Tasm to Masm

[cncfixer]

Hello all
Thank you for taking the time to read my question, and an advanced thank you for your help.
I have been using Tasm,Turbo Debugger, and Tlink from Borlands Turbo Assembler Version 2.0  .As an old very old student this has been very new material for me. What we have done so far is Write the hello world code on note pad, then insert it into tasm which creates the .obj and .lst file.  Then we use Tlink to convert the .obj file into .exe and .map file.  Then we have been using the turbo debugger to test the .exe file.This may be old school, But it's the way we are being taught.
Can I use MASM to do the same thing with?  And will the two be compatible?  I realize this may sound "newbie" to most of you, But I'm just learning, and have gotten the assemblers bug. Do you MASM people use a debugger and is a Tlinker needed? 
Any direction / advise you could offer would be great.
Thanks to you all for helping a newbie out here.
CNCfixer

[UtillMasm]

i use ollydbg and hexeditor(because i don't believe ollydbg's display).

[MichaelW]

Hello CNCfixer, welcome to the forum.

You can do essentially the same things with MASM and LINK and something similar with the available debuggers. Judging from the TASM version, you are working with 16-bit DOS code. MASM can assemble 16-bit DOS code, and there is a 16-bit linker available, but most of the debuggers in use here are for Win32. Not to point out the obvious, but if your code is right then there is no need for a debugger.

[Vortex]

Hi cncfixer,

For your information, you can convert 32-bit Tasm OMF object files to MS COFF with objconv

[FORTRANS]

I have been using Tasm,Turbo Debugger, and Tlink from Borlands Turbo Assembler Version 2.0

Can I use MASM to do the same thing with?  And will the two be compatible?

Do you MASM people use a debugger and is a Tlinker needed? 

Hello CNCfixer,

   TASM 2.0 has two modes "Ideal" and "MASM" a compatibility
mode that is similar to MASM 5.1.  If you are using TASM's Ideal
mode, some translation will be needed.  If you are using TASM's
MASM mode, using MASM will be "mostly the same" if using MASM
5.1.  Newer versions of MASM will require the use of Microsoft's
16-bit linker for 16-bit code, and some small source fix-up.

   Turbo Debugger and TLink can be used where appropriate if
wanted with MASM generated code.

   The TASM 2.0 User's Guide discusses MASM compatibity in
depth.

HTH,

Steve N.

[cncfixer]

Hey all, thanks for the warm welcome.
Just wanted to say again to you all, how appreciative of your comments and suggestions I am.
The reason for these questions were, our school has about 6 lic's for operating the Tasm
software.  And it sure would be nice if students could do some of this work at home vs school.
Borland will not even return our messages, as we were going to buy some personal student versions.
My background is in PLC's ladders and such, and I have been hosed-up when it came to
troubleshooting to the bit level, thus the reason for taking this class.  The text book we are using
is the "The 80x86 IBM PC and Compatible Computers (Volume I and II)"  Assembly language,
Design, and interfacing.  4th Edition    By Mr. and Mrs. Mazidi       It is my understanding they
have a new book due out soon?
One more question. 
When I get the basics (that's all we are learning in this class)  What would you suggest that I take next?
There are no more asm classes taught here, but c++ and a few others.  Code writer I'm not, but I can
see why you folks like ASM so much, TOTAL CONTROL I like that also.
I'm trying to learn as much as possible so I can troubleshoot CNC
Machines down the the processor level and gain another tool for my business.
Thanks again to you all for your time and help.
CNCfixer

[redskull]

If you are looking to get knee deep in the hardware, try checking out "Computer Organization and Design", by Patterson and Hennessy (ISBN: 978-0-12-374493-7) .  It's basically the next step 'down' from ASM, in that it describes how the CPU works internally, on the electrical level, including pipeline stalls, cache misses, multi-core processors, and actually going through the Verilog so you can actually build your own CPU on a PLD.  My only beef is that it does it all in MIPS style risc instructions, and spends a great deal of the book badmouthing the Intel set.  If you are into dealing with CNC controllers or other non-Intel embedded systems, there's a lot of good information to be had.

-r