SYSTEM SOFTWARE

MODULE 2
1. Define macros?
Macroinstructions (often called Macros) are single line abbriviations for group of
instructions of a program.

2. How can we use macro in our program?

To use a macro, the programmer must define a macro in his program to represent the
block of code.For every occurance of this one line macro in his program the macro-
processing assembler will substitute the entire block.

3. Define the syntax of a macro definition?

A macro definition is enclosed between a macro header statement (MACRO) and a
macro end (MEND) statement. Macro definitions are typically located at the start of a
program.

4. What are the instructions included in a macro definition?

A macro definition consists of
• A macro prototype statement

The macro prototype statement declares the name of a macro and the names
and kinds of its parameters.The macro prototype statement has the following
syntax:

<macro name>[<formal parameter spec>,....]

Where <macro name> appeares in the mnemonics field of an assembly

statement and <formal parameter spec>is of the form

&<parameter name>[<parameter kind>]

• One or more model statements

A model statement is a statement from which an assembly language

statement may be generated during macro expansion.

• Macro pre-processor statements

A pre-processor statement is used to perform auxiliary functions during

macro expansion.

5. Write an example of macro definition?

The definition of the macro INCR is shown below
MACRO
INCR &MEM_VAL,&INCR_VAL,&REG
MOVER &REG,&MEM_VAL
ADD &REG,&INCR_VAL
MOVEM &REG,&MEM_VAL
MEND
6. What is macro instruction?
A Macro instruction is a line of computer program coding that results in one or more
lines of program coding in the target programming language, sets variables for use by
other statements, etc..

7. What you mean by macro instruction parameters?

Macro instruction parameters provide a mechanism to pass values from a macro call
to macro definition.Value is passed between the actual parameters , which is specified
in the macro call statement,and the formal parameters , which is defined in the macro
definition.
8. What are the different ways of specifying macro instruction parameters?
There are generally 2 ways of specifying parameters:
Positional parameters

Keyword parameters
9. Illustrate the default parameters with an example?

10. What is the meaning of mixed parameter list?

11. What is nested and recursive macro call?

If a macro call is seen throughout the expansion of a macro, the assembler starts
immediately with the expansion of the called macro. For this, its its expanded body
lines are simply inserted into the expanded macro body of the calling macro, until the
called macro is completely expanded. Then the expansion of the calling macro is
continued with the body line following the nested macro call.
Example:
12. What are the advanced macro facilities?
The advanced macro facilities can be grouped into
1. Facilities to alter the flow of control during expansion
2. Expansion time variables
3. Attributes of parameters
1. Altering flow control during expansion(conditional expansion)

It can be achieved through the use of

1.Expansion time sequencing symbols

2.Expansion time statements AIF,AGO and ANOP

A sequencing symbol which has the syntax

.<ordinary string>

is defined by putting it in the label field of statement in the macro body

• An AIF ststement has the syntax

AIF(<expression>)<sequencing symbol>

where <expression> is a relational expression

It is used to specify the branching condition.

This statements provides conditional branching facility.

• An AGO ststement has the syntax

AGO<sequencing symbol>

This statement provides the unconditional branching facilities.

We do not specify the condition

• ANOP statement is written as

<sequencing symbol>ANOP

This statement performs no operations.

2. Expansion time variable

Expansion time variables (EVs) are variables, which can only be used during the
expansion of the macro calls.An EV can be local in scop(in which case is created
for the use during a particular macro call) or global in scop(in which case it exists
across all the macro calls situated in a program)
• Local and global Evs are created through declaration statements with the following
syntax:
• LCL <EV specification>[,<EV specification>...]
 • GBL <EV specification>[,<EV specification>...]
Where <EV specification> has the syntax
&<EV name>
3.Attributes of formal parameters
• An attribute is written using the syntax
<attribute name>’ <formal parameter spec>
And represents information about the value of the formal parameter.
The type,size and length attributes have the names T,S and L.
Example:
MACRO
DCLCONST &A
AIF (L’&A EQ 1) .NEXT
.NEXT .....
.....
......
MEND
Here expansion time control is transferred to the ststement having .NEXT in the
label field only actual parameter corresponding to the formal parameter A has
lenth of ‘1’.

13. Explain about macro processor?

The macroprocessor accepts an assembly language program containing macro
definitions and macro calls and translate it into assembly program,which does not
contain any macro definition or calls.The program output from the macro processor
can now be handed over to an assembler to obtain the target language form of the
program.Thus the macro processor separates macro expansion from the process of
program assembly.
14. Compare between macro processor and macro assembler?
Macro processor is not efficient as a macro assembler. Because a macro assembler
that performs macro expansions as well as assembly.In a macro processor the number
of passes over the sourse program is large and many function get duplicated.Similar
functions can be merged if macros are handled by macro assembler, which performs
macro expansion and program assembly simultaniously. This may also reduce the
number of passes.

15. Explain about the pass structure of a macro assembler?

A macro assembler is an assembler, which performs macro expansion and program
assembly simultaniously.The use of a macro processor followed by a conventional
assembler is an expensive way of handling macros.The number of passees over the
sourse program is large and many functions get duplicated. To design the pass
structure of a macro assembler is required to identify the function of a macro
processor and the conventional assembler which can be merged to advantage.After
merging, the functions can be structured in to passes of the macro assembler.
This process leades to the following pass structure:-
• Pass 1: 1.Macro definition processing.
2.Collect names of declared symbols and information concerning their
attributes.
• Pass 2: 1.Macro expansion.
2. Memmory allocation and LC processing.
3.Processing of literals.
4.Intermediate code generation.
• Pass 3: 1.Target code generation.