
				KETMAN MAXIMASTER V3.0
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July 2002

Students doing formal programming courses should go immediately to the final section of this README file, called "Cautionary Notes for Students". It could save you some wasted time.


GETTING STARTED
---------------

You are reading this because you have already unzipped the package, and if you are sensible you will have given it a directory of its own. Apart from the zip file and README.TXT, you have these files:
 
KETMAN.EXE
DEMO.EXE
MANUAL.EXE
RIDERS.EXE
BIGNUMS.EXE
TUTOR86.EXE
ARITH.WIN

You have nothing to do except run DEMO.EXE. That's the starting tutorial, and everything you need to know about how to proceed, and in what order, is contained therein.

Apart from "Cautionary Notes for Students", the rest of this README file is the same as the text on my web page. So if you read it there, you don't need to read it here.

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Since the first Ketman version in 1997 its assembly-language interpreter has proved itself well liked and well used. So I have been half expecting a rival product, but thus far it hasn't materialized. Good in a way, because it leaves Ketman unchallenged in that field, 
and I'm bound to breath a sigh of relief. Not so good in another way, because it means I have to continually explain what an interpreter is, why it isn't the same thing as a debugger, and why the low-level kind makes just as much sense as the high-level kind. 

That makes me either a pioneer or a crank. In my worst moments I imagine myself as that old geezer I used to see sprinting his bicycle down the long asphalt paths of one of London's extensive parks, dressed in what looked like a WW1 trench-coat and flying-goggles. His intentions became clear once you were able to tear your eyes away from his antiquated outfit and noticed the wooden blades rotating just above his head, driven by a Byzantine plexus of chains and pulleys, and making a noise like a flock of pigeons fighting over a discarded sandwich. He was unchallenged in his field too.

Obviously you have to worry when no one copies your design. But my helicopter does at least take off, and is therefore "low-level" in a completely different sense from his. But launching myself into an eloquent justification of the interpreter is not something I'm going to do here, because Ketman makes its own case by immediate demonstration. Once you've seen it working you'll know why it's a good idea.

This will be the last major upgrade of the real-mode-only Ketman. The next version might be itself a Windows program, or it might not, but it will in any case provide a platform for writing  Windows programs, or programs that employ the protected-mode instruction set.

In the meantime, Ketman has a new title, though to preserve continuity I have stuck to the existing number sequence, numbering this version as 3.0. Strictly speaking, the new title, "Maximaster" might not be an amalgamation of the titles taken by  previous versions, "Schoolmaster" and  "Codemaster", but it is supposed to imply a convergence of their 
functions. There is still an extensive programming tutorial for starter programmers - more than 20,000 words - but this time it is kept quite separate from the tutorials on the tool-kit. Generally, the tutorials are more rationally organized than before, and make for easier referencing.

As well as the interpreter, there is an editor, assembler, debugger and a whole boxful of other tools. They make an integrated set. Which isn't just another way of saying they all come in the same box, because you can put plastic ducks, African jack-fruit and brass angle-brackets in the same box without having the right to call them an integrated set. 
The Ketman tools are integrated in the very functional sense of being in memory simultaneously, sharing information and operating in an inter-dependent way. That's a fancy way of saying they work in harness. 

The only difference between the demo version and the registered version is that the demo version places a 50-line limit on the assembler. That means that there are three or four programs in the tutorials that only registered users could assemble, but 90% of the package can be worked through by unregistered users. At any rate there is more than enough to allow you to properly evaluate Ketman. By the time you are ready to register, you'll know exactly what it is you are buying.

REGISTRATION

If you want to pay by credit card, the exact price of registration depends upon which currency my registrations service pegs its prices to. I have changed my registration services before, and might change them again. But it will be approximately 36 sterling, or $50 US, or 50 Euros (I can't be more exact because exchange rates between those three currencies are always fluctuating). To get more up-to-date info, go to my web page at www.geocities.com/ketmanweb, which will be revised more often than this README file would ever be. There will be a link near the bottom of the page that will take you to the product page at the registrations service's site.

If you want to pay some other way than by credit card, e.g., by cheque or money order, the approximate prices quoted above should be taken as the exact prices. But contact me first, and tell me where you live. We can work something out.

Queries to: btketman@btinternet.com 
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Cautionary Notes for Students:
------------------------------

As a result of some enquiries from people doing college courses I have had to think a little more carefully about who should be encouraged to try Ketman, and who should be warned off it.

Ketman has a pared-down assembler. I mean that in two senses. First, it limits itself to the real-mode instruction set. It doesn't yet provide for protected-mode. Neither does it recognize floating-point instructions. Second, it is pared down in its use of assembler directives. It doesn't either demand or recognize those familiar formalities like PROC, ENDP, PUBLIC, MAIN and so forth. That is not merely because Ketman attracts a lot of beginners, who wouldn't thank me for making their learning curve steeper than it has to be, but also because I myself consider so much of it to be unnecessary. I am not too familiar with the popular A86 assembler, but I infer that the author takes a similar view, because his program allows the user to dispense with them. But A86 does at least recognise those directives if you insist on using them, and is therefore compatible with rival assemblers on that point at least. But Ketman is not. You cannot import/export source files to/from other assemblers. Or not without some messy modifications anyway.

I have never taken a college course myself, but I would guess that a course tutor would always expect submitted work to be in a format familiar to him. In that case I couldn't recommend Ketman to you as a platform for delivering finished source text. You'd probably get it thrown right back at you.

That doesn't mean that I don't think Ketman would be of any value. On the contrary, there is no better platform for testing your algorithms, for which in many cases you don't need an assembler at all (as you would find out). But I have to discourage you from buying the registered program if you are doing so in the belief that it will help you win good grades. Ketman is designed essentially for people like me, people who don't have to submit their work to anyone for approval. We can use any format we like. As long as our programs are clear to us, and work as want them to, that's all we care about.

But by all means use Ketman as an auxiliary tool in your studies. The demo version is free. If you like it, I will accept your good opinion as payment.

END OF README FILE
                              
