MASM 6.1a README.TXT: Patch Release Notes

The information in this article applies to:

• Microsoft Macro Assembler for MS-DOS, version 6.1

The text below presents information from the README.TXT file provided with the Microsoft Macro Assembler (MASM) version 6.1a patch. The patch updates MASM version 6.1 to version 6.1a. The patch is available from the Microsoft Download Service (206-936-MSDL).

PART 1: INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS

1. Make backup copies of each file the patch changes. By default, each file is in the MASM BIN directory (by default, C:\MASM61\BIN). The patch changes the following files:

         CVTOMF.EXE
         DOSXNT.EXE
         MASM.EXE
         ML.EXE
         NMAKE.EXE
         PWBC.XXT
         PWBUTILS.MXT
   

   NOTE: The PWBC.XXT file may be named PWBC.MXT. If so, rename the file to PWBC.XXT before running the patch program and rename it to PWBC.MXT when the patch program is complete. Otherwise, the patch program does not update this file.

2. Make the MASM 6.1 directory the current directory. For example:

         C:
         CD \MASM61
   

3. Copy the patch files into your MASM 6.1 directory. The required files are as follows:

         PATCH.EXE
         PATCH.RTD
         PATCH.RTP
   

4. Enter the following at the MS-DOS command prompt to run the patch program:

         PATCH
   

   The patch program produces status messages to indicate its progress. When the program is complete, you can delete the patch files.

5. In addition to modifying existing files, the patch program also creates several new files. To use these files, see the "Using the New Files" section below.

6. If you use Microsoft Visual C++ and Programmer's WorkBench (PWB), you may need to reselect linker options in PWB. For more information, see "Compatibility Problems" in the "What Has Been Fixed" section below.

If You Have Trouble

If you have problems installing this patch:

• Verify that you have all three patch files: PATCH.EXE, PATCH.RTP, and PATCH.RTD.
• Verify that you have the correct version of the files to update. This patch only modifies files from MASM version 6.1.

PART 2: WHAT HAS BEEN FIXED?

Compatibility Problems with Microsoft Visual C++

• You cannot install MASM 6.1 into the same directory as Microsoft Visual C++ because the MS-DOS extenders conflict. Because MASM 6.1a uses the same version of the MS-DOS extender as Visual C++, this is no longer a problem.

  NOTE: Microsoft Visual C++ provides newer versions of some utilities. To use the newer utilities, verify that Visual C++ appears in the PATH MS-DOS environment variable before MASM.

• The MASM 6.1 PWB extensions use "/NOF" as an abbreviation for the "Translate Intrasegment Far Calls" linker option. "/NOF" is not a valid option for the Visual C++ linker. Perform the following steps to change the "/NOF" linker option to "/NOFA":

  1. Open the desired project. 2. From the Options menu, choose Link Options. 3. Select Additional Debug Options or Additional Release Options. 4. Choose OK to close the Additional Options dialog box. 5. Choose OK to close the Link Options dialog box.

Inability to Run MASM from a Read-only Network Drive

• MASM now correctly uses the TMP environment variable to create swap files for virtual memory. If you run MASM from a read-only network drive, verify that the TMP variable specifies a drive and directory for which you have write permission.

Other Fixes

• Errors that occur assembling a very large number of files using the command "ML *.ASM" have been corrected.
• Includes CNOCRTDW.LIB, the compact memory model library for a Microsoft Windows dynamic-link library (DLL).
• Includes a virtual memory source browser database utility (BSCMAKEV.EXE).
• Includes a PWB version 2.1 extension for the Microsoft Profiler (PWBPROF.XXT).

PART 3: USING THE NEW FILES

The patch provides the following new files that were not part of the original MASM 6.1 release:

   BSCMAKEV.EXE
   CNOCRTDW.LIB
   PWBPROF.XXT

NOTE: The patch program attempts to install these files into the correct directories. If the patch program cannot locate the correct directory for a file, it places the file into the MASM root directory. When this occurs, it may be necessary to move the file to the correct directory to use it, as described below.

BSCMAKEV.EXE

BSCMAKEV is a version of the BSCMAKE source browser database utility which uses virtual memory. BSCMAKEV is slower than BSCMAKE, but it can process larger databases.

CNOCRTDW.LIB

CNOCRTDW.LIB contains the compact memory model version of the Windows DLL startup code. Because DLLs in the Microsoft Windows operating system rarely use the compact memory model, this file is not typically needed.

To use CNOCRTDW.LIB, place it into the MASM libraries directory (by default, C:\MASM61\LIB). For more information on writing DLLs, please refer to Chapter 10 of the "Programmer's Guide."

PWBPROF.XXT

PWBPROF.XXT extends PWB to use the Microsoft Source Profiler version 1.0. The PWB extension originally supplied with Profiler version 1.0 is not compatible with the current version of PWB.

To use the Profiler with PWB, rename this file to PWBPROF.MXT and place it into the same directory as PWB (for example, C:\MASM61\BIN). When PWB starts, it automatically loads the extension. For more information on loading the extension manually, please refer to the instructions on using PWB in the "Environment and Tools" manual.