FIX: LOCAL Directive with a Structure

MS-DOS     | OS/2

The information in this article applies to:

• Microsoft Macro Assembler for MS-DOS, versions 5.1 and 5.1a
• Microsoft Macro Assembler for OS/2, versions 5.1 and 5.1a

SYMPTOMS

On Page Update-42 of the "Microsoft Macro Assembler 5.1 Updates and Microsoft Editor" manual, it states that you can use the LOCAL directive with a structure type. When this is done, you may receive the following errors:

   A2003 Unknown Type Specifier
   A2010 Syntax Error

CAUSE

This feature was not implemented in MASM versions 5.1 or 5.1a.

RESOLUTION

To avoid the A2003 Unknown type specifier error, include the PTR keyword in the LOCAL directive. For example:

   LOCAL stuff:parms

   LOCAL stuff:ptr parms

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in MASM version 5.1. This problem has been corrected in MASM version 6.0.

MORE INFORMATION

The following code can bed used to demonstrate this problem.

Sample Code

; Assemble options needed: none

.MODEL small, c .STACK 4096

parms STRUC

      p1 DW ?
      p2 DW ?

.CODE

      CALL test_func

LOCAL stuff:parms             ; A2003 Unknown type specifier
      MOV ax, 0ffffh
      MOV stuff. p1,ax        ; A2010 Syntax error
      MOV stuff. p2,ax        ; A2010 Syntax error
      RET

END