your specification was on line 6, you type 6 followed immediately by the Esc key.
If you want your 14-line memory window to start at a certain address instead of continuing from a 1-line display, you can separate the format and the address with a slash instead of a comma. For example, if you want Words at location ES:0, type 6 followed by w/es,0 followed by the Enter key.
If your machine has a floating-point processor, D86 gives you the best facilities for debugging code for the processor (which I generically refer to as "the 87").
The display of the 87's state can be obtained by pressing the Ctrl-F key. If you don't have an 87 in your system, you won't get the display.
You can also display floating point numbers displayed in 86 memory, by using the FD, FQ, and FT specifiers described in Chapter 6.
In the displays of floating point numbers, both on the 87 stack and in 86 memory, I've taken great care to provide a display that is both readable and accurate. I rejected the algorithms for display found in the popular reference books on the subject, because they failed for several classes of extreme values.
The floating point display you get with Ctrl-F contains the following components:
| f | for finite non-zero number |
| z | for zero |
| i | for infinite number |
| - | for empty slot |
| p | for precision exception |
| u | for underflow exception |
| o | for overflow exception |
| z | for zero-divide exception |
| d | for denormal exception |
| i | for invalid operation exception |
| z | for C3 (corresponds to the Zero flag) |
| u | for C2 (set if a result is "unordered") |
| . | for C1 |
| c | for C0 (corresponds to the Carry flag) |
Some of the types of numbers possible in the floating point register display may seem a little strange to you if you haven't had much experience with the 87. It's a bit beyond the scope of this manual to go into detail about them -- you should consult a book on the theory of floating-point processing, for a detailed discussion. But here are brief descriptions to give you a bit of an idea of what's going on:
NaN (Not-a-Number) values are used to represent results that are totally different than any floating-point number that could be provided. A specific NaN (with hex value C000 0000 0000 0000) is produced by the 87 whenever it can't cope with something, and the Invalid Operation exception is masked. Other NaN values might be loaded by a program from 86 memory, to be interpreted in any way the program chooses.
For the rest of this discussion, let's introduce a little terminology. Floating point numbers use a format that follows the same principle as scientific notation. In scientific notation, one part of the number gives the significant digits of the number, always "normalized" to fall between 1 and 10. Another part of the number gives the magnitude of the number: the power of ten that you multiply the first part by, to get the true value. For example, 2.34 * 10**2 is a normal, scientific notation for 234. (It can be written in A86 as 2.34E2). 2.34 * 10**-2 is a normal scientific notation for 0.0234. Note that 0.234 * 10**-1 is a non-normal representation for the same number: we have increased the size of the exponent from -2 to -1, but the significant part is less than 1 instead of being between 1 and 10.
In the 87 formats, everything is binary, with bits instead of digits. There is a "significand" field, normalized whenever possible so that the most significant bit is 1 (the value is between 1 and 2). There is the "exponent" field, giving the (positive or negative) power of two that you multiply the significand by, to get the true value.
Denormals are produced when the result of an operation is non- zero, but is so tiny that its exponent is a negative number too small to be represented in the 15-bit exponent field of an 87 register. There is a trick called "gradual underflow" that makes the best of the situation: the smallest possible exponent is given, together with leading zeroes in the significand to signal a further reduction in the exponent. Each leading zero means there is one less bit with which to represent the significand.
You can see denormals in action by typing Ctrl-F to get the floating-point display, then typing the following commands to be executed immediately:
FINIT
FLD 10.0
FLD 1.E-4931
FDIV 1
The result of the division is a denormal because 10 ** -4932 has a power-of-two exponent too small to be represented in the 15-bit exponent field of the 87 register. The display indicates that 2 bits of precision have been lost -- two leading zeroes have been forced into the significand field of the number.
Now press the F3 key to divide the number by another 10. Now 5 bits of precision have been lost. If you keep pressing the F3 key, you get more and more bits of precision lost. The loss in accuracy shows up in the number displayed. Eventually, all bits are lost, and the number collapses to zero.
