INF: MASM 6.0 Programmer's Guide Errors: Chapters 1-6

ID Number: Q80131

6.00 | 6.00

MS-DOS | OS/2

docerr

Summary:

The following is a list of documentation additions and corrections for

Chapters 1 through 6 of the "Microsoft Macro Assembler Programmer's

Guide" for version 6.0. The section and page numbers are listed first,

followed by a description of the addition or correction.

More Information:

Section 1.3.3, Page 35

----------------------

At the bottom of the page, the description for the .ERRDIF directive

states:

...ERRIDNI and .ERRDIFI perform the same action but are case

sensitive.

This is incorrect. The line should read:

...ERRIDNI and .ERRDIFI perform the same action but are *not* case

sensitive.

Section 2.2.4, Page 44

----------------------

The last sentence of the second paragraph in this section should read:

These *five* directives also prevent instructions from

appearing...

Section 3.3.2, Page 76

----------------------

The very last line of sample code on this page is

mov ax, BYTE PTR [bx] ; Legal

which is moving an 8-bit value into a 16-bit register. This is

misleading in the context of the example. It would make more sense as

follows:

mov al, BYTE PTR [bx] ; Legal

Section 4.2.4.1, Page 100

-------------------------

The sample code at the top of this page has two comments that should

be reversed. The comment

; 8-bit signed multiply

precedes the code that is doing *unsigned* multiplication with MUL. The

comment should be:

; 8-bit *unsigned* multiply

The next piece of code is preceded by the comment:

; 16-bit unsigned multiply

This is incorrect. The comment should read:

; 16-bit *signed* multiply

Section 5.1.1, Page 112

-----------------------

Beneath the description of the DUP syntax, the text reads:

The count value sets the number of times to repeat the last

initialvalue

This is incorrect; instead, the description should be:

The count value sets the number of times to repeat the entire list

'initialvalue [,initialvalue]...'

Section 5.1.1, Page 113

-----------------------

The second line of the sample code at the bottom of the page should be:

shl si, 1 ; Scale for word referencing

Section 5.1.2, Page 115

-----------------------

The second code example, which describes how to declare an array of

pointers to strings, has a typographical error on the third to the

last line. Instead of

pmsg2 BPBYTE msg2

it should read as follows:

pmsg2 PBYTE msg2

Section 5.1.3.1, Page 120

-------------------------

The first step of a repeat sequence is described as:

1. Checks the CX register and exits if CX is 0. If the REPE prefix

is used, the loop exits if the zero flag is set; if REPNE is

used, the loop exits if the zero flag is clear.

This second part of this step is incorrect. The zero flag is not checked

until step five, at which time it will decide whether to terminate the

loop.

Section 5.2.2, Page 128

-----------------------

The last comment in the sample code on this page is incorrect. It

states that the last line of code "Allocates and initializes 10

unions," when in fact it allocates and initializes 20 unions.

Section 5.2.2, Page 128

-----------------------

The diagram on this page is misleading. It shows the 2-byte values

listed sequentially in memory as high byte followed by low byte (for

example, |0 2|0 2|0 2|), when values are actually stored in memory as

low byte followed by high byte (for example, |2 0|2 0|2 0|).

Furthermore, the last element of this array is shown to be

"array[18]", when the last element is supposed to be "array[38]".

Section 5.2.3, Page 132

-----------------------

The diagram on this page is is misleading. The sample code shows a

WORD value being loaded with the decimal value 40, but the diagram

shows it stored in memory as:

-----------

| 4 0 0 0 |

-----------

This is confusing because the element that is supposed to contain the

decimal value 2 is shown as:

-----------

| 2 0 0 0 |

-----------

It would be more understandable if the sample code loaded the two

array elements with the hexadecimal values 40h and 2h so the four

digits in the diagram corresponded to the four hexadecimal digits in a

WORD value as follows:

-----------------------

| 40 00 | ... | 02 00 |

-----------------------

Section 5.3.1, Page 136

-----------------------

The first sentence of the second paragraph is misleading. It should

read:

Global labels and macro names must all be unique. Record field

names must also all be unique, but record field names can have the

same names as structure field names, macro names, or global labels.

Section 5.3.2, Page 137

-----------------------

The syntax for defining record variables with the DUP operator is

misleading. It should read:

[name] recordname constant DUP ([record_initializer

[,record_initializer]...])

Section 5.3.3, Page 139

-----------------------

The sample code on this page has two errors:

1. The comments show the binary arithmetic that takes place but uses

an incorrect operand. The numbers should resemble the following

(notice the first bit of the first line):

1101 1001

AND 1000 1111

---------

1000 1001

OR 1000 0000

---------

1000 1001

XOR 0000 1000

---------

1000 0001

2. The condition of the IF statement towards the bottom of the example

is shown as "(WIDTH color) GE 8". While this is syntactically

correct, it will not do what it is supposed to accomplish. The line

should be:

IF (WIDTH color) GT 8

Additional reference words: 6.00