[net.micro] Cheap MS-DOS Assemblers

ABN.ISCAMS@USC-ISID.ARPA (09/06/85)

I've seen advertised in Dr. Dobbs (and maybe Byte?) Turbo Editasm, a
co-resident editor assembler for the PC family .. brags of fast, easier,
186 and 286 instructions, etc.  Only $49 bucks.  I've happily used LASM
for ages now in the CP/M environment, but have yet to find a Public Domain
or "FreeWare" assembler  for MS-DOS.

Anyone have any experience with TASM or other inexpensive assemblers?
I'd like a Macro Assembler if possible, naturally compatible with
MASM and LINK.  Do NOT know enough 8086 yet to write my own or
attempt to translate LASM2.  (Ugh!)

Thanks in advance,
David Kirschbaum
Toad Hall
ABN.ISCAMS@USC-ISID

BillW@SU-SCORE.ARPA (William Chops Westfield) (09/06/85)

Rumor has it that Borland will be releasing their (internally used)
assembler Real Soon Now.  (Think I saw this in info-ibmpc).  Its
suppsoed to be 20-60 times faster than MASM...

Ive been thinking I ought to go buy Microsofts MASM V3.0, which is
faster than MASM, comes with nice utilities, and is < $100 from
mail order stores, but now I think Ill wait just a little longer...

BillW

hes@ecsvax.UUCP (Henry Schaffer) (09/08/85)

There is a shareware assembler, CHASM, (I think for CHeap ASM)
which has a non-shareware version for $40, which is a faster
macro version.  I've ordered it, but haven't received it yet
(and all my info is at work.)  I've talked to people who have
used the shareware version, and they say it works ok but is too
slow (it is written in BASIC - I wonder if the user could
compile it?)  --henry schaffer