What happens when we multiply a denormal number by 10, instead of dividing it by 10? The number becomes big enough to no longer require the denormalization; but there's no way to recover the bits of precision that have been lost. To signal that bits have been lost, the 87 retains the leading zeroes in the significand. Numbers containing such zeroes without the minimum exponent are called "unnormals".
(pg 28)
A certain kind of unnormal is a "pseudo-zero", obtained when all the bits
of precision are lost. This can happen when you multiply two unnormals. The
number of leading zero bits (precision bits lost) of the answer is the sum
of the bits lost of the operands. If the total is 64 bits or more, all precision
is lost -- the significand is zero. But the exponent field is nonzero, which
brands the number as strange -- a true zero has zeroes in the entire number,
including the exponent field.
Q: Why isn't there a debugger command to modify register settings?
A: You can do so with an immediate assembly language command. For example, to set the AX register to 100 type MOV AX,100 . You can now also set segment registers this way: MOV DS,0 REMEMBER that if there isn't a leading zero, all constants fed to D86 are assumed to be decimal. If you want hex constants, supply a leading zero.
Q: How do you reset the CS register? MOV CS,value doesn't work.
A: You issue a far JMP instruction to be executed immediately. For example, to set CS to 0 and IP to 400 hex, type JMP 0:0400
Q: Why aren't there commands for changing memory to different hex values, or for filling memory with a given value?
A: You can do this very effectively with D86's patch memory mode.
Just issue an immediate JMP to the location you want modified, press the F7 key to enter patch-memory mode, and then issue any A86 directive to initialize memory: DB for bytes, DW for words, DD for doublewords, etc. Remember, you have the full power of the A86 language at your disposal. You can provide lists of values on a single line:
DW 0100,0101,MY_SYMBOL
You can make ASCII initializations with strings on DB lines:
DB 'This is a string',0D,0A,0
You can use the DUP construct to fill memory with a given value or sequence of values:
DB 100 DUP 0, 10 DUP (1,2,3)
Q: I tried stepping into a ROM BIOS routine. It worked for a while, but when I got to a certain instruction and stepped, the computer crashed. What's wrong?
A: My official policy on stepping into ROM is, "all bets are off". D86 does better than many debuggers at stepping into ROM, but there are still some fairly insurmountable problems. First, D86 itself calls the BIOS. Not all BIOS routines are reentrant; you could get unfortunate interactions between the call being stepped and calls made by D86 while you are stepping. Second, ROM cannot be modified and hence traps cannot be set within ROM. D86 doesn't try to detect failed trap-setting, so the program may be set loose in situations where D86 thinks (and you think) it will retain control.
This will always happen if you try to step a whole CALL in ROM. It will also happen if you try to use the F1 key on an instruction that loads a segment register. For arcane reasons, the single-stepping feature built into the 8088 doesn't work on such instructions, so D86 must single step them with a trap. Thus, F1 on a segment-loading instruction in ROM will set the program loose.
All releases include bug fixes.
