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Project Support Forums => MASM32 => Topic started by: PeterRod on September 10, 2008, 12:49:15 AM

Title: Congratulations and questions from a new user
Post by: PeterRod on September 10, 2008, 12:49:15 AM
My congratulations to Hutch and his team on the MASM32 project.
Earlier today I downloaded MASM32 v 4.0 (qeditor) and have started using the IDE.

I have not used assembly language since the days of the Z80 and 8088 chips.
I now realise what I was missing.
To have access to WINAPI's and registers/memory at the same time is a dream come true.

Questions:

Q1) The installation went very well but I found the help features lacking in the area of how to use the IDE.
In particular is there any documentation on the 'Project' , 'Tools' , 'Code' and 'Script' menu items.
The dialog for 'Create a new GUI application' looks intimidating. Any help available?

Q2) I was not able to find a reliable source for WIN32.hlp as recommended in the intro. Any assistance obtaining this file?

Q3) Can the Fl option of the assembler throw out line numbers in the listing?

Q4) Can qeditor show opcodes for mneumonics?

Q5) Can a usermode debugger be part of the IDE? Debuggers like Olly or WinDbg? I saw something about SoftIce being integrated into the IDE.

I intend to use this product a lot. I feel certain this wont be my last post as problems will arise.

Thanks a lot!

PeterRod





Title: Re: Congratulations and questions from a new user
Post by: raymond on September 10, 2008, 01:09:43 AM
Welcome to the group from someone who also started assembly with the Z80 and then the 8088 on an XT :dazzled: :eek. Stayed with 16-bit DOS until Hutch convinced me to switch to 32-bit assembly. You will love it.
Title: Re: Congratulations and questions from a new user
Post by: BlackVortex on September 10, 2008, 01:32:03 AM
The core of the masm32 package are the include files, you don't have to use QEditor, check out the rest of the Asm IDEs (I use radasm). Also you can use the assembler,linker and resource compiler you prefer.

The WIN32.hlp is all over the net, or you can download the msdn library (2,2 gb !!!)
Title: Re: Congratulations and questions from a new user
Post by: hutch-- on September 10, 2008, 02:10:27 AM
Hi Pater,

Welcome on board. QE is an ASCII/ANSI plain text editor but it has configurable menus so that you can set up any tool you like, such as OllyDebug. The range of "Build" projects are a number of different techniques set up on the menus. The GUI version is a separate code generator, thee is a console mode version that is very simple to use which is probably a good starting point.

Have a look in the masm32 subforum for a copy of WIN32.HLP that I posted for members to use. Its old but very useful for API calls and windows messages. It is also worth downloading the current PLATFORMSDK or its successor for more up to date information.

As Ray said, you will have fun with the new stuff, much faster, wider instruction choice and 4 gig address space and the combination of direct mnemonic coding and Windows API calls is indeed very powerful.
Title: Re: Congratulations and questions from a new user
Post by: PauloH on September 10, 2008, 03:30:42 AM
Hi Peter,

Welcome to the forum. Like you I started with Z80 ( old ZX-81 days ) and now I love masm32.
If you still love Z80, take a look at this site (just for fun):http://www.worldofspectrum.org/
For 32 bit assembler in PC I suggest these:

http://win32assembly.online.fr/index.html: Iczelion's Win32 page full of examples and tutorials.
http://www.jorgon.freeserve.co.uk/: GoAsm page (Jeremy Gordon's assembler), with a good explanation of the most common instructions and a very good assembler.
http://www.radasm.com/: RadAsm IDE, the most beloved IDE for assembler coders!

I hope you enjoy masm.
Title: Re: Congratulations and questions from a new user
Post by: Rainstorm on September 12, 2008, 05:24:00 AM
blackvortex wrote..
QuoteThe WIN32.hlp is all over the net, or you can download the msdn library (2,2 gb !!!)
the platformsdk, is less.. around half that size i think