@c -*-texinfo-*-
@c This is part of the GNU MDK Reference Manual.
@c Copyright (C) 2000, 2001
@c   Free Software Foundation, Inc.
@c See the file mdk.texi for copying conditions.

@c $Id: mdk_intro.texi,v 1.5 2001/09/16 22:17:33 jao Exp $

@node Introduction, Acknowledgments, Top, Top
@comment  node-name,  next,  previous,  up
@unnumbered Introduction
@cindex Introduction

In his book series @cite{The Art of Computer Programming} (published by
Addison Wesley), D. Knuth uses an imaginary computer, the MIX, and its
associated machine-code and assembly languages to ilustrate the
concepts and algorithms as they are presented. 

The MIX's architecture is a simplified version of those found in real
CISC CPUs, and the MIX assembly language (MIXAL) provides a set of
primitives that will be very familiar to any person with a minimum
experience in assembly programming. The MIX/MIXAL definition is powerful
and complete enough to provide a virtual development platform for
writing quite complex programs, and close enough to real computers to be
worth using when learning programming techniques. At any rate, if you
want to learn or improve your programming skills, a MIX development
environment would come in handy.

The @sc{mdk} package aims at providing such virtual development
environment on a GNU box. Thus, @sc{mdk} offers you a set of utilities
to simulate the MIX computer and to write, compile, run and debug MIXAL
programs. As of version @value{VERSION}, @sc{mdk} includes
the following programs:

@table @code
@item mixasm
MIXAL assembler. Assembler which translates MIXAL source files into
programs that can be run (and debugged) by @code{mixvm}, @code{mixguile}
or @code{gmixvm}.
@item mixvm
MIX virtual machine. Emulation of the MIX computer with a @acronym{CLI}.
@item gmixvm
A GTK+ GUI for the MIX virtual machine. Provides all of @code{mixvm}
functionality accessible through a graphical interface.
@item mixguile
A Guile shell, with an embedded MIX virtual machine and built-in
commands to manipulate it using Scheme.
@item mixvm.el
This elisp program allows running @code{mixvm} inside an Emacs GUD
buffer, allowing concurrent edition and debugging of MIXAL programs.
@end table 

@code{mixvm} and @code{gmixvm} implement a simulator of the MIX
computer, giving you a virtual machine for executing and debugging MIX
programs. These binary programs could be written by hand, but it is
easier to produce them compiling MIXAL source files, using the MIXAL
assembler @code{mixasm}. On the other hand, @code{mixguile} offers you
the possibility of manipulating a MIX virtual machine through a set of
Scheme functions, so that you can use this programming language to
interact with the virtual machine. In addition, @code{mixvm} and
@code{gmixvm} are also able to interpret Scheme scripts (using an
embedded Guile interpreter), that is, you can use Scheme as an extension
language to add new functionalities to these programs.

This manual gives you a tutorial of MIX and MIXAL, and a thorough
description of the use of the @sc{mdk} utilities.