Tag: ai

  • chastext for Windows

    I wrote a Windows Assembly version of my chastext program.

    #main.asm

    format PE console
    include 'win32ax.inc'
    include 'chastelibw32.asm'
    
    main:
    
    mov [radix],10 ; Choose radix for integer output.
    mov [int_width],1
    
    ;get command line argument string
    call [GetCommandLineA]
    
    mov [arg_string_index],eax ;back up eax to restore later
    
    call strlen ;get the length of the string
    
    mov ebx,[arg_string_index] ;mov the address of the string start into ebx
    add ebx,eax                ;add eax which contains the length
    mov [arg_string_end],ebx   ;move end of string address to permanent location
    
    ;optionally display the arg string to make sure it is working correctly
    ;mov eax,[arg_string_index]
    ;call putstring
    ;call putline
    
    ;set ebx back to the start of the arg string for the filter loop
    mov ebx,[arg_string_index]
    
    ;now ebx points to the first non space character in the arguments passed to the DOS program
    ;and we know that [arg_string_end] is where it ends
    
    ;the next step is to filter the arguments into separate zero terminated strings
    ;each space will be changed to a zero (normally)
    ;but we also need to account for spaces inside quotes that are considered part of the string
    ;Linux handles this normally but DOS needs me to write the code to mimic this behavior
    ;because the program needs to function identically for DOS or Linux
    
    mov cl,' ' ;set the default filter character (argument terminator) to a space
    mov ch,0   ;are we currently checking spaces 0 or quote characters 1 as terminators?
    
    ;this loop is the new and improved argument filter
    ;it keeps track of whether we are inside or outside a quote
    ;and also which type of quote started the quote
    ;the actual quote marks are not part of the string unless they
    ;are the opposite quote type than what started the string
    ;The important thing is that spaces can exist inside of quoted strings
    ;as one argument rather than each new word being a new argument
    ;could be important for filenames containing spaces, etc.
    
    argument_filter:
    
    cmp ebx,[arg_string_end] ;are we at the end of the arg string?
    jz argument_filter_end       ;if yes, stop the filter and terminate with zero
    
    cmp ch,1       ;are we inside a quoted string?
    jz quote_check ;if yes, don't do anything to the spaces
    
    cmp byte[ebx],cl ;compare the byte at address bx to the string terminator
    jnz ignore_char ;if it is not the same, we ignore it
    mov byte[ebx],0  ;but if it matches, change it to a zero
    ignore_char:
    
    cmp byte [ebx],0x22 ;is this a double quote -> "
    jz start_quote
    cmp byte [ebx],0x27 ;is this a single quote -> '
    jz start_quote
    jmp quote_no ;it was not a quote
    
    start_quote:
    
    mov ch,1    ;set ch to 1 to set that we are inside a quote now
    mov cl,[ebx] ;save this quote type as the new terminator
    mov byte[ebx],0 ;but delete the first quote with zero
    
    ;check for single or double quotes
    quote_check:
    
    cmp [ebx],cl ;is this character the same type of quote that started this sub string?
    jnz quote_no ;if it is not, then skip to quote_no section
    
    ;but if it was matching, change this byte to zero
    ;and change cl back to a space
    mov cl,' ' ;cl is now a space
    mov ch,0   ;ch is 0 because now we have ended the quoted string
    mov byte[ebx],0 ;delete the end quote with zero
    
    quote_no:
    
    inc ebx ;go to the next character
    jmp argument_filter   ;jump back to the beginning of argument filter
    
    argument_filter_end:
    mov byte [ebx],0 ;terminate the ending with a zero for safety
    
    ;check first argument which is name of program
    ;mov eax,[arg_string_index]
    ;call putstr_and_line
    
    call get_next_arg ;get address of next arg and return into eax register
    cmp eax,[arg_string_end] ;if there is no filename arg, we end
    jnz args_exist
    
    mov eax,help    ;if no arguments were given, show a help message
    call putstring
    jmp ending     ;and end the program because there is nothing to do
    
    args_exist:
    
    mov [filename],eax
    ;call putstr_and_line ;print filename before text output
    
    ;This is where the main part of the chastext program really begins.;
    
