TO HUTCH

[AeroASM]

MASM means Only the actual assembler, like Linux means Only the actual operating system
Both MASM and Linux are often circulated in packages or distributions, and so the whole package is capable of doing things that the assembler/OS cannot.
You may say "Linux is capable of word processing"; this is wrong. Correction: "THis particular Linux distribution is capable of word processing" is correct.
In the same way "MASM is capable of producing exes" is wrong. "MASM" has an exact isomorphism with "ml.exe" and should not be confused with packages like MASM32 or the Microsoft one that you have.

[hutch--]

With the box for the last commercially distributed version of MASM sitting on top of my monitor, It is titles "Microsoft MASM", subtitled "Assembly Language Development System".

MASM always stood for "MACRO assembler" but over the 24 years it has been around it has become synonymous with "Microsoft assembler". There used to be a MASM.EXE in the commercial package which in version 6.0 upwards was a compatibility driver for ML.EXE. Now from as early as MASM 5.1 masm has produced OBJECT modules and required a LINKER to build EXE and other end result files. The commercial versions of MASM ALWAYS came with a LINKER so it IS correct to say that MASM can build EXE files as it uses ML and LINK to do so.

P1 has the same advantage as I have here, he OWNS a copy of MASM and has all of the ancient toys that came with it.