Warning Danger Zone
High speed software
masm32v6.zip
MASM32 is a working development environment for programmers who want
to write 32 bit Microsoft Assembler (MASM).
It comes ready to run and with an installation program that should not
cause any problems. It installs in a directory directly of the root directory
of the chosen installation drive. It will not
install on a network drive.
MASM32 has its own tools and editor, it has an extensive range of working example code, it has additional library functions and it has Iczelion's excellent series of tutorials. MASM32 comes with a code generator called PROSTART to create projects in a minute or so. It is an excellent learning tool as it creates correct API based code that works from fully documented API function calls and it is well suited for prototyping and testing ideas on the fly without having to manually write a front end.
MASM32 has a range of winhelp format help files that run directly from the editor to make useful information available in a fast and convenient way. The overview of MASM32 is now in HTML format so that it can be read with a web browser. The WINDOWS.INC file is now over 800k and has a very extensive set of equates and structures. It is a shared project with Iczelion.
MASM32 is not intended as a learners package, it is aimed squarely at experienced programmers who are familiar with windows API coding, have written code in compilers and have done some work in assembler. While it has a suitable range of facilities to write assembler applications, it does not address the learners market. Any programmer is welcome to use MASM32 but unless the experience in compilers and API based coding is adequate, concepts such as data types, registers, assembler mnemonics and API function calls will be very difficult to grasp.
v6sp1.zip
Service pack 1 for version 6 of MASM32. It contains later binaries
for Quick Editor and TheGun, extra example code, additional library functions
and it has two specialised libraries written for MASM32. Ray Filiatreault
has written a complete mixed integer library with its own example code
and Ernie Murphy has written a version of his Component Object Model library
for MASM32. This is NOT an automatic installation, it must be installed
manually according to the readme.txt file.
v6sp2.zip
Service pack 2 for MASM32v6 has a new version of the Prostart code
wizard, an optimised set of library modules and additional library modules.
It has a new version of the subclass wizard, the latest version of WINDOWS.INC,
new help files and extra example code. Ernie Murphy has upgraded his comlib
package to version 1.1 which has been included in the service pack. Note
that this service pack must be installed manually according to the README.TXT
file.
clparam.zip
This is an accessory for Quick Editor that allows the programmer to
run an executable file from the editor and append command line arguments
to it. The secret to making this tiny program work properly is to actually
read the text file that comes with it.
l2incA & l2incU
These are a pair of identical executable files except that the A
version produces ANSI functions prototypes
and the U version produces UNICODE
prototypes. These versions are slightly faster than the previous one, they
are designed to be used with the PLATFORMSDK import libraries but have
also been tested with the VS98 set of libraries and work OK. They test
if a library is only a static library or if it contains no imports and
will not write an empty include file.
masmflip.zip
This is the masm version of Mike Bibby's original example of how to
use Direct Draw. It has been slightly modified with the author's permission
so that it will build in the MASM32 environment. Mike has supplied the
necessary include files for the Direct Draw interface.
dc-ddraw.zip
This is a Direct Draw plasma demo by Ewald Snel & Gatt. It requires
a 32 bit colour monitor to run it but it displays some very clever programming
techniques drawn from C programming. The include file by Ewald Snel is
particularly good and Gatt has written a small text tutorial to explain
how it works. It has been slightly modified with the authors permission
so it will build from the MASM32 environment.
Why Write in 32 bit assembler ?
For programmers who are not familiar with 32 bit Windows assembler, there is speed and performance available that you may never have seen before and contrary to popular legend, if you can write a Windows application in C, Basic, Pascal or other similar compiler based languages, you can write it in MASM with very similar looking code if you bother to learn the MASM high level syntax.
MASM32 has been designed to be familiar to programmers who have already written API based code in Windows. The invoke syntax of MASM allows functions to be called in much the same way as they are called in a high level compiler.
The traditional notation for calling a function is as follows,
push par4
push par3
push par2
push par1
call FunctionName
mov retval, eax
With the MASM "invoke" syntax, you code as follows,
invoke FunctionName,par1,
par2, par3, par4
mov retval, eax
Apart from much clearer coding, there is another important advantage in that the "invoke" syntax is type checked against function prototypes so that parameter number and size errors are caught at assembly time.
MASM uses the notation for addresses in the invoke syntax of ADDR. This will resolve to an address in the correct form at assembly time. To call a function that uses a zero terminated string as a parameter, you use,
invoke FunctionName,ADDR szString
MASM32 also uses a high level simulation of branching code in the WndProc of its example code that is very similar to a standard C switch block.
.if par1 == num
code
code
.elseif par2 == num
code
code
.else
code
code
.endif
Combined with the invoke syntax, this allows for very clear coding of otherwise unreadable and error prone WndProc and similar functions. Code written in this way has a similar "feel" to writing in a compiler using inline assembler but the difference is that with pure assembler, there are no problematic runtime libraries and the size and speed when written correctly is beyond the capacity of compilers.
Below is the source code for a basic window with an icon and menu supplied with MASM32. It assembles at 5120 bytes. This should be enough to convince the programmer who still works in other languages that modern assembler has many advantages over the compilers that they are using in terms of both speed and size. Examine the code and it has much of the familiarity of writing C but without the problems associated with using the often very uneven C runtime libraries.
