The MASM Forum Archive 2004 to 2012

Specialised Projects => Assembler/Compiler Technology => Topic started by: SteveAsm on January 10, 2012, 04:05:48 PM

Title: too quiet at jwasm
Post by: SteveAsm on January 10, 2012, 04:05:48 PM
http://sourceforge.net/projects/jwasm/forums/forum/927109

I would hate to see further development suspended.
Title: Re: too quiet at jwasm
Post by: Vortex on January 10, 2012, 06:23:14 PM
Hi Steve,

What is exactly the problem? Japheth has many projects to maintain, have a look at his website. He probably has other duties in real life and it's not so easy to work on those projects if you are only one person to assume all the responsibility.
Title: Re: too quiet at jwasm
Post by: SteveAsm on January 10, 2012, 07:09:59 PM
Hi Vortex,

Quote from: Vortex on January 10, 2012, 06:23:14 PM
What is exactly the problem?
I'm not saying there is one. Yet.

Quote
Japheth has many projects to maintain, have a look at his website.
It's simply the fact that he posted that he didn't have time for jwasm that concerns me.

Quote
He probably has other duties in real life and it's not so easy to work on those projects if you are only one person to assume all the responsibility.
Yes, I know about real life, too.
A person only assumes responsibilities that they can manage.

I only recently resurrected a project that I suspended in 2004 due partly to real life.
And, I am now using jwasm on this project.

If jwasm is done and requires no further development, then it's done.
If not...

When betting, one hates to feel that they put their money on the wrong horse.
Title: Re: too quiet at jwasm
Post by: jj2007 on January 10, 2012, 07:21:36 PM
Jwasm is freeware, and the sources are available. You are absolutely free to roll your own version of JWasm.
Besides, there are very few known bugs, and for practically all of them there are workarounds. You can ask for help here.
Japheth will resurface when he feels like.
Title: Re: too quiet at jwasm
Post by: Vortex on January 10, 2012, 07:35:26 PM
Hi Steve,

Let's wait for a while with patience. Probably later, Japheth will be OK and feel better himself to communicate with the Jwasm community.
Title: Re: too quiet at jwasm
Post by: dedndave on January 10, 2012, 09:05:33 PM
QuoteIf jwasm is done and requires no further development, then it's done.
If not...

Steve,
your project should not rely so heavily on such an occurance
projects like JwAsm are ongoing - there will always be some way to improve it
or make it work correctly on or take advantage of a new OS, etc
if your project hinges on JwAsm being "done", you may never finish it

Andreas will get back to it - he mentioned this month as a possible date in the post you linked
but - even if he didn't have other more pressing matters, it's nice to take a break from a large project once in a while
it gives you a clear head with which to contemplate new ideas or methods
Title: Re: too quiet at jwasm
Post by: SteveAsm on January 10, 2012, 11:38:25 PM
Quote from: dedndave on January 10, 2012, 09:05:33 PM
your project should not rely so heavily on such an occurance
...
if your project hinges on JwAsm being "done", you may never finish it

On the contrary, my project doesn't hinge on jwasm being done, at this point.
My concern is in what it (jwasm) may be lacking, which is unknown to me.
Since I've only started using jwasm and testing it's abilities and how it compares with Masm syntax, I have no idea where it may fall short.
Since jwasm is not well documented, (Andreas defers to Masm documentation), how does one know what it does do and what it does not do ?

Quote
... it's nice to take a break from a large project once in a while
it gives you a clear head with which to contemplate new ideas or methods

Agreed  :U

So that I might continue using jwasm, as a replacement for Masm, my question would be:
    to what percentage is jwasm complete and compatible with current versions of Masm ?
Title: Re: too quiet at jwasm
Post by: jj2007 on January 11, 2012, 01:45:18 AM
Quote from: SteveAsm on January 10, 2012, 11:38:25 PM
    to what percentage is jwasm complete and compatible with current versions of Masm ?

About 99.9%. You will have a rough time finding examples where it does not do exactly the same as a recent ML version.
Title: Re: too quiet at jwasm
Post by: SteveAsm on January 11, 2012, 02:50:00 PM
Quote from: jj2007 on January 11, 2012, 01:45:18 AM
About 99.9%.

Great!   :thumbu
I can work with that.
I would have been satisfied with a much lower percentage, (you never use 100% of available resources).  :bg
Title: Re: too quiet at jwasm
Post by: jj2007 on January 29, 2012, 11:40:14 PM
Attached is a little proggie that checks if there are new builds at Japheth's site. Output:
....
60      JWasm206bl      22-Jul-2011
61      JWasm206bw      22-Jul-2011
62      JWasm206s       22-Jul-2011
63      JWasm207bl      03-Nov-2011
64      JWasm207bw      03-Nov-2011


So, nope, nothing new. Which is not a big problem because all my stuff assembles fine with JWasm207bw.

Here is the source but it won't assemble with the currently published version of MB because I feel that adding Internet access to FileRead$() is a bit risky - PM me if you disagree :bg

include \masm32\MasmBasic\MasmBasic.inc   ; download (http://www.masm32.com/board/index.php?topic=12460)
  Init
  StringToArray Cat$(FileRead$("http://www.japheth.de/Download/JWasm")), jw$()
  For_ ebx=0 To eax-1
   .if Instr_(jw$(ebx), "JWasm")   ; returns pointer in eax, plus 1-based index in edx
      xchg eax, esi   ; make pointer permanent
      .if Instr_(esi, ".zip")
         xchg edx, ecx   ; make index permanent
         PrintLine Left$(esi, ecx-1), Tb$, Mid$(esi, Instr_(ecx, esi, '"right"')+8, 12)
      .endif
   .endif
  Next
  Inkey
  Exit
end start