Macro Assembler

This document provides a detailed reference for the MACRO-10 assembler used with the TOPS-10 operating system. It covers fundamental language components, including:

• Language Elements: Definitions of characters, numbers, symbols, and expressions, including the use of literals.
• Assembler Directives (Pseudo-ops): A comprehensive, alphabetically ordered list of all pseudo-ops used to direct the assembler, such as ARRAY, BLOCK, DEFINE, EXTERN, IF, LIT, LOC, MACRO, PSECT, RADIX, RELOC, and TWOSEG.
• Statement Processing: Explains how MACRO processes labels, operators, and operands to generate relocatable binary code.
• Macros: Details on how to define, call, and nest macros, including parameter passing, concatenating arguments, and creating symbols.
• Assembler Output: Describes the generated files, including program listings, binary files, and universal files.
• Error Messages: A guide to understanding single-character error codes and MCRxxx error messages.
• Programming Considerations: Best practices for program segmentation (single, two-segment, and PSECT-based), creating universal files, and using conditional assembly.
• Appendices: Provides tables for the MACRO character set, special characters, and comprehensive machine instruction mnemonics.