Difference between MASM32 and Microsoft MASM

[ranjitiyer]

What is the difference between MASM32 (The SDK that provides includes and macros for writing Windows assembly programs) versus the Microsoft Macro Assembler http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/afzk3475(v=VS.90).aspx. I am using ML64.exe to compile my assembly programs. Confusingly for me, the MSDN documentation for the supported assembly directives also uses the acronym MASM (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/8t163bt0(v=VS.90).aspx).

I would appreciate any clarification you can offer.

Ranjit

[jj2007]

Masm is Microsoft's tool that allows you to assemble code. Version 6.14 is part of the private Masm32 package (you will find it as \masm32\bin\ml.exe) maintained by Hutch with support from the members of this forum.

Without the Masm32 libraries, programming in assembler would be possible but very difficult.

[ranjitiyer]

Thanks for the response. If I understand correctly, the private Masm32 SDK bundles the version 6.14 of Microsoft's assembler, which is ML.exe. Downloading and installing Masm32 provides all the macros, .inc files and various high level language constructs that simplify programming in Microsoft assembly.

Is there a 64-bit version of the Masm package?

I am currently using Microsoft's vanilla ML64.exe but unable to compile code that uses .IF constructs, which happens to be documented on MSDN as supported in the vanilla Microsoft assembler. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/8t163bt0(v=VS.90).aspx.

This has caused me some confusion.

Ranjit

[GregL]

ranjitiyer,

ML64 does not support most of the high-level directives that 32-bit ML does. 

Here is an example "Hello World" console program for ML64.

Code Select Expand


EXTRN lstrlen:PROC
EXTRN GetStdHandle:PROC
EXTRN WriteFile:PROC
EXTRN printf:PROC
EXTRN _getch:PROC
EXTRN ExitProcess:PROC

INCLUDELIB kernel32.lib
INCLUDELIB user32.lib
INCLUDELIB msvcrt.lib

.DATA

    szMsg     BYTE "Hello x64 World!", 13, 10, 0
       
.CODE

;------------------------------------------------------
    main PROC

        sub rsp, 40
       
        lea rcx, szMsg
        call StdOut
       
        call WaitKey
       
        xor ecx, ecx        ; exit code = 0
        call ExitProcess

    main ENDP
;------------------------------------------------------
    StdOut PROC
   
        ; int StdOut(char* pText);
       
        LOCAL pText:QWORD
        LOCAL hFile:QWORD
        LOCAL dwLen:DWORD
        LOCAL dwBytesWritten:DWORD
       
        sub rsp, 40
       
        mov pText, rcx
        call lstrlen
        mov dwLen, eax

        mov ecx, -11        ; STD_OUTPUT
        call GetStdHandle
        mov hFile, rax

        mov rcx, hFile
        mov rdx, pText       
        mov r8d, dwLen       
        lea r9, dwBytesWritten
        call WriteFile   
       
        mov eax, dwBytesWritten
       
        add rsp, 40
       
        ret
    StdOut ENDP     
;------------------------------------------------------       
    WaitKey PROC
   
        ; int WaitKey(void);
       
        LOCAL dwCrLf:DWORD
        LOCAL dwChar:DWORD
       
        .DATA
       
            szPrompt BYTE 13,10,"Press any key to exit ... ", 0     
           
        .CODE
   
            sub rsp, 40

            mov dwCrLf, 00000A0Dh
           
            lea rcx, szPrompt       
            call printf
            call _getch
            cmp eax, 0
            je again
            cmp eax, 0E0h
            je again
            jmp @F
         again:     
            call _getch
         @@:
            mov dwChar, eax
            lea rcx, dwCrLf
            call printf       
           
            mov eax, dwChar
            add rsp, 40
             
            ret
    WaitKey ENDP
;------------------------------------------------------
END


Both ml.exe and ml64.exe are referred to as MASM.

There is no 64-bit version of the MASM32 package.

[ranjitiyer]

Thanks for the clarification.

[Vortex]

Hi ranjitiyer,

Don't forget also to check Jwasm, the Masm compatible assembler :

http://japheth.de/JWasm.html