    ;now that the argument string is prepared, we will try to use the first argument as a filename to open
    
    ;https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/api/fileapi/nf-fileapi-createfilea
    ;https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/secauthz/generic-access-rights
    
    ;open first file with the CreateFileA function
    
    push 0           ;NULL: We are not using a template file
    push 0x80        ;FILE_ATTRIBUTE_NORMAL
    push 3           ;OPEN_EXISTING
    push 0           ;NULL: No security attributes
    push 0           ;NULL: Share mode irrelevant. Only this program reads the file.
    push 0x80000000  ;GENERIC_READ access mode
    push [filename] ;
    call [CreateFileA]
    
    ;check eax for file handle or error code
    ;call putint
    cmp eax,-1
    jnz file_ok
    
    mov eax,file_error_message
    call putstring
    call [GetLastError]
    call putint
    jmp main_end ;end program if the file was not opened
    
    ;this label is jumped to when the file is opened correctly
    file_ok:
    
    mov [filedesc],eax
    
    ;before we proceed, we also check for more arguments.
    
    call get_next_arg ;get address of next arg and return into eax register
    cmp eax,[arg_string_end] ;if at end, no search string argument
    jz textdump ;jump to textdump section
    
    ;otherwise, we save the address at ax to our search string
    mov [string_search],eax
    ;call putstr_and_line
    
    
    call get_next_arg ;get address of next arg and return into ax register
    cmp eax,[arg_string_end] ;if at end, no replacement string argument
    jz textdump ;jump to hexdump section
    
    ;otherwise, we save the address at ax to our replacement string
    mov [string_replace],eax
    ;call putstr_and_line
    
    ;all other arguments that may exist after this are irrelevant
    
    textdump:
    
    ;this is the beginning of the textdump main loop of chastext
    
    ;first, check to see if there is a search string
    ;if there is a search string, skip the normal putchar
    
    cmp dword[string_search],0 ;do we have a search string?
    jnz putchar_skip
    
    ;but if there is not a search string
    ;we will read one character, then display it to stdout
    ;and then jump to the beginning of the textdump loop to print them until EOF
    ;we start the loop with a call to read exactly 1 byte
    
    ;read only 1 byte using Win32 ReadFile system call.
    push 0              ;Optional Overlapped Structure 
    push bytes_read     ;Store Number of Bytes Read from this call
    push 1              ;Number of bytes to read
    push byte_array     ;address to store bytes
    push [filedesc]     ;handle of the open file
    call [ReadFile]
    
    mov eax,[bytes_read]
    
    cmp eax,1        ;check to see if exactly 1 byte was read
    jz file_success ;if true, proceed to display
    ;mov ax,end_of_file
    ;call putstring
    jmp main_end ;otherwise close the file and end program after failure
    
    ; this point is reached if 1 byte was read from the file successfully
    file_success:
    
    mov al,[byte_array]
    call putchar
    jmp textdump
    
    ;if search string doesn't exist, just jump and repeat the loop
    ;otherwise we continue into the next section that compares the input with the search string
    
    putchar_skip:
    
    ;this is the beginning of search mode
    ;it handles the file by seeking and reading to search every position for the search string
    
    ;first, seek to the file_address we initialized to zero
    ;this variable will be added to depending on actions taken
    
    ;seek to address of file with SetFilePointer function
    ;https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/api/fileapi/nf-fileapi-setfilepointer
    push 0             ;seek from beginning of file (SEEK_SET)
    push 0             ;NULL: We are not using a 64 bit address
    push [file_address] ;where we are seeking to
    push [filedesc] ;seek within this file
    call [SetFilePointer]
    
    ;obtain the length of the search string using my strlen function
    mov eax,[string_search]
    call strlen ;get the length of the search string
    
    mov ecx,eax ;store this length in ecx
    mov [search_length],ecx
    
    ;call putint_and_line ;check length of search string
    
    ;use the length of the string we are searching for as the number of bytes to read at this location
    
