Apoo Interface

This module is launched by the apoo command.

The Apoo Interface is an environment to monitoring the execution of a Virtual Processor Unit.

Figure: Apoo Interface

During the execution of a program, it shows the contents of the program counter, register, memory data and output window. The program in memory is displayed in an Assembly language (not in a machine language). As is usual with processor units emulators, Apoo has two memory segments: the program-segment and the data-segment. In this way, both addresses for program instructions and data will begin in 0.

It has two modes:

The Apoo Workbench

allows also the editing/saving of the text program, providing an easy way to write/edit/debug/execute Apoo assembly programs. It is launched when apoo is called without options (optionally with a filename).

The Apoo Tester

allows only to execute a program. It is launched with option -t (or -tester), and a filename is mandatory. This module is can be used during examinations.

How to execute a program

To execute a program in the Apoo Virtual Processor Unit you must first or:

• enter in Edit Mode and write its instructions
• open a text file with its code

After that, you can Load it; if a "parsing error" occurs, enter edit mode and correct it; the interface will show the text line in which the error occurred.

When the program is loaded (in memory) you can execute it in three ways:

Run

will execute all the instructions

Step

will execute the next instruction and the values of the program counter, registers and memory data will be updated; the next instruction line, if exists, will have the background white

Continue

will execute instructions until the next breakpoint

In an instruction line, you can set/clear a breakpoint:

to set a breakpoint:

Press <Double>-Button1 in that line

to clear breakpoint:

Press <Double>-Button1 (or <Double>-Button2)

The button labelled Clear can be used to clear all breakpoints

Edit Mode

In edit mode you can change the text code of a program or create a new one. To enter Edit Mode press the Edit button or New button. After editing you can Save or SaveAs the current edited text. You leave Edit Mode by loading the program (Load button) or opening a new file.

The following Emacs-like commands are implemented:

<Control-k>	kill-line
<Control-y>	yank
<Control-w>	kill-region
<Escape>w(or <Alt-Space>)	copy-region-as-kill
<Control-at>(or <Control-Space>)	set-mark-command
<Control-a>	beginning-of-line
<Control-e>	end-of-line
<Control-Home>	beginning-of-buffer
<Control-End>	end-of-buffer
<Control-d>	deletes the character to the right of the insertion cursor.

Implementation

Until version 1.4, apoo interface was based in TkInter. Newer versions are based in pygtk.