A86 assembler and D86 debugger, V4.05 January 14, 2000 Copyright 1986--2000 Eric Isaacson. All rights reserved. Eric Isaacson Software Visa/MC/Amex accepted 416 E. University Ave. 1-812-339-1811 voice Bloomington, IN 47401-4739 1-812-335-1611 fax eric@eji.com http://eji.com/a86 See Chapter 1 of the manual, A86MANU.TXT, for permissions/restrictions. This package is a complete assembly-language compiler for Intel-x86 and compatible computers, running under a Microsoft or Microsoft-compatible operating system, together with a complete manual. Please upload it to Internet Web sites, and give it to user groups, computer departments in schools, and anyone else you think might be interested in writing assembly-language programs for Intel 86- family microprocessors. You need to read the manual to use this program -- it's just too complex to be self-explanatory. Chapter 2 of the manual (A86MANU.TXT) takes you through a trial demonstration. What's New V4.05 is a bug-fix release. V4.04 is the official release of A386 and D386, with a new release of A86 and D86 with the same version number. I have upgraded A386/D386 support for the Pentium 3 processor to conform to the now-published Intel specifications, and I have added display windows to D386 for the new SIMD registers. I have also added the new AMD Athlon instructions to A386 assembly and D386 disassembly. V4.03, V4.02 and V4.01 are bug-fix releases. V4.00 is the "official release" of A86 with major new features, although I made an "unofficial release" (versions V3.7x) with these features earlier. 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). I also have an A386 assembler and D386 debugger, available only if you register BOTH A86 and D86. They cover all instructions up through the Pentium II, including MMX, AMD's 3DNow instruction set, and the not-yet-released KNI instructions. Chapter 6 of the A86 manual describes the new A386 instructions and instruction formsm, through the Pentium Pro. The newer instructions are described in a text file accompanying the A386 package. How to Get Everything If you have downloaded the A86Vxxx.ZIP file from a BBS or the Internet, you need only make a subdirectory on your hard drive, make that the current subdirectory, then run the program PKUNZIP or PCUNZIP followed by the name of the ZIP file. The program will "unzip" (decompress) all the files of the package into your subdirectory.