| V2.15 | August 1986. | Initial public release of the MSDOS version of D86. The last previous version ran under the Xenix operating system on the Altos series of computers. I improved the invocation syntax, incorporated IBM function keys into the interface, and added on-line help. |
| V2.16 | August 1986. | Added the ability to make forward references in patch-memory mode. |
| V2.18 | November 1986. | Added the "O" command, to trap INT 33 calls. |
| V2.22 | April 1987. | Release in conjunction with A86 V3.00. Added support for new 286 and NEC-specific instructions. Added "F" command, and Shift-F7 commands. Added the floating point window. |
| V3.09 | August 1987. | Major upgrade: first product-quality release. Added support for EXE files, some support for BAT files, second disassembly window, extended memory display window, status window, floating point memory display types, backwards paging and sensible Up-Arrow, W command to write program and symbols to disk, enhanced Home key, Ctrl-T set top-of-stack key, and Ctrl-E go-to-end key. |
| V3.10 | September 1987. | Trap INT 020 and INT 027. |
| V3.15 | May 1988. | Added data breakpoint for 386-based machines, available to registered users only. |
| V3.18 | July 1988. | Added MAPD86 tool for registered users only. |
| V3.20 | July 1989. | Added F9 key. |
| V3.21 | August 1989. | Added Ctrl-X key, and changed F1 not to step into interrupts. |
| V3.22 | January 1990. | Added support for the IIT-2C87 and 80387 coprocessors. |
| V3.70 | January 1994. | Test release in conjunction with A86 V3.70 test release. |
| V4.00 | December 1994. | Added the keystroke-script-saving facility, with the K command, the S system-functions command, the Undo command, default key scripts, and Alt-letter key scripts. Changed F2 to single-step loops and jumps, making the F5 key the "trap next instruction" that F2 had been. |
| V4.01 | March 1995. | |
| V4.02 | September 1995. | |
| V4.03 | January 1996. |
I'd like to thank all of you who have supported A86 and D86 so far with your registrations. Your support has allowed me to spend the past ten years working exclusively on my shareware products.
D86 improvements have been slower to implement than I hoped. I still wish to provide the ability to save and switch to/from the program's full screen, and to interrupt a running program from the keyboard. I hope I can get to those eventually. I will also be exploring programming for the Windows and OS/2 environments (my ZIPKEY customers are screaming for a Windows version!), and may bring out tools and/or new A386/D386 features associated with that.
386 breakpoints, 16
87 debugging, 26
A memory specifier, 23
adding symbols, 12
address, my, 3
addresses, displaying, 23
advantages of D86, 3
Alt-F10 key, 13
ALT-letter commands, 18
ALTx.D8K file, 18
arrays, displaying, 21
ASCII byte, 2-character display, 23
at-sign format specifier, 23
B memory specifier, 23
B breakpoint command, 16
BAT files and D86, 9
benefits of registration, 4
BIOS output, forcing, 10
BIOS switching, D86, 10
blanking memory display lines, 21
breakpoints on data references D, 16
breakpoints on system calls with O, 19
breakpoints, clearing B, 16
breakpoints, displaying B, 16
breakpoints, fixed B, 16
breakpoints, transient G, 17
British contact, 3
bugs, reporting, 5
C memory specifier, 23
CALL commands, immediate, 11
Carry flag, demo, 7
color monitor, 10
COM files, debugging, 9
commands, classes of D86, 11
commonly asked questions, 29
Compuserve section, 5
condition flags, floating, 26
conditional destination trap F4, 15
contacting me, 5
continuation of memory display, 22
control keys, display, 13
copying files within D86, 19
count byte, displaying, 24
crashing while debugging ROM, 29
credit cards, 3
CS register, setting, 29
CS trickiness and D86, 11
CS, strange values, 18
Ctrl-D key, 14
Ctrl-E key, 14
Ctrl-F key, 13
Ctrl-I key, 13
Ctrl-K with K command, 18
Ctrl-M key, 15
Ctrl-M with K command, 18
Ctrl-N key, 13
Ctrl-P key, 13
(pg 32)
Ctrl-Q key, 13
Ctrl-R key, 15
