6.2.4 Configuration commands

This section describes commands that allow you to configure the virtual machine behaviour. This configuration is stored in the MDK directory ~/.mdk.

As you can see in their description, some commands print, as a side effect, informational messages to the standard output (e.g. load prints a message telling you the loaded program’s start address): these messages can be enabled/disabled using slog:

config command: slog on|off

Turns on/off the logging of informational messages. Note that error messages are always displayed, as well as state messages required using commands prefixed with p (preg, pmem and the like).

config command: stime on|off

config command: ptime

The stime command (un)sets the printing of timing statistics, and ptime prints their current value:

MIX > ptime
Elapsed time: 10 /Total program time: 11 (Total uptime: 11)
MIX >

config command: sedit TEMPLATE

config command: pedit

sedit sets the command to be used to edit MIXAL source files with the edit command. TEMPLATE must contain the control characters %s to mark the place where the source’s file name will be inserted. For instance, if you type

MIX > sedit emacsclient %s
MIX >

issuing the mixvm command edit foo.mixal will invoke the operating system command emacsclient foo.mixal.

pedit prints the current value of the edit command template.

config command: sasm TEMPLATE

config command: pasm

sasm sets the command to be used to compile MIXAL source files with the compile command. template must contain the control characters %s to mark the place where the source’s file name will be inserted. For instance, if you type

MIX > sasm mixasm -l %s
MIX >

issuing the mixvm command compile foo.mixal will invoke the operating system command mixasm -l foo.mixal.

pasm prints the current value of the compile command template.

config command: sddir DIRNAME

config command: pddir

MIX devices (see Devices) are implemented as regular files stored, by default, inside ~/.mdk. The sddir command lets you specify an alternative location for storing these device files, while pddir prints the current device directory.

Finally, you can change the default command prompt, ‘MIX > ’, using the prompt command:

config command: prompt PROMPT

Changes the command prompt to prompt. If you want to include white space(s) at the end of the new prompt, bracket prompt using double quotes (e.g., prompt ">> ").