Invalid symbol type in expression

[Magnum]

I am getting "invalid symbol type in expression" when I assemble this.

Code Select Expand


include \masm32\source\timers.asm
include \masm32\include\windows.inc

    .code

start:
    call counter_begin   
    invoke Beep, 1200, 300 ; Sound duration and the frequency, in hertz, of the sound
    invoke ExitProcess,0
    call counter_end

end start


[sinsi]

counter_begin is a macro, not a proc, so you shouldn't 'call' it.

[Magnum]

counter_begin is a macro, not a proc, so you shouldn't 'call' it.

I tried this and get an endless beeping. :-)

Code Select Expand


start:
   
counter_begin 10000000, HIGH_PRIORITY_CLASS

invoke Beep, 1200, 300 ; Sound duration and the frequency, in hertz, of the sound
   
counter_end
   
print chr$(" cycles",13,10)
mov   eax, input(13,10,"Press enter to exit...")
invoke ExitProcess,0



[sinsi]

Maybe try a few less than 10 million beeps?  :lol

[clive]

I tried this and get an endless beeping. :-)

No shit, maybe you you should do about 10 iterations. The counters are going to be pretty meaningless over a period of 12 seconds. a) 32-bit values only hold 4 billions cycles (and you are clocking at maybe 3 GHz), b) the cycles are being burned in other tasks.

[Magnum]

I tried this and get an endless beeping. :-)

No shit, maybe you you should do about 10 iterations. The counters are going to be pretty meaningless over a period of 12 seconds. a) 32-bit values only hold 4 billions cycles (and you are clocking at maybe 3 GHz), b) the cycles are being burned in other tasks.

That kind of language is quite unnecessary.

[oex]

4 billions cycles

That kind of language is quite unnecessary.

Yeah phrases like this have no place on this board :bg

[GregL]

I've seen a lot worse on here.

[Magnum]

I've seen a lot worse on here.

The point is this.

If someone can't cheerfully answer me, then I would rather they not answer.
It'll keep their blood pressure down too.  :bg

I try to treat others like I would want them to treat me.

[clive]

Apologies, I will keep that in mind.

[dedndave]

did you get your code working Magnum ?

[Ghandi]

If someone can't cheerfully answer me, then I would rather they not answer.

Not trying to start a debate, but i thought this was a forum where people could express thoughts? Personally i actually lauged at Clives comment, because i took it lightheartedly, but i guess everybody is different. I can understand where the comment came from though, if i may say.

As we all know, assembler requires us to read and pay attention to all of the small details, else it blows up in our faces.

Let's take this case for example:

Code Select Expand


BOOL WINAPI Beep(
  __in          DWORD dwFreq,
  __in          DWORD dwDuration
);

Parameters
dwFreq
The frequency of the sound, in hertz. This parameter must be in the range 37 through 32,767 (0x25 through 0x7FFF).

Windows Me/98/95:  The Beep function ignores this parameter.
dwDuration
The duration of the sound, in milliseconds.

Windows Me/98/95:  The Beep function ignores this parameter.



So, we pass the duration and frequency to the API. Seems pretty straightforward, lets apply it to the code example given:

Code Select Expand


counter_begin 10000000, HIGH_PRIORITY_CLASS

invoke Beep, 1200, 300 ; Sound duration and the frequency, in hertz, of the sound
   
counter_end


We have a macro which will repeat the enclosed code X amount of times, setting the thread priority as well.

The code itself is a call to Beep, with a frequency of 1200hz and a duration of 300ms (unless this code is run on win 9x, where it is ignored) and looking at the variable for the repeat count, it says 10 million. I'm not a mathemetician, but for every 10 calls to Beep the duration amounts to 3 seconds, so 10 million iterations will mean 3 million seconds for the code to complete. If it is run on 9x however, it will be the same formula but with the default value that the OS uses for its Beep API. This is not counting any overhead from the OS, etc.

Either way, the projected running time for this code is not short and with no pause between calls to Sleep, it will be like one continuous (and annoying) drone.

HR,
Ghandi

[Magnum]

did you get your code working Magnum ?

Yes, this is one example.

Code Select Expand


start:
             ; run 5 times
counter_begin 10, HIGH_PRIORITY_CLASS ; loopcount and priority

; create a 0 byte files
invoke CreateFile,ADDR fname1,
GENERIC_READ,
0,
NULL,
CREATE_ALWAYS,
FILE_ATTRIBUTE_NORMAL,
NULL
invoke CloseHandle,eax
test eax, eax
jnz next
print SADD("CloseHandle failed")

next:
LEA EAX , TheStruct
  ; Caller HWND - Can be zero
  MOV DWORD PTR [EAX], 0b
  ; The Shell Function , Here we wanna delete
  MOV DWORD PTR [EAX+4] , FO_DELETE
  ; The address of the file to get deleted
  MOV DWORD PTR [EAX+8] , OFFSET TheFile
  ; The destination address, the delete operation accepts no destination
  MOV DWORD PTR [EAX+12] , 0b
  ; The flags, we wanna do this silently and without any confirmations to the user
  MOV DWORD PTR [EAX+16] , FOF_NOCONFIRMATION or FOF_SILENT
  PUSH EAX
  CALL SHFileOperation

counter_end
   
print ustr$(eax)

print chr$(" cycles",13,10)

mov   eax, input(13,10,"Press ENTER to exit...")
invoke ExitProcess,0