Ctrl-S key, 13
Ctrl-T key, 15
Ctrl-U key, 14
D memory specifier, 23
D86 environment variable, 10
D86.D8K file, 18
D86_BUFFER, 11
D8K script files, 18
data, entering into memory, 12
debugger commands, 16
DEC Rainbow BIOS switch, 10
decimal byte N memory specifier, 24
decimal word D memory specifier, 23
decrementing IP, 14
deleting files within D86, 19
demonstration, D86, 6
Den denormal display, 26
denormals, 27
denormals, example, 27
DI, displaying before, Z, 24
disassembly page, second, 13
disassembly to a file, 19
disassembly, paging, 14
disassembly, synchronizing, 14
display control keys, 13
display of multi-format memory, 24
displaying before a memory address, Z, 24
DOS call breakpoints O, 19
double quotes for memory continuation, 22
Down-Arrow key, 14
e-mail address, 5
electronic mail, 5
End of program, jump to, 14
English contact, 3
entering symbols, 12
environment variable, D86, 10
equals sign format specifier, 23
erasing memory display lines, 21
ESC key to preserve memory display, 22
ET-100 BIOS switch, 10
exception pointer display, 26
exceptions, 87 display, 26
EXE files, debugging, 9
EXE files, recognizing, 9
execution keys, 14
exit breakpoint, permanent, 19
exiting the debugger, 19
exotic flavors of floating-point numbers, 27
exponent field, 27
F memory specifiers, 23
F command, 17
F1 key, 14
F10 key, 13
F2 key, 15
F3 key, 15
F4 key, 15
F5 key, 15
(pg 33)
F6 key, 15
F7 key in D86, 12
F9 key, 15
FD memory specifier, 23
file, D86 program, 9
file, symbols, and D86, 9
files, copying and deleting, 19
finding strings in memory F, 17
finding the D86 program file, 9
fixed breakpoints, setting B, 16
flags display, D86, 11
flags, D86 demo, 6
floating point memory display, 23
floating window key, 13
floating-point debugging, 26
flushing keystrokes, 18
format specifiers, special action, 23
formats, mixed memory, 22
forward references, patch mode, 12
FQ memory specifier, 23
frozen at INT 021 due to exit function, 19
FT memory specifier, 23
future plans, D86, 30
FXAM setting display, 26
G memory specifier, 23
G command, 17
gap memory specifier, 23
gradual underflow, 27
Great Britain contact, 3
hardware compatibility, D86, 10
help mode, toggling, 13
help-mode key, 13
here, go until, F9 key, 15
hex byte B memory specifier, 23
hex word W memory specifier, 24
HEXOUT.8, 6
history of D86, 30
Home key to restore IP, 14
Home key, 14
how to contact me, 5
IBM-PC BIOS switch, 10
immediate assembly language commands, 11
immediate-execute, demo, 6
incentives to register, 4
incrementing IP, 14
infinity display, 26
infinity mode display, 26
instruction pointer positioning, 14
Internet mail address, 5
invocation switches, D86, 10
invoking D86, 9
IP down and up keys, 14
IP, positioning, 14
J memory specifier, 23
J command, 18
JMP commands, immediate, 11
joining memory displays, 23
jumping within a strange CS, 18
K command, 18
(pg 34)
keys, display control, 13
keystroke scripts, 18
L memory specifier, 23
L command, 19
last command, F3 repeat, 15
last execution point, return to, 14
legal terms, 3
length byte, displaying, 24
length-byte specifier, 23
letter commands, D86, 16
letters, lower-case display, D86, 11
line memory display, 23
loops, breaking past, 15
M memory specifier, 24
machine switches, D86, 10
MAPD86 tool, 9
mark location for F key, 15
mark location for K key, 15
mark memory display, 24
marked location, use of with F, 17
masked exceptions display, 26
memory accesses, trapping on, 16
memory display continuation, 22
memory display, 21
memory display, demo, 7
memory display, floating point, 23
memory display, preserving, 22
memory displays, erasing, 21
memory formats, simple, 21
memory modifying examples, 29
memory window display key, 13
memory window, reset after paging, 25
memory, altering, 12
mixed memory formats, 22
MODE command, 10
mode displays, floating-point, 26
monochrome monitor, 10
MOV to segment registers in ROM, 29
MS-DOS function breakpoints O, 19
multi-format side-by-side display, 24
N memory specifier, 24
NaNs, 27
next instruction, trapping, 15
