MASM32 Installer crashes

[feddy]

Hello,

I have recently installed MASM, being convinced to port from TASM to MASM, i have downloaded MASM32 v8.2r and everytime i try to install it, the installer keeps crashing for no apparent reason. Here is some information about my box :)

WindowsXP Pro. Edition (SP2)
256MB RAM
PIII 1.1Ghz

Hope this was enough information :)

Best Regards,
Sam

[hutch--]

Sam,

In the short term, get the version on the forum web site that is packed with a winrar SFX as its designed for people who have problems with the install. There is probably something wrong with the way you box is set up or else it may not have the disk space as this install has worked correctly on many thousands of computers. You will need to add the latest service pack to it as well.

[feddy]

Well, maybe there is something weird in my box, but i don't think am running short in space - 2.5GB is okay for MASM ^_^ - anyway, i already used the other one, and it worked fine, just wanted to know what would be the reason. Anyway, am not critisizing, but maybe you would like to use a better installer :)

Best Regards,
Sam

[hutch--]

Sam,

this install is rolled directly in MASM using published API functions and it writes a 7zip archive to disk before running it. The problem is even with a number of failsafe techniques involved, occasionally you run into a Windows setup that something will not run on, it can be viral damage, AV scanners, damaged system DLLs,  disk space and a whole host of other things and tha is why I have the alternative install method.

Hope you do OK with MASM, its a nice toy once you get used to it.

[feddy]

Okay, it's no problem for me, am working with MASM32 v8 now, which brings me to an important question, i know it might be the wrong section to write this in, but i will take the advantage of being created this one now :), since i been working with tasm for all of my time, i faced some stuff in masm that confuses me, is there a document or like that explains the difference between masm and tasm when porting from tasm to masm, coz i got confused about some stuff in masm, and i wanted to port to masm, coz i heard its very good, thanks much in advance :)

Best Regards,
Sam

[hutch--]

Sam,

Have a look at the new help file in the service pack called HLHELP.HLP as it does describe in the intro pages how MASM hangs together. A few basic things like MASM expects .DATA and .DATA? to be declared before its referenced so you put the data at the top, not the bottom. It uses a PROC model with prototypes which TASM could do but very few ever bothered to use and there is a syntax to write a procedure without the default stack frame,

Code Select Expand


OPTION PROLOGUE:NONE
OPTION EPILOGUE:NONE

  ; your proc here

OPTION PROLOGUE:PrologueDef
OPTION EPILOGUE:EpilogueDef


For the high level hacky stuff like API calls, the "INVOKE" syntax is clear and reliable and very similar to use to TASMs CALL syntax where you could make a function call on a single line. A few basic differences, MASM has the ADDR operator for addresses when you use INVOKE which handles both data section locations and LOCAL variables but you have to be careful not to overwrite EAX at times using it. It will tell you if this happens.

You can use OFFSET with a data section variable in an INVOKE statement but ADDR is prefered.

One that will take a little getting used to is the use of square brackets for addressing, with MASM when you create a LOCAL, you use the name only as the variable and DON'T enclose it in brackets. It does tolerate it but its properly an error of syntax.

Code Select Expand


    LOCAL MyVar  :DWORD
    ......

    mov [MyVar], 12345678    ; tolerated syntax error

    mov MyVar, 12345678      ; correct syntax
    mov eax, MyVar
    etc ....