MSM9108011: ^Z in Input File Appears to Truncate Listing File

ID Number: Q74883

6.00 | 6.00

MS-DOS | OS/2

buglist6.00 fixlist6.00a

Summary:

SYMPTOMS

If one of the source files assembled by the Microsoft Macro

Assembler (MASM) version 6.0 contains a CTRL+Z character, the

listing file generated by the assembler may appear to be truncated

immediately following the position of that source file in the

listing.

CAUSE

The CTRL+Z character is considered to be the end-of-file (EOF)

character for text files in DOS and OS/2. Many editors support this

and use the CTRL+Z as a file termination character. Unfortunately,

when MASM 6.0 adds files to the listing file, it reads the entire

file including the CTRL+Z at the end, if there is one, and places

it in the listing. If you use the DOS or OS/2 operating system

commands, such as Type or Copy, to display the resultant file, it

will seem to end at the first occurrence of a CTRL+Z (EOF)

character.

RESOLUTION

If your editor supports saving a file without a CTRL+Z as the

termination character, this is the easiest way to work around this

problem. If there is no CTRL+Z in the source file, it cannot be

transferred to the list file.

If you cannot eliminate the CTRL+Z characters, you can load the

list file into the Programmer's WorkBench (PWB) and remove the

CTRL+Z character(s) from the file. Because PWB does not rely on

CTRL+Z characters for EOFs, the CTRL+Z characters will be displayed

as right arrow characters (->). You can delete these characters

just as you can delete any other character. After removing the

CTRL+Z characters, the DOS or OS/2 commands will operate on the

listing file as expected.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in MASM version 6.0.

This problem was corrected in MASM version 6.0a.