Re: ML.EXE and more goodies direct from Microsoft.
- From: The_Sage <The_Sage@xxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 18 Dec 2005 19:59:49 -0700
>Reply to article by: Al Leitch <aleitch@3*&comcast.net>
>Date written: Sat, 17 Dec 2005 19:19:35 -0800
>MsgID:<E6ydncCkh53VSDneRVn-sg@xxxxxxxxxxx>
>On the subject of MASM, over the years I've noticed in you a strong
>leaning toward the idea of a one true assembler and that everybody will
>switch to programming in asm. I've always believed in the "to each their
>own" philosophy. Some prefer RosAsm, others MASM (just became a new
>convert), NASM, etc. Some like HLL and others like ASM and yet others
>like both depending on the task. What's wrong with variety and
>difference? Each language has its strengths and weaknesses.
People prefer what is easy to understand and use and what they understand
easiest is what they first learned to program with. Of course, the most likely
product to learn on will be the most supported and most employable product, and
that would be MASM. I liked TASM but never learned it, but I'm glad I didn't
because TASM is no longer supported like MASM is. Programmers that learned MASM
didn't understand the IDEAL MODE and TASM programmers didn't like MASM scoping.
It isn't a case of one being superior to the other, it is just a case of one
being different from the other and "different" means one has to waste lots of
time learning something new when it isn't necessary to learn something new.
>Another issue with only coding in ASM is the fact that you'll need to
>learn a new asm if you ever decide to code for a different platform (PC
>versus the Palm, which used to have M68328 Dragonball but now ARM).
>That's time spent learning not only the new asm but also the api,
>programming paradigm, etc for that platform. When I decided to give Palm
>a shot, I had to learn that stuff.
Yeah, that was real fun, wasn't it? Yet if you stick to the higher languages,
like JAVA, you have less to learn, making it the easier and preferable solution.
>Thankfully you can keep coding in 68k so you desire because the ole Palm
>emulates it through PACE. As I would suspect though, you may end up
>having a part of your code so speed critical you'd have to code it in
>native ARM (known as an armlet), so then you've gotta learn that ASM. I
>suspect there might be other reasons to use armlets.
Most of the applications in PALM are not critical. Calendars, GPS, and notepads
don't need to be very fast or extremely small.
>Contrast this picture with C language where you have one less layer of
>learning to deal with. Instead of learning basically a new language, you
>only need to deal with learning all the stuff specific to the platform.
Whew! What a relief that is!
>Some platforms are harder to find assemblers for than others. With the
>Palm there's Pila (Pilot assembler) and GAS. From what I've read, GAS
>has minimal error handling cause it's designed to be used as a compiler
>backend rather than a primary coding tool. As for Pila, there is not to
>my knowledge an H2INC equivalent, meaning that you won't be able to use
>the latest Palm OS SDK which officially supports C. Phil Schackerman
>came up with a scheme to convert the specific version of the Palm OS SDK
>in 2003 to .inc files. I admire his attempt, unfortunately there will
>always be new versions being released. Thanks to Pineau
>(http://www.rti-zone.com) who coded a Rotozoom demo, you can get the
>Palm OS 4 include files, better in comparison to the 2.0 includes from
>Darrin Massena's site. As for ARM palm assembly, the only option I've
>seen is good ole GAS.
Basically, there is no reason to code in ASM for these types of products unless
you are the manufacturer and are developing an OS for it.
The Sage
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My Home Page : http://members.cox.net/the.sage
"Careful when you cast your devil out of you lest you cast
out the best thing in you." -Nietzsche
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