Announcement

**Scott Slater** · 3 Feb 2002, 09:37 AM

PB needs the Objects to be compiled in the Large Memory Model in order
for you to be able to LINK to it.

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Scott Slater
Summit Computer Networks
www.summitcn.com

[This message has been edited by Scott Slater (edited February 03, 2002).]

**Jan van de Poll** · 3 Feb 2002, 04:43 PM

Have tried that and still get error 507
Have tried commenting out the Dosseg and other directives to no avail.

Regards

Originally posted by Jan van de Poll:
I have recently purchased PB35 for DOS to evaluate it in order to migrate to PB CC or PB dll
in the near future.
Currently I use PDS 7.0 and Masm6.1 in PWB environment and have so for many years.
Some of my assembly programs are 100's of Kb in size.

Can somebody tell me:
1. What is wrong with the attached program and why is the
assembly routine considered invalid.

2. How do I assemble a source file that is not in-line without using
microsoft MASM

I know this example is easier to code inline, but it is merely a test to compare the
pb compiler to see how much of my code I have to change.

'

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**Lance Edmonds** · 3 Feb 2002, 06:04 PM

The following is apparently MASM code, probably for MASM 5.1. Can you assemble this into an OBJ and link it? If so, it should hopefully give you the framework you need to wrap you own ASM code.

Code:

; IsNetBIOS by Dave Navarro, Jr.
; Last Revision: February 19, 1995
; Returns true (-1) if NetBIOS services are available, otherwise it
; returns false (0).

Code    Segment Byte
        Assume  CS: Code

        Public  IsNetBIOS

IsNetBIOS Proc Far
        push    DS                      ;

        mov     AX, 0B800h              ; function B8h, subfunction 00h
        int     2Fh                     ; through multiplexor
        xor     BX, BX                  ; assume not installed
        or      AL, AL                  ; does AL = 0?
        jz      Exit                    ; yes, exit
        dec     BX                      ; no, return true (-1)
Exit:
        mov     AX, BX                  ;
        pop     DS                      ;
        retf                            ;
IsNetBIOS EndP
Code    EndS
        End

------------------
Lance
PowerBASIC Support
mailto:[email protected][email protected]</A>

**JOSE ROCA** · 3 Feb 2002, 08:47 PM

Jan,

The main differences are that you can't use MASM 6.1 simplified
directives and that you can only have one data segment per OBJ.

I haven't MASM installed in my computer so I can't made a test,
but your routine can be translated as:

Code:

MyCode SEGMENT PARA PUBLIC 'CODE'
ASSUME CS: MyCode

PUBLIC DosTime
PROC DosTime FAR

   Push BP
   Mov  BP, SP
   '**********************
   '**********************
   Pop BP
   Ret

DosTime ENDP
MyCode  ENDS
END

And you will call the routine as: StartTime& = DosTime&

If you pass parameters to the routine you have to access them
via BP, e.g. Mov AX, [BP+06h], and clear the stack with
RET [Number of parameters] * 4 (Power Basic always pushes 4 bytes
per parameter into the stack, this is also a major difference
with Microsoft Basic, that pushes 2 bytes if you pass an integer
and 4 bytes if you push a long).

If you use or import data in your ASM routine you must use:

DATA SEGMENT PARA PUBLIC 'DATA'

Your data [e.g. Descrip DD ?]
Your imported data [e.g. EXTRN VideoMode:BYTE]

DATA ENDS
ASSUME DS: DATA

Regards

P.S.Basic always uses the medium model, but you must not use the
.MODEL directive or any other simplified directive, neither ORG.
Also, when assembling with MASM 6.1, you must use MASM 5.1
compatibility (sorry but don't remember the switches).
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[This message has been edited by JOSE ROCA (edited February 03, 2002).]

**Jan van de Poll** · 4 Feb 2002, 03:20 AM

JOSE

Thanks for that, will try it.
PS I am on West Australian Time so cannot respond while you are awake.

REgards

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**Jan van de Poll** · 4 Feb 2002, 08:11 PM

After reviewing the changes that I have to make to my Assembly
code, I wonder if there are any benifits to changing to PB.

I have used simplified directives for more then 20 years, and
to go back to something that I have filed in the irrelative
drawer is going to be painful.

You are right about the ORG statement, it is a left over from the
.com files days.

When I pass parameters to basic, I usually pass the variable's
address, unless there is only one value then I am inclined to use
the stack so the following is a typical declaration.

DECLARE SUB CombCalc(HBin&,Cmnd&,Value&,CalcArray,WtArray)

As the purpose of this email was to evaluate the possibility of
changing to PB Dll or CC can somebody tell me if these have the
same problem as Pb for DOS.

I have already dismissed PureBasic as a contender in this area,
but Assembly language forms a large part of my real time code.

Regards and thanks for your help.

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**Tom Hanlin** · 5 Feb 2002, 08:21 AM

The simplified directives are handy but, really, they do almost nothing.
They're basically simple macros. You could readily replace them with
macros of your own.

If your goal is to move to Windows, though, you're looking at a whole
new ballgame: 32-bit flat-mode assembly language. While this is much,
much more convenient than 16-bit segmented mode in any number of ways,
your old asm code will need to be heavily rewritten.

Some of the advantages? Relative jumps can span +/- 32 Kb, 32-bit
addressing (you never touch segment registers), and more nearly orthogonal
register support (e.g., any register can act as an index register).

------------------
Tom Hanlin
PowerBASIC Staff

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