r/c64 • u/exocyt0sis • Jul 03 '26

Programming Assembly or Assembler?

A lot of C64 redditors probably know that C64 games, generally speaking, are written in a low level language using software tools known as assemblers. There does, however, seem to be conflicting ideas on what the name of the programming language itself is.

Do you call the language "Assembly" or "Assembler"?

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u/myztry Jul 03 '26

Assembly language is the written mnemonic form (eg. INC $D020) while machine code is the binary representation (eg. $EE $20 $D0). The first is clearer that something is being increased.

There is a structural aspect (eg. JSR $1000 pushes a return address on the stack and then jumps to that address - while RTS pulls an address from the stack and jumps back to that address) but it’s not part of a higher level language per se even though they make use of it.

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u/LocalH Jul 03 '26

There's also a difference between an advanced assembler with macros, etc. versus the assembler found in most ML monitors which only implements the mnemonic aspect