    ;Win32 ReadFile system call.
    push 0              ;Optional Overlapped Structure 
    push bytes_read     ;Store Number of Bytes Read from this call
    push ecx            ;Number of bytes to read
    push byte_array     ;address to store bytes
    push [filedesc]     ;handle of the open file
    call [ReadFile]
    
    mov eax,[bytes_read]  ;get how many bytes were read with that last read operation
    
    mov ebx,byte_array    ;move the address of bytes read into bx
    add ebx,eax           ;add number of bytes read (return value of read function in eax)
    mov byte[ebx],0       ;terminate the string with zero
    
    cmp eax,[search_length] ;if the number of bytes is not what we expected to read, end this loop
    jnz textdump_end
    
    ;move our two strings into the esi and edi registers for comparison
    ;with my custom written strcmp function
    
    mov esi,[string_search]
    mov edi,byte_array
    call strcmp ;compare these two strings
    
    cmp eax,0 ;test if they are the same (if eax returned zero)
    jnz not_match ;if they are not a match go to that section for printing a character
    
    ;but if they are a match, then we either quote them
    ;or replace them if a replacement string is available
    
    ;but regardless of which action we do, since a match was found, let us add this count to the file address
    ;so that we read from beyond this point next time the textdump loop starts
    mov eax,[bytes_read]
    add [file_address],eax
    
    cmp dword[string_replace],0 ;check to see if a replacement string is available
    jz print_quotes ;if not, skip to the part where we just quote the strings that match
    
    ;otherwise, we will print the replacement string instead of the original!
    
    mov eax,[string_replace]
    call putstring ;print the string
    
    jmp textdump ;restart the main loop
    
    print_quotes:
    ;print quotes around matched string
    mov al,'"'
    call putchar
    
    mov eax,byte_array
    call putstring ;print the string
    
    mov al,'"'
    call putchar
    
    jmp textdump ;restart the main loop
    
    not_match: 
    
    mov al,[byte_array]
    call putchar
    add [file_address],1 ;add 1 to the file address so we don't read this same position again
    
    jmp textdump
    
    textdump_end:
    
    ;print the remaining bytes, if any, left after the main loop ended
    mov eax,byte_array
    call putstring
    
    main_end:
    
    ;this is the end of the program
    ;we close the open file and then use the exit call
    
    ;close the file
    push [filedesc]
    call [CloseHandle]
    
    
    ending:
    ;Exit the process with code 0
    push 0
    call [ExitProcess]
    
    .end main
    
    arg_string_index  dd 0 ;start of arg string
    arg_string_end    dd 0 ;address of the end of the arg string
    
    ;function to move ahead to the next art
    ;only works after the filter has been applied to turn all spaces into zeroes
    get_next_arg:
    mov ebx,[arg_string_index]
    find_zero:
    cmp byte [ebx],0
    jz found_zero
    inc ebx
    jmp find_zero ; this char is not zero, go to the next char
    found_zero:
    
    find_non_zero:
    cmp ebx,[arg_string_end]
    jz arg_finish ;if ebx is already at end, nothing left to find
    cmp byte [ebx],0
    jnz arg_finish ;if this char is not zero we have found the next string!
    inc ebx
    jmp find_non_zero ;otherwise, keep looking
    
    arg_finish:
    mov [arg_string_index],ebx ; save this index to variable
    mov eax,ebx ;but also save it to ax register for use
    ret
    ;we can know that there are no more arguments when
    ;the either [arg_start] or eax are equal to [arg_end]
    
    ;the strlen and strcmp are named after the equivalent C functions
    ;but are written from scratch by me based on their expected behavior
    
    ;a function to get the length of string in eax and return the integer in eax
    
    strlen:
    
    mov ebx,eax ; copy eax to ebx. ebx will be used as index to the string
    
    strlen_start: ; this loop finds the length of the string as part of the putstring function
    
    cmp [ebx],byte 0 ; compare byte at address ebx with 0
    jz strlen_end ; if comparison was zero, jump to loop end because we have found the length
    inc ebx
    jmp strlen_start
    
    strlen_end:
    sub ebx,eax ;subtract start pointer from current pointer to get length of string
    
    mov eax,ebx ;copy the string length back to eax
    
    ret
    
    ;strcmp compares the string at esi to the one at edi
    ;ax returns 0 if the strings are the same and 1 if different
    ;the algorithm is simple but I will explain it for those who are confused
    