; #########################################################################
.386
.model flat, stdcall
option casemap :none
; case sensitive
; #########################################################################
include \masm32\include\windows.inc
include \masm32\include\user32.inc
include \masm32\include\kernel32.inc
includelib \masm32\lib\user32.lib
includelib \masm32\lib\kernel32.lib
; #########################################################################
;=============
; Local macros
;=============
szText MACRO Name, Text:VARARG
LOCAL lbl
jmp lbl
Name db Text,0
lbl:
ENDM
m2m MACRO M1, M2
push M2
pop M1
ENDM
return MACRO arg
mov eax, arg
ret
ENDM
;=================
; Local prototypes
;=================
WinMain PROTO :DWORD,:DWORD,:DWORD,:DWORD
WndProc PROTO :DWORD,:DWORD,:DWORD,:DWORD
TopXY PROTO
:DWORD,:DWORD
.data
szDisplayName db
"Template",0
CommandLine
dd 0
hWnd
dd 0
hInstance
dd 0
.code
start:
invoke GetModuleHandle,
NULL
mov hInstance, eax
invoke GetCommandLine
mov CommandLine,
eax
invoke WinMain,hInstance,NULL,CommandLine,SW_SHOWDEFAULT
invoke ExitProcess,eax
; #########################################################################
WinMain proc hInst :DWORD,
hPrevInst :DWORD,
CmdLine :DWORD,
CmdShow :DWORD
;====================
; Put LOCALs on stack
;====================
LOCAL wc
:WNDCLASSEX
LOCAL msg :MSG
LOCAL Wwd :DWORD
LOCAL Wht :DWORD
LOCAL Wtx :DWORD
LOCAL Wty :DWORD
;==================================================
; Fill WNDCLASSEX
structure with required variables
;==================================================
mov wc.cbSize,
sizeof WNDCLASSEX
mov wc.style,
CS_HREDRAW or CS_VREDRAW \
or CS_BYTEALIGNWINDOW
mov wc.lpfnWndProc,
offset WndProc
mov wc.cbClsExtra,
NULL
mov wc.cbWndExtra,
NULL
m2m wc.hInstance,
hInst
mov wc.hbrBackground,
COLOR_BTNFACE+1
mov wc.lpszMenuName,
NULL
mov wc.lpszClassName,
offset szClassName
invoke
LoadIcon,hInst,500 ; icon ID
mov wc.hIcon,
eax
invoke
LoadCursor,NULL,IDC_ARROW
mov wc.hCursor,
eax
mov wc.hIconSm,
0
invoke RegisterClassEx, ADDR wc
;================================
; Centre window at
following size
;================================
mov Wwd, 500
mov Wht, 350
invoke GetSystemMetrics,SM_CXSCREEN
invoke TopXY,Wwd,eax
mov Wtx, eax
invoke GetSystemMetrics,SM_CYSCREEN
invoke TopXY,Wht,eax
mov Wty, eax
szText szClassName,"Template_Class"
invoke CreateWindowEx,WS_EX_OVERLAPPEDWINDOW,
ADDR szClassName,
ADDR szDisplayName,
WS_OVERLAPPEDWINDOW,
Wtx,Wty,Wwd,Wht,
NULL,NULL,
hInst,NULL
mov hWnd,eax
invoke LoadMenu,hInst,600
; menu ID
invoke SetMenu,hWnd,eax
invoke ShowWindow,hWnd,SW_SHOWNORMAL
invoke UpdateWindow,hWnd
;===================================
; Loop until PostQuitMessage
is sent
;===================================
StartLoop:
invoke GetMessage,ADDR msg,NULL,0,0
cmp eax, 0
je ExitLoop
invoke TranslateMessage, ADDR
msg
invoke DispatchMessage,
ADDR msg
jmp StartLoop
ExitLoop:
return msg.wParam
WinMain endp
; #########################################################################
WndProc proc hWin :DWORD,
uMsg :DWORD,
wParam :DWORD,
lParam :DWORD
.if uMsg == WM_COMMAND
;======== menu commands ========
.if wParam == 1000
invoke SendMessage,hWin,WM_SYSCOMMAND,SC_CLOSE,NULL
.elseif wParam ==
1900
szText TheMsg,"Assembler, Pure & Simple"
invoke MessageBox,hWin,ADDR TheMsg,ADDR szDisplayName,MB_OK
.endif
;====== end menu commands ======
.elseif uMsg == WM_CLOSE
szText TheText,"Please
Confirm Exit"
invoke MessageBox,hWin,ADDR
TheText,ADDR szDisplayName,MB_YESNO
.if eax
== IDNO
return 0
.endif
.elseif uMsg == WM_DESTROY
invoke PostQuitMessage,NULL
return 0
.endif
invoke DefWindowProc,hWin,uMsg,wParam,lParam
ret
WndProc endp
; ########################################################################
TopXY proc wDim:DWORD, sDim:DWORD
shr sDim, 1
; divide screen dimension by 2
shr wDim, 1
; divide window dimension by 2
mov eax, wDim ; copy window
dimension into eax
sub sDim, eax ; sub half
win dimension from half screen dimension
return sDim
TopXY endp
; ########################################################################
end start