Installing and Using m4 with PCSpim in Windows 2k or XP

m4 is a command line tool. To use m4 in Microsoft Windows you will need to install it then tell the windows command prompt where the binary files are located. You will also need to know how to navigate in the text shell.

Installation

If you haven't already, install PCSpim to the default directory. It should be C:\Program Files\PCSpim.
For the CS201 and 301 labs go to Simulator>Settings... and make sure that "Load exception file" is not checked.
Download the m4 binary for windows
Double click the file to begin installing - keep the default install directory. It should be C:\Program Files\GnuWin32
Open a command line: click Start>run, type cmd then click OK.
Set up the command line environment in one of two ways:

add m4 and PCSpim to the executable path just for this session

set path=c:\program files\gnuwin32\bin;c:\program files\PCSpim;%path%

permanently add m4 and PCSpim to the executable path (Requires admin privileges)
- Right click on My Computer and choose Properties
- Choose the Advanced tab and click the Environment Variables button
- Locate the Path system variable, edit it and add this to the beginning: c:\program files\gnuwin32\bin;c:\program files\PCSpim;

Use

use m4 to preprocess your file if necessary
```
m4 input_file > processed_output
```
run PCSpim from the command line.
```
pcspim filename.s
```

Some useful text shell commands

Command	Description
*drive_letter:*	Change current drive. You will likely use c:, i: and h:
mkdir new_directory_name	Make a new directory. You can include the drive and path if you like, but all folders that do not exist will be silently created, so watch out: C:\Workarea> mkdir blar C:\WorkArea> mkdir blar\subblar C:\WorkArea> mkdir c:\blar\subblar\subsubblar
rmdir directory_name	Remove the named directory
cd path	Change current directory. In the Windows shell backslashes, `\`, are preferred to unix forward slashes, `/`. Eg: C:\>cd Workarea C:\Workarea>cd \ C:\>cd Workarea\blar\subblar C:\Workarea\blar\subblar>_
edit file	Calls up a simple text editor with the named file. Use the File menu to save and exit. Navigate with the mouse and arrow keys.
del file	Deletes the named file.
dir [directory]	Lists files (and directories) in the current [or named] directory.
copy file1 file2	Copies the named file. C:\WorkArea> copy template.asm myfile.asm C:\WorkArea> copy myfile.asm I:\myfile.asm (This last command copied the file my networked I: drive.)
rename exisiting-filename new-filename	Changes the name of file to the new name specified. C:\WorkArea> rename myfile.asm lab3.asm
type file	Displays the named file on the screen.
more file_name	Takes text and displays it to the screen in pages. C:\WorkArea> type file \| more

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