A description of what the current line will do!

[Onkar Shinde]

I'm suggesting a separate "Tab page" (like the Data/Stack/
Keypad) where a description of the current line will be
displayed..

Something like:
"Read memory position 0x4567 (value=FF) in register A", or
"Shift register A trough the "carry" flag ... A is now 111010 and
after it will be ... and the carry flag will be set"
(an animated image here would be cool)

I guess a template for each machine operation would be needed,
and the template should reference parts of the simulated
machine.

[Bug Importer (bug-importer)]

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It will be nice if one can show the timing diagrams of the
various processes. This can help resolve the problems.
Surhud
http://surhudm.tripod.com

[Sridhar Ratnakumar (srid)]

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user_id=1530153

This is a good idea. I would suggest showing the description
in status bar (or some visible widget) instead. The
descripting changes according to the position of cursor in
text editor.

[Bug Importer (bug-importer)]

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Just dropping in to also add that I like the idea!

[Bug Importer (bug-importer)]

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This could be also implemented as an optional tooltip which is shown when "source annotation" is enabled.

[Bug Importer (bug-importer)]

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Personally, I would rather prefer an additional tab in the log window, where interactively a textual description of the currently active instruction is displayed/added, for example:

entrypoint: nop
            jmp start

; data

; start
start: nop
       mvi a,0
       nop

loop: nop
       inc
       cpi 5
       jnz loop
; end
       hlt

An annotated log window could display at runtime:
- line 01, label "entrypoint": jmp start -> branching to label start (@offset)
- line 07, label "start": nop -> no operation
- line 08, mvi a,0 -> moving immediate 0 into register a
- line 09, nop -> no operation
- line 11, label "loop": nop -> no operation
- line 12, inc: incrementing value in register a (0) -> a is now 1
- line 13, cpi 5: comparing register a against immediate 5, result: (show flags: nz)
- line 14, jnz conditional branch

and so on

I think this would have very high pedagogical value for students who are new to 8085 asm

[Bug Importer (bug-importer)]

for learning purposes, it would already be a good enhancement to simply show tooltips for each recognized mnemonic in the source code, this could show the same tooltip text that is currently used in the "keypad" area, where there's a short description shown for each instruction. If this same tooltip were also shown in the source window when the mouse hovers over an instruction, this would probably help improve the learning experience.