    ;eax is initialized to zero
    ;a byte from each string is loaded into the al and bl registers
    ;the bytes are compared. if they are different, then we jump to the end
    ;However, if they are the same, then we check if one of them is zero
    ;for this purpose it doesn't matter whether we compare al or bl with zero
    ;because it is known that they are the same if the jnz did not take place
    ;if it is zero, this also jumps to the end of the function
    ;If neither jump took place, then we jump to the start of the loop
    ;but when the function finally ends bl will be subtracted from al
    ;this ensures that the function returns zero if the final characters are the same
    
    strcmp:
    
    mov eax,0
    
    strcmp_start:
    
    ;read a byte from each string
    mov al,[edi]
    mov bl,[esi]
    cmp al,bl
    jnz strcmp_end
    
    cmp al,0
    jz strcmp_end
    
    inc edi
    inc esi
    
    jmp strcmp_start
    
    strcmp_end:
    sub al,bl
    
    ret
    
    help db 'chastext by Chastity White Rose',0Dh,0Ah
    db '"cat" or "type" a file without changing it:',0Dh,0Ah,9,'chastext file',0Dh,0Ah
    db 'search for a string and quote it:',0Dh,0Ah,9,'chastext file search',0Dh,0Ah
    db 'replace string:',0Dh,0Ah,9,'chastext file search replace',0Dh,0Ah
    db 'Find or replace any string!',0Dh,0Ah,0
    
    file_error_message db 'Could not open the file! Error number: ',0
    filename dd 0
    filedesc dd 0
    file_address dd 0 ;file address defaults to zero AKA beginning of file
    end_of_file db 'EOF',0
    
    ;where we will store data from the file
    bytes_read dd 0
    
    search_length dd 0
    string_search dd 0 ; place to hold the search string pointer
    string_replace dd 0 ; place to hold the replacement string pointer
    
    byte_array db 0x73 dup 0
    
  • new program: chastearg

    I wrote a small program for both Linux and DOS assembly. It is very easy to explain what it does with some pictures. The first picture is what it looks like when I use the Linux version on my Debian system. The second is the DOS version running under the DOSBOX emulator.

    As you can see, the words surrounded by quotes are displayed on the same line because they count as one argument. Linux handles this by default but DOS needed some help. I had to rewrite my entire argument filter for the DOS version.

    The reason I wrote this project and worked to make it consistent for both DOS and Linux is because I wanted to do an upgrade to the DOS version of chastext. As you can see from the picture below, I have succeeded!

    When I first posted about my chastext project, some people said it was useless because we can already use sed for Linux or other tools for find and replace. However, my assembly versions are simpler and faster than sed when you don’t need regular expressions. They also don’t depend on anything other than interrupt calls of the operating system.

    But more importantly, their argument is stupid. Writing similar programs to existing programs is a great programming exercise and is especially important for tiny projects where I don’t want to implement all the features of a program or its dependencies. I can also bring the program to platforms that the original program does not support, such as DOS.

    This attitude some people have is one that I don’t like. Should I not sing just because Taylor Swift can sing better than me? Should I not play the piano just because other people can do it better than me? Or should I not play Chess just because I can’t do it as well as Magnus Carlsen or a chess engine?

    I started programming for the joy of learning and writing me own things. I often reinvent the wheel such as how I wrote my own strlen and strcmp functions for my chastext project. I don’t have access to the C standard library with the way I am doing it. I can’t imagine criticizing someone else’s programming project just because it has features to a similar tool that may exist. Otherwise, I would be saying Linus Torvalds should not have created Linux just because Unix and Minix existed which had similar file systems.

  • Podcast and Programming Update 4-26-2026

    A lot of important things are going on in my life right now. Yesterday, I did episode 30 of the podcast series that my mom and I do together. It is the start of a mini series on Pride Month and the LGBTQIA+ community. It means a lot to have my mom as my ally in the fight for equality at this time, when transgender people are a punching bag of politicians and organizations like the Heritage Foundation lobbying them to discriminate against us.

