Visualisation as an aid to low-level programming

Courses covering the topics of low-level machine organisation and programming often prove to be a source of difficulty for students. To aid understanding, a number of researchers have turned to the use of graphical simulators and the like, but little has been done to assist with the programming task itself at this level. In addressing this, the authors have applied visual programming techniques to create a graphical environment for programming at the machine level. The visual images used have been designed to convey the meanings of operations succinctly and intuitively, the mechanisms for combining images to form more complex instructions are made visually explicit, and the system environment frees the student from which of the triviality of assembly language syntax. The aim is to obviate the need to digest and remember vast amounts of detail about a processor and its instruction set before programming can begin, thus enabling the student to concentrate on the function and effects of the low level operations themselves.