next memory page key, 13
NOPs in D86 display, 9
Not-a-Number, 27
null-terminated string display, 24
NULL.D8K file, 18
numbered memory windows, D86, 11
numbers in a memory format, 22
O memory specifier, 24
O command, 19
octal byte Q memory specifier, 24
octal word O memory specifier, 24
online support, 5
operands to debugger commands, 16
operating requirements, D86, 9
OS/2 plans, 30
output strings, displaying via Z, 24
(pg 35)
overview of D86, 4
paging the disassembly, 14
patch memory, demo, 8
patching memory, 11
PATH and keystroke scripts, 19
Path variable and programs, 9
PgDn key, 14
PgUp key, 14
phone number, my, 3
plans, D86, 30
playing back keystrokes, 19
precision mode display, 26
precision, loss of, 27
previous memory page key, 13
prices, 3
procedure-stepping F2 key, 15
program file, D86 finding, 9
program file, status, 10
program start, go to, 14
program, saving patched, 20
Pseudo zero display, 26
pseudo-zeroes, 28
PSP for immediate-buffer, 11
Q memory specifier, 24
Q command, 19
questions, commonly asked, 29
quitting the debugging session, 19
quotes, double, for memory continuation, 22
redo an undone keystroke, Ctrl-R, 15
registers, floating-point, 26
registers, non-hex display of, 23
registers, setting, 29
registration benefit D command, 16
registration benefits, 4
release history, D86, 30
repeat count, memory display, 22
repeat last command F3 key, 15
repeat-count specifier, 23
requirements, D86, 9
reset debugger session, 19
RET commands, immediate, 11
retracting keystrokes, 20
return, F6 trap on, 15
reverse engineering, 12
revision history, D86, 30
ROM code, CS trickiness, 11
ROM debugging, 29
rounding mode display, 26
S memory specifier, 24
S command, 19
Sanyo 550 BIOS switch, 10
saving keystrokes, 18
saving symbols and program, 20
scientific notation, 58, 27
screen display, D86, 10
searching memory F, 17
second disassembly key, 13
segments in memory display pointers, 21
Shift-F7 key, 15
(pg 36)
side-by-side display, 24
sign-on display, reaching, 13
significand, 27
single-line memory windows, 21
single-stepping keys, 14
single-stepping, demo, 7
Sirius/Victor BIOS switch, 10
skipping backwards in memory, U, 24
skipping forwards in memory display, X, 24
spacing a memory display, 22
special action control keys, 15
special action format specifiers, 23
stack pointer, floating-point display, 26
stack, setting top of with Ctrl-T, 15
start of program, go to, 14
starting your program with G, 17
status window key, 13
stepping keys, 14
STOSB memory display, Z, 24
strings, null-terminated, display, 24
structures, displaying, 22
subroutine-stepping F2 key, 15
switches, D86, 9
SYM extension and D86, 9
symbols file and D86, 9
symbols, adding, 12
symbols, saving, 20
synchronizing disassembly, 14
system calls, 19
system requirements, D86, 9
T memory specifier, 24
TAB key, 13
tag register display, 26
Tandy 2000 BIOS switch, 10
telephone number, my, 3
terms, legal, 3
Texas Instruments PC BIOS switch, 10
text, 1- or 2-byte C display, 23
text, 1-byte T display, 24
text, 2-character A display, 23
tiny numbers, 27
toggling display windows, 13
top of stack, setting with Ctrl-T, 15
transient breakpoints G, 17
trap at present location F9 key, 15
trap next instruction key F5, 15
trapping function keys, 15
trapping on memory accesses, 16
two-screen debugging, 10
U memory specifier, 24
U command, 20
underflow, gradual, 27
undoing a debugger command, 20
Unn unnormal display, 26
unnormals, 27
unskipping memory display, 24
Up-Arrow key, 14
V switch, D86, 10
on history, D86, 30
(pg 37)
vertical bars display, 24
W memory specifier, 24
W command, 20
Wang-PC BIOS switch, 10
Wettstein, Greg, 5
window, 14-line memory, 25
window, memory, reset after paging, 25
Windows plans, 30
windows, memory display, 21
writing program and symbols files, 20
X memory specifier, 24
Z memory specifier, 24
Zenith BIOS switch, 10
| file: /Techref/app/debug/d86/d86manu.htm, 129KB, , updated: 2013/7/22 10:43, local time: 2024/11/12 16:57,
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