MODULAR PROGRAMMING

MODULAR PROGRAMMING
• Many programs are too large to be developed
by one person.

• This means that programs are routinely

developed by teams of programmers.
 Assembler and Linker
• Assembler program converts a symbolic source
module (file) into a hexadecimal object file.

• The linker program, reads the object files that are

created by the assembler program and links them
together into a single execution file.
 PUBLIC and EXTRN
• The PUBLIC and EXTRN directives are very
important to modular programming because they
allow communications between modules.

• EXTRN , PUBLIC informs the assembler that the

names of procedures and labels declared after
this directive have been already defined in some
other assembly language modules.
• PUBLIC is used to declare labels of code, data, or
entire segments that are available to other
program modules.

• When a data or Procedure needs to be accessed by

other modules, it is declared as Public.

• Public data1 OR Public mul

• EXTRN (external) declares that labels are external
to a module.

• When a module needs to use data or code that is

defined elsewhere, it should use directice EXTRN
meaning that the labels being used with EXTRN
are external to the module.

• Without these statements, modules could not be

linked together to create a program by using
modular programming techniques.
.model small
.data
extrn data1:byte,data2:byte, here:near

.code mov bh,data2

mov ax,@data call here
mov ax, 0FFFFh
mov ds,ax mov ah,4ch
mov bl,data1 int 21h
end
.model small
.data mov ax,5678h
data1 db 12h mov si,4567h
data2 db 24h ret
.code here endp
mov ax,@data
mov ds,ax mov ah,4ch
public data1,data2,here int 21h
here proc near end
Libraries
• Library files are collections of procedures that are
used by many different programs.

• These procedures are assembled and compiled

into a library file by the LIB program that
accompanies the MASM assembler program.

• Libraries allow common procedures to be collected

into one place so they can be used by many
different applications.
Macros
• A macro is a group of instructions that perform
one task, just as a procedure performs one task.

• In macros, all the instructions defined in the

macro, is inserted in the program at the point of
usage.

• Creating a macro is very similar to creating a new

opcode.
• Macro sequences execute faster than
procedures because there is no CALL or RET
instruction to execute.

• The MACRO and ENDM directives delineate a

macro sequence.

• The first statement of a macro is the MACRO

instruction, which contains the name of the
macro and any parameters associated with it.
Macro_name MACRO arg1, arg2,…..argn
Statement 1
Statement 2
Statement k
EndM
• The last statement of a macro is the ENDM
instruction, which is placed on a line by itself.

• Never place a label in front of the ENDM

statement. If a label appears before ENDM, the
macro will not assemble.
• Sometimes, macros contain local variables.

• A local identifier is one that appears in the macro,

but is not available outside the macro.

• To define a local variable, we use the LOCAL

directive.