Abstract:
CD Content with book # E8434 - E8443. This diskette contains new releases for the A86 assembler and
D86 debugger. Everything except the files REG_ONLY.ZIP and
A386BETA.ZIP (if you have them) can be copied and distributed.
Please upload the other ZIP files to bulletin boards, and give
them to user groups, computer departments in schools, and anyone
else you think might be interested in an assembler or a debugger
package for the IBM-PC.
REG_ONLY.ZIP is the file containing materials available only to
registered users. A386BETA.ZIP is a file, available only on the
A86+D86 registered disk, containing preliminary test versions of
A386 and D386. If you see one or both of these files on your
registered disk, they are for your use only. You may NOT
distribute them. Please support my products by honoring this
restriction.
You need to read the manuals to use these programs -- they're
just too complex to be self-explanatory. Chapter 2 of each
manual takes you through a trial demonstration.
Description:
What's New
V3.72 and V3.71 fix a few bugs.
V3.70 adds numerous major features to A86. Let's cover the
INCOMPATIBILITIES first, so you will know where to tweak your
existing code:
* Error messages in A86 now have a slightly different format (on
their own line with a pointer to the error location). If you
have any source code lying around with old-format error
messages, get rid of the messages before reassembling with
this new version -- this version cannot handle them.
* I have changed the L switch to the G (code Generation) switch
to prepare for L becoming a Listing-control switch. I have
also changed the X switch to +G16, to prepare for X becoming
the XRF control switch. If you have any batch files or A86
environment-flag settings with +L or +X in them, change them
to +G for this new version.
* The DATA SEGMENT now has a default ORG value of END; that is,
it starts at the end of your program, unless you have an ORG
otherwise. V3.20--V3.22 of A86 outlawed ORGless DATA segments,
in anticipation of this feature. Versions before that had a
default ORG of 0 -- if you have source code written for a
pre-V3.20 version of A86, make sure you put ORG 0 at the start
of the first DATA SEGMENT if it was ORG-less.
Other new features include an INCLUDE directive (Chapter 9), a
listing facility (Chapters 3 and 13), END operand value (Chapter
9), pulling XREF and EXMAC functions into the assembler (Chapter
13), operand to EVEN (Chapter 9), the removal of the limit on
the length of a source file, the removal of most restrictions on
forward-references within expressions, the ability to ORG in the
DATA segment and structures to a forward-reference value, the
REF and DEF operators (Chapter 9), the K numeric base (Chapter
10), numeric operands to STOSx and MOVSx (Chapter 5), and macros
in an A86LIB library (Chapter 13).
How to Get Everything
The packages consist of many files, packed tightly into a few
files with the ZIP extension. I have provided the batch files
INSTALLA.BAT and INSTALLB.BAT, that create a subdirectory called
A86 on your C drive, and unpack everything except AFIX to that
subdirectory. You can just type either A:INSTALLA or B:INSTALLB
(depending on whether the diskette is in drive A or B) to the
DOS prompt.
AFIX is a conversion toolkit for certain old PC-Magazine source
files. The command A:PCUNZIP A:AFIX*.ZIP will unpack AFIX
from diskette drive A to the current drive and directory.