🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1991May6.164522.8695@digi.lonestar.org> jgay@digi.lonestar.org (john gay) writes:
>I will probably "upgrade" to tasm anyway -
>all the rest of my tools are going that way, mainly because the quality
>of micros*ft stuff is going | while the price is going ^.
>                            V                          |
>

I will certainly not try and defend MS, because I am probably considered
an MS basher.  However, I was a beta tester on MASM 6.0, for whatever
that is worth.  

If you are going to use TASM to do 32-bit code, or use 32-bit equates,
think again.  TASM is (totally) messed up in these areas.  I called
Borland about it, and they weren't concerned about fixing it.  In fact,
they didn't even commit to looking at it in future versions (current
V2.0).  In fact, if you are planning to use TASM for ANY protected mode
stuff, where you need to build relocatable code for descriptor table
accesses, TASM simply has too many bugs to even work around.

MASM 6.0 isn't without its bugs.  I still know a few that are going
into production.  But at least it is useable, and I can work around
all (but one) of the bugs that I know about.

If you need '386 or '486 stuff, TASM doesn't support it correctly...too many
bugs.  If you plan to use TASM for generic, 8088 code, then you probably
won't have a problem.

Borland LINK is a different story.  I like it very much, and think they
did a marvelous job on it.  Unfortunately, I can't use it because it too
has some bugs, relative to 32-bit segments, that can't be worked around.
So, all the hype about Borland, and their supposedly great TASM is 
probably by people that don't do assembly language programming for
a living...especially in 32-bit protected mode.

P.S. One thing that totally turns me off about a product that claims to
be 100% compatible, is when the first thing I try, fails, and can't be
reconciled.  This has happened with both TASM and TLINK.

-- 
"Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only."  Mat. 4:10
Robert Collins                 UUCP:  ...!sun!altos86!rcollins
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