Sol_Asm version 0.33.02

[BogdanOntanu]

I have released a new version of Solar assembler.

You can get it here:
http://www.oby.ro/sol_asm/files/sol_asm_2009_10_23_v33_02.zip

And the manual is here:
http://www.oby.ro/sol_asm/docs/sol_asm_manual.htm

As always I welcome comments, feature requests and bug reports...

It has been a while since I have posted about it here so below you have a short overall description:

- it can assemble 16/32/64 bits instructions up to SSE 4.2 and virtualization extensions
- it has HLL primitives like: PROC/ARG/LOCAL, INVOKE, MACRO, .IF / .ELSEIF / .ENDIF, .WHILE, .REPEAT
- it runs on Windows, Linux, Unix, MacOSX and Solar_OS
- it can directly generate binary, PE32, DLL and PE64
- it generates OBJ for: OMF32, COFF32, COFF64, ELF32, ELF64 and MACHO32
- it generates listing and debug info
- syntax is close to MASM/TASM but with some serious differences (like use of [])
- pretty fast for large ASM projects
- it is free if used for making your own assembler or your own OS or for teaching and learning ASM
- it is closed source

The site for it is here: http://www.oby.ro/sol_asm/

Solar Assembler is written in Solar Assembler ;) and I have converted my other huge ASM projects to it, hence today Solar_OS and Hostile Encounter RTS are now also written in Sol_Asm.

[Ficko]

Thanks Bogdan that's great! :U

What about the syntax highlight for RadAsm?

KetilO recently published a full package and I still can't see "SoloAsm.ini" in it. ::)

[BogdanOntanu]

Hi Ficko,

I forgot to mention that an older but functional  syntax highlighting for RadASM and a series of application templates are included in the Sol_Asm download. Check the RadASM_INI sub folder in the zip. You will find there the sol_asm.ini and other needed files.

AFAIK Ketilo did some improvements in latest RadASM for parsing Sol_Asm syntax... as you can see here: http://www.masm32.com/board/index.php?topic=12115.0

But I still have to integrate with my older INI and then maybe I can "push" an official Sol_Asm programming package towards Ketilo.

Anyway what you find inside the download should work ok.

I do use RadASM IDE every day with Sol_Asm and it works very well.

[Ficko]

Cool! :U

[hutch--]

Bogdan,

This is looking genuinely impressive, I just spent some time reading the manual and the capacity is starting to become very powerful. Shame I don't have a few spare lifetimes to learn all this stuff.

[rags]

Bogdon,
Is there any chance of getting the manual in a download?

[hutch--]

Wget.

[Vortex]

Hi Bogdan,

Thanks for the new release :U

[BogdanOntanu]

Oh, and I also forgot to mention that Vortex has made a lot of small but very instructive samples for Sol_Asm and his tools also support Sol_Asm.

You can get those samples in the downloads pages here: http://www.oby.ro/sol_asm/sol_asm_download_samples.htm
Or seek and find them (and newer versions) scattered all over the place in the Solar forums :D  http://www.oby.ro/forum/index.php

Thank you Vortex ;)

[BogdanOntanu]

Bogdon,
Is there any chance of getting the manual in a download?

The manual is made of a single HTML page exactly for easy grabing. Hence you could also "Save Page As..." or the equivalent in your browser when you are viewing the manual. Alternatively you could "Save Link As" with a right click on the manual link in the first post above.

But you are right, maybe I should make it available as a single zip download.

[BogdanOntanu]

Bogdan,

This is looking genuinely impressive, I just spent some time reading the manual and the capacity is starting to become very powerful. Shame I don't have a few spare lifetimes to learn all this stuff.

Thanks for your kind words Hutch.
And you never know how many spare lives you will have ;)

Anyway I think you (and a lot of other people) are already set up with MASM and MASM32 and if anything should happen to MASM then JWASM can save the day.  However alternatives like Sol_Asm can be fun to test ride once in a while ;)

I created Sol_Asm as a result of too much energy pouring outside and I use it as an incentive towards everybody creating his/her own tools.

It is very funny to run completely on your own created tools. It gives a sense of independence and a touch or responsibility since you can not blame bugs on anybody else :D

[hutch--]

 :bg

Aha Bogdan, you may have a new monster in the wings, new ideas in an assembler are reasonably rare, many that have been around in the past were about 1990 MASM standard, your new one is shaping up to be the 2020 model, truly a tool of the 21st century.

What about a Vlad Tepes version, put the fear of God into them ?

[BogdanOntanu]

...
What about a Vlad Tepes version, put the fear of God into them ?

This statement made my day of good laughter.   :cheekygreen: Maybe when it gets Beta :))

But I do not believe in using fear as a teaching tool...  the God that is "feared" is no God at all.


As a side note:
==========
It is true that Vlad Tepes was kind of sadistic and his use of extreme fear and punishment created an environment of extreme honesty in our country for the short time that he was a king. It is said that you could leave gold coins on the street and NOBODY would dare to even touch it for weeks or months ... nobody would dare to steal or trick you for whatever reasons... not even the rich and powerfully ones.

BUT it is ALSO true that at the very moment Tepes was no longer a king... the people reverted to the old habits in a day or a few hours... and of course that everybody was after his head as a safety precaution.

Overall his actions together with a few other local stories resulted in the Dracula's myth and an endless series of vampire movies but no evolution in mankind.

Hence I think that it is better to use "incentives for the good people" in teaching. Make it so that the one that are good have a lot of advantages and the ones that are bad have no advantage at all ... and a lot of problems :D

IMHO it is more important to remove the advantages of doing the bad thing ...even if the offender is never found ...  than it is to add more punishment to it.

Obviously Vlad Tepes did not agree with me  :green

[BogdanOntanu]

:bg
Aha Bogdan, you may have a new monster in the wings, new ideas in an assembler are reasonably rare, many that have been around in the past were about 1990 MASM standard, your new one is shaping up to be the 2020 model, truly a tool of the 21st century.
...

I hope I can defeat the "monster inside" Sol_Asm and make it "more simple" while in the same time being more usefully.

My "ideas" for improving ASM compilers come from my experience with doing big applications in ASM and of course from a lifetime spent mostly as a programmer.

[Vortex]

Hi Bogdan,

Thanks for your kind words and for your support.

I created Sol_Asm as a result of too much energy pouring outside and I use it as an incentive towards everybody creating his/her own tools.

It is very funny to run completely on your own created tools. It gives a sense of independence and a touch or responsibility since you can not blame bugs on anybody else :D

You said very nicely. Creating your own OS, the Solar OS is also a very important independance. Concerning your own OS, you can create your own specifications without dealing with unnecessary complications. Sometimes, I pull out my hair to understand some cryptic MS specifications looking like Hieroglyph.

Physicist Richard Feynman's quote :

What I cannot create, I do not understand.