Test assembly code on a mac

Question

Hello,

A while back I was following some tutorials an assembly. I was running it all on a windows machine, compiling with NASM and then writing the compiled code to a floppy disk, then reboot and try the code. This process was long and time consuming and sadly was not on a mac. When I found out that Xcode for mac installed NASM I immediately tried to compile some code. The code compiled fine. The issue is testing it. On a mac I have no floppy (not like I want to use one) so Im not sure how to test this. I looked in to Q (kju) and found it would only emulate things on an ISO file. So I guess what Im asking is is it possible to install the compiled code on an ISO file for testing? (Note: the code when compiled forms a .bin file)

Thanks for any help

Answer 1

I don't know exactly what you are trying to test (a boot loader maybe?) but you don't need to reboot or boot from a disk just to run assembled code (unless it is a boot loader or something).

Either way, if you need to "reboot" to test, I suggest running an emulator. Sun VirtualBox is super easy to use and free and emulates a standard x86 architecture (including floppy drives)! So that may work for you in the short term. If you ever want to create an ISO image in the future, you can do that with the command line utility hdiutil. In a terminal window, type man hdiutil or visit the online man page for more information on using that to create all kinds of disk images.