DOS ain't dead

> Hey guys,

Ahoihoi.

> As you probably know, TASM is no longer developed. And even though you
> can get TASM32 5.3 (from 2000) from the Turbo C++ Explorer 2006 package,
> that's a whopping 390 MB or so, which is kinda a lot just for one 188k
> .EXE file. Besides, I think MMX is the most it supports.

If it is no longer developed or supported why not ask
Borland / Inprise whether it is ok to distribute TASM.
Who knows, maybe they won't mind it.

I don't know whether MMX is the latest of the newer instruction sets in TASM.
I personally never had to use any of the new instructions (except for MMX) and
I always try to use 386 instructions.

I have written large programs in assembler, and I always admired the
compilation speed of Borland products. I also liked the IDEAL syntax.

TASM is my favourite .asm compiler, and it probably will be in future.

> * TASM32 5.3 (dialup users, have fun grabbing it!)
> * LZASM 0.56 (Ideal only, case sensitive)
> * upcoming WASM 1.9 (Ideal syntax added by Berth-Olaf)
> * YASM 0.8.0 (-ptasm or -fdosexe, no .OBJ support)
> * JWasm 1.94c (still a few hidden bugs)
> * ArrowASM 2.00c (old, MASM 3.0 only, but good for what it does)
> * FASM 1.67.38 (powerful macros and preproc help, in theory)

Concerning open source compilers, I'd pick the most promising one and add
or improve it's TASM compatibility.

> Examples of apps I would ideally like to convert to something better:

You mean to convert the sources to another compiler syntax?
Without starting a big discussion on this, but the TASM syntax is straight forward
and easy to understand. I am not sure if there's a "better" one. :)

I'd rather prefer using the original compiler or a syntax compatible compiler.
Old but good standards (in general) should be preserved and kept supported.
"DOS ain't dead"!

> * Freemacs (seems easy with JWasm but hidden bugs persist, e.g. "comment
> \")
> * PMODE/DJ (quite easy, at least with LZASM and JWasm)
> * CWSDPMI (not too easy but not quite impossible, just tedious)
> * TinyPlay (should be easy, I just haven't had the time or energy)

"Porting" assembler source code to another compiler is an annoying task and
"dangerous", esp. with bigger asm only projects. I also think that too many
branches of one program / project are equally as annoying.

> I just mention this because it's a small nuisance having old sources that
> use lots of TASM-specific stuff (ZRDX = nightmare!). Just wondering if
> others have any other suggestions (besides the obvious "disassemble it").

Either use TASM directly or have another (open source) compiler doing
the work for you. Don't change the complete project's source code just to
be able to compile it with another compiler.

Hope this helps,
Stefan / AH

> Turbo C++ Explorer 2006 package, that's a whopping 390 MB or so

so I won't download it

> CWSDPMI (not too easy but not quite impossible, just tedious

Is it in ASM at all ? I personally don't need it, sorry

> TinyPlay (should be easy, I just haven't had the time or energy)

What is it supposed to do ?

> ZRDX = nightmare!

Is it useful ?

> Just wondering if others have any other
> suggestions (besides the obvious "disassemble it")

Not use anyway obsolete / non-working stuff BTW, you forgot VirtualPASCAL

---
This is a LOGITECH mouse driver, but some software expect here
the following string:*** This is Copyright 1983 Microsoft ***

> Hey guys,
> As you probably know, TASM is no longer developed. And even though you
> can get TASM32 5.3 (from 2000) from the Turbo C++ Explorer 2006 package,

Isn't it more with .NET, .NET SDK J# and MSXML etc included ? At least it is that way with Turbo Delphi Explorer. I'd say it is more 480ish.

Turbo Delphi Explorer also comes with TAsm 5.3 btw.

Also I think it depends heavily on what you want to do. If you want to do major new development on these sources it might be worth to port them. I however doubt that, since then you'd only picked one instead of several.

If you just want to be able to do minorly changed build from time to time, just get the relevant TASM, and spend the time you spare by using it on improving the packages rather than the format they come in.