    On a completely unrelated note, I often do computer programming to help me relax because it brings order to the chaos of life, and I am getting good at it. I have been working on creating a small set of utilities. My first two tools: chastehex and chastecmp, have been optimized to the extreme both in C and Assembly language. I recently made some changes to the C version so that the output of the programs matches the Intel assembly language versions for consistency.

    For each of these tools, I have created a separate repository for them, which includes not only the C source (which can run on any platform), but also the assembly versions for DOS, Linux, and even Windows.

    https://github.com/chastitywhiterose/chastehex
    https://github.com/chastitywhiterose/chastecmp

    Perhaps the reason these tools were so much fun to work on is that they do one job and do it well. I have still been thinking about what other tools like this I might create. The fun is that I optimize them for maximum speed, but readability of code at the same time.

    I have also made some attempts at making another game, but nothing has quite inspired me in that direction as much as doing simple text utilities. I will be studying common Linux commands in order to see if there are any gaps in functionality that I can fill by writing a tool for. I want to make something new that doesn’t exist. Chastehex certainly meets that criteria, but I wonder what else I can do?

  • Advice to a new Programmer

    This month I started a Programming 1 class as part of Full Sail University’s ACE program. One of the other students asked me some questions and I ended up writing a larger response than I planned. I think my information will be helpful for other people who are new to programming.

    Hello chastity, I’m Ty. I appreciate you teaching others what you know. I do not know anything about programming, but I’m hoping I learn a lot from this college course and make friends like you. I would love any tips you have for me, as a programmer newbie. What language to start with? Fundamental apps, tools, services, etc.. anything I should to start. Thank you chastity.

    There are many tools I can recommend. Mostly, I stick with Free and Open Source software. I write most of my code in the C Programming Language, which came before C++. I use the GCC compiler, and I even use GNU Make to automate compiling and running my programs.

    I am looking forward to learning about how C++ is different than C. I always found C to be an easy language because it is smaller than C++, and I have most of the functions memorized.

    Also, you may find this helpful.

    https://chastitywhiterose.github.io/Chastity-Code-Cookbook/

    It is a book/website I have been writing to help teach programming, but also to share some of my impressive code examples and philosophy of why I promote Free Software.

    Everything on there is entirely free and released under the GPL3 license. I consider it my act of community service to give back to the open source community because it has benefitted me all my life. I have a blast compiling my C programs on Debian Linux with GCC on computers too old to run modern versions of Windows. I don’t even use an IDE. I only use a console and a text editor as if I were living in the 1980s. But at least this Programming 1 course teaches things as most humans would find convenient.

    I can also probably help you with specific programming questions. What operating system do you use, and how is your general math knowledge? I think you will find that no matter what programming language becomes your favorite, every data type really is numbers, even such things as colors or coordinates for shapes in video games.

    Most of the magic in the video game, Chaste Tris, that I published comes from my knowledge of numbers rather than it does being a good programmer. I consider myself more of a gamer and mathematician than I am a skilled programmer.

    https://store.steampowered.com/app/1986120/Chaste_Tris/

    I also wanted to mention some cool text editors that you might like. On Windows, Notepad++ is the most convenient text editor because it has syntax highlighting, but it loads up faster than Visual Studio if you are doing your own programming for fun, which isn’t required for the class.

    https://notepad-plus-plus.org/

    But I also recommend Geany because it runs on Windows, Mac, or Linux. I use it quite a bit when I need my code to be more readable for larger projects.

    https://www.geany.org/

    I think the most important feature of a text editor and/or IDE for a programmer is the ability to see the line numbers because when a compiler tells me an error I have on a specific line, being able to see which line that number is on helps out a lot. The second most important feature is to choose a highlighting syntax that is easy on your eyes. Each person is different, and their eyes perceive colors differently. A lot of these editors will let you choose a scheme that works for you, or even create your own. For example, you might like numbers to be in blue text and functions to be green. Or maybe you like a black background with bright colors like magenta or yellow for the text. I like my code to look beautiful as well as to compile and run successfully.