Re: why is nobody developing assembly IDE's

From: Beth (BethStone21_at_hotmail.NOSPICEDHAM.com)
Date: 05/21/04 

Date: Fri, 21 May 2004 19:16:07 +0100

Annie wrote:
> Don said:
> > Why are none of the big companies like Borland, or Microsoft
> > developing Assembly IDE's anymore...... aren't computers
still
> > running on machine langauge when it comes right down to
it....
> > I remeber the days when I could walk into a computer store
and
> > pick up Borland Turbo Assembler...........
> _____
> Those days are long gone, Don. ((( `\
> High level languages are now _ _`\ )
> the order of the day...and you (^ ) )
> can largely thank/curse Mikro$loth ~-( )
> for that. _'((,,,)))
> ,-' \_/ `\
> M$'s dumbed-down, pointee-clickee ( , |
> abomination has stuffed you into `-.-'`-.-'/|_|
> a proprietary programming box, \ / | |
> composed mostly of API calls. =()=: / ,' aa
>
> The educational institutions have capitulated to
> this Mikro$loth-driven 'market trend,' and have
> dumbed down their programming courses to coincide
> with it. That means teaching high-level languages.
>
> ASM, if taught at all, is regarded as a red-headed
> step-child, and is given only the most perfunctory
> acknowledgment.
>
> Result? We now have a generation of "programmers"
> who are largely ASM-illiterate.
>
> That being the case, there's very little money to
> be made with assembly-language-related products.
> There's not much of a market left. So it's bye-bye
> to Turbo Assembler, et al.
>
> Development of new ASM tools is now largely in the
> hands of independent individuals and groups.
>
> But this is good, in one respect. Much of the new
> software is free (or reasonably-priced shareware).
>
> If you want to write for <*spit*> WinDoze, you can
> try RosASM, NASM, FASM, GoASM, A386, etc. You can
> even grab a pirated copy of MA$M32 from the 'Net;
> it's widely available for download.
>
> So do some exploring, and have fun. Hehehe!

Sometimes Annie isn't completely wrong (even if her phrasiology
is always a touch provocative, even when replying sensibly
;)...there's only really one thing to add...

Of course, Annie's comment about the "pirated copy of MA$M32"
was just a dig at Hutch...but it would be remiss not to point
out that Microsoft do package along a version of MASM in their
"DDK" for device drivers on their website to download...and, so
I've heard, in some "VC++ preprocessor pack" they also supply
somewhere (whatever the hell that means...I usually stick with
Borland myself for C++ and such...seems a misnomer to me if MASM
is in a "preprocessor" pack because MASM, if ever used at all by
someone using VC++, would be on the other side of the C++
compiler as a "post-processor", not a "preprocessor"...or used
independently from the compiler that it's just a separate tool
and NOT a "pre / post processing" anything ;)...

Though, this is _just_ the main MASM tools by themselves...the
"MASM32" package that Hutch distributes (whether or not it's
"pirated" is a contentious issue because Hutch insists he _has_
got permission to do so, while many others reckon he's just
lying...and, to be honest, as Microsoft just hand out MASM to
anyone who wants it donwloading the free DDK download, MS
probably simply _DON'T CARE_ about it anymore, anyway...it's not
important to the "master plan" so even if technically a breach
of the licence then, well, it's only strictly "wrong" _when_
Microsoft complain about it...and if they are never going to do
that, it's all a "technicality"...though, as always, I'm not a
lawyer, this isn't legal advice and I have no idea whether Hutch
has got that "permission" or not...he says he does...but, then
again, Rene says everyone who doesn't use RosAsm is a "Monsanto
Nazi"...you can't always believe everything you read on a
newsgroup in one direction or the other ;) has taken these tools
but also supplied other useful things like Windows include files
and a help file and text editor and that kind of thing...so,
"MASM32" - the "32" used to show you mean Hutch's "MASM (plus
goodies)" package rather than just MASM by itself, normally -
would be more useful...though not much more than a "Notepad"
variant, that package does have a basic "IDE" supplied...

FASM has an IDE going along with it...RosAsm is a GUI assembler
(so, the assembler and IDE are, in fact, one and the same
thing...so, yeah, that doesn't just "have" an IDE, it _IS_ an
IDE, so to speak ;)...RadAsm is a separate IDE that links up to
other assemblers like HLA, MASM, FASM, etc....

As Annie says, do some exploring and have some fun...because now
that the commercial companies have more or less abandoned
assembly language, then it's "open source" like GPL, freeware,
public domain and shareware that now "rule the roost" in this
area, so practically everything you could want to look at is a
web search and a free download away, that you can explore a
little and get a whole bunch of different ASM tools and stuff
and have a free look at most everything to pluck out that tool
that you reckon best suits you and what you have in mind...

Beth :)