PPC Assembler

["Bruce J.A. Nourish" <bjan+port-powerpc%bjan.net@localhost>]

Hey everyone,

I'm working on a port to the MPC8xx and I could use some help with PPC
assembler. I've figured out the basic stuff, and cross-assembled a few
small programs, but I have some questions:

 * What is the significance of a period after some mnemonics? IOW,
   what is the difference between (say) addic and addic.?

 * Why do some examples assume r0 is zero? Is this a good practice?
   I notice that prep's locore.S immediately zeroes out r0. But is
   this still a safe assumption in the presence of a C compiler?

 * I have Apple's guide to PPC assembler as my only reference. Is there
   anything better out there? I would be willing to invest a modest
   amount in a book.
-- 
Bruce J.A. Nourish <bjan+JUNK%bjan.net@localhost>
+JUNK is a bit bucket - remove it to email me.