bright@dataioDataio.UUCP (Walter Bright) (01/03/86)
I just got my new copy of MASM 4.0, and here are some first impressions: 1) It is indeed 3 times faster than MASM 3.0. 2) It's about time that they added command line EQU's to it. Trying to use one source file for several object files was a real pain previously. 3) Microsoft still doesn't support local labels. Local labels have been around on most assemblers for the last 15 years (notably DEC's assemblers). Local labels are labels that have a restricted scope, i.e. they only exist between definitions of other labels. They have the same advantages that local variables in high level languages do (better modularity, reduced symbol table usage, faster compilation). 4) At last, the assembler prints out the line number of where syntax errors occured. For large files, sometimes it became very difficult to find where the error was with the old MASM. However, the new MASM no longer prints out the source line to the screen that had the error in it. Boo. 5) The include filename pseudo-op seems to be broken. I can't get it to accept them without issueing a warning about 'extra characters on line'. It worked fine on the old assembler. Anybody know what's going on?
corwin@cdp.UUCP (01/06/86)
MASM 4.0 first impression
I found about a 240% speed increase. Now it runs about as fast as
an assembler should. There are some new programs which allow you to
condense and EXE file and to modify its header. These work well
and are nice additions. Quality of the documentation is excellant.
I also found the bug which causes the warning message with "include".
Although the default condition for the assembler is not to display
the source text of a line which contains an error (it gives a line
number), you can override that with a command line switch to operate
as it used to. Overall I'm very happy with the new release.
Corwin Nichols, MicroTech Exports, 415-324-9114
cdp!corwin@SU-Glacier.ARPA
ihnp4!hplabs!glacier!cdp!corwin
{decwrl,sun,bellcore}!glacier!cdp!corwingeoff@suneast.uucp (Geoff Arnold) (01/12/86)
We switched from 3.0 to 4.0 with no change except for general :-) over
the speed. Includes work fine (nested, too).
--
#include <sys/disclaimer.h> /* co. lawyers: will this do? */
Geoff Arnold =-=-= Quick: 617-863-8870 x136 (but ya gotta catch me!)
Sun Microsystems Inc.-=-=- Slower: {hplabs,ihnp4,nsc,pyramid}!sun!suneast!geoff
East Coast Division. =-=-= Slowest:One Cranberry Hill, Lexington, MA 02173bright@dataioDataio.UUCP (Walter Bright) (01/15/86)
In article <130@suneast.uucp> geoff@suneast.uucp (Geoff Arnold) writes: >We switched from 3.0 to 4.0 with no change except for general :-) over >the speed. Includes work fine (nested, too). The error messages MASM puts out for includes happens sometimes when your file ends in ^Z. Many text editors append a ^Z to your text. If your text editor doesn't, you won't notice the bug.