Subject: 1. Introduction and Intent
go General Section for Details
Return to the Table Of Contents------------------------------
1. Introduction And Intent 2. Table Of Contents REVISED 3. How To Get The Patch For MASM 6.11 4. What Is And How To Access The Microsoft Knowledge Base 5. Pentium Instruction Macros 6. Microsoft's MASM Newsgroup 7. MASM Information Available At www.microsoft.com 8. How To Get The Patch For MASM 6.12 and 6.13 9. MASM Free From Microsoft REVISED 10. Acknowledgments [General][MASM][TASM][A86/D86]------------------------------
Subject: 3. How To Get The Patch For MASM 6.11
There is a patch available from Microsoft for MASM 6.11. This patch converts MASM 6.11 or 6.11a into the latest version MASM 6.11d. This patch will not work on MASM 6.11c. To obtain this patch: ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/softlib/mslfiles/ML611D.EXE ML611D.EXE is a self-extracting file which when executed will create the following files: ERRMSG.TXT PATCH.RTP H2INC.EXE PATCH.RTD H2INC.ERR README.TXT ML611D.TXT SUPPORT.TXT PATCH.EXE All the instructions for installing the patch are contained in ML611D.TXT. Contributor: Raymond Moon, raymoon@moonware.dgsys.com Last Changed: 20 Mar 98 Return to the Table Of Contents------------------------------
Subject: 4. What Is and How to Access the Microsoft Knowledge Base
4.1 WHAT IS THE MICROSOFT KNOWLEDGE BASE The Microsoft Knowledge Base (KB) is a collection of articles that is maintained and used by the Microsoft Support personnel to answer customer questions. Included in the Knowledge Base are detailed how-to articles, answers to technical support questions, bug lists, fix lists, and documentation errors. This Knowledge Base is available to all on Microsoft's Internet Node. An index of all the articles is available in a file, index.txt. 4.2 HOW TO OBTAIN INDEX.TXT ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/developr/masm/kb/index.txt This index still is available with the last entry dated Aug 96. 4.3 FILE FORMAT OF INDEX.TXT The format of this file consists of three columns. Column One is the file type with the following meanings: FIX - Bug Fix DOCERR - Documentation Error INF - Information PRB - Problem BUG - Bug Column Two is the path and file name in the following format: Qxxxyzz where the part, Qxxx', is Q followed by two or three numbers and represents the first subdirectory under the kb subdirectory, the part, y', is the next subdirectory under Qxxx, and The part, zz', when combined with .txt' is the filename. ****WARNING**** Some of the Qs are uppercase and some are lower case. Unlike DOS, the filenames and directory names are case sensitive. Column Three is a short description of the file. 4.4 GETTING FILES You can get all the files from the /developr/masm/kb directory without navigating this very strange directory structure by using the path in the get command. As an example, let's say you want Q106399, a very useful file if you use Visual C++ (see below). Using the parsing rules above, you can use the following get command: get q106/3/99.txt 4.5 HOW TO ACCESS THE KNOWLEDGE BASE USING GOPHER There no longer is gopher access to microsoft.com 4.6 HOW TO ACCESS USING WWW Microsoft has removed the MASM option from the their www KB search. 4.7 SOME EXAMPLE FILES FROM THE MICROSOFT KNOWLEDGE BASE Q86815 Mixed C and MASM with MASM Main Language, No C Run-Time Q86816 Mixed C and MASM with MASM Main Language, C Run-Time Q101264 Assembling Code Developed for MASM 5.x with MASM 6.x Q106399 Using the Visual Workbench with MASM Q110598 Spontaneous Assembly and MASM 6.11 Errors Q123729 Accessing Command Line Arguments I have found Q106399 particularly helpful since I am really upset that Microsoft did not include direct support of MASM from within the Visual Workbench. Contributor: Raymond Moon, raymoon@moonware.dgsys.com Last Changed: 9 Nov 96 Return to the Table Of Contents------------------------------
Subject 5. Pentium Instruction Macros
Macros that implement the new instructions available with the Pentium processor is available from Intel. ftp://ftp.intel.com/pub/IAL/pentium/p5masm.mac The new macros are: CMPXCHG8B - Compare and exchange eight bytes CPUID - CPU Identification RDTSC - Read Time Stamp Counter MOVTOCR4 - Move reg to CR4 MOVFROMCR4 - Move CR4 to reg RDMSR - Read Model Specific Register WRMSR - Write Model Specific Register RSM - Resume from SMM Contributor: Raymond Moon, raymoon@moonware.dgsys.com Last Changed: 8 Jan 95 Return to the Table Of Contents------------------------------
Subject 6. Microsoft's MASM Newsgroup
Microsoft has create a whole family of newsgroups devoted to their products. One of these new newsgroups is devoted to MASM. Its URL is news:msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.masm Contributor: Raymond Moon, raymoon@moonware.dgsys.com Last Changed: 20 Apr 97 Return to the Table Of Contents------------------------------
Subject 7. MASM Information Available At www.microsoft.com
Microsoft's web site finally has a few pages to MASM. This overview page has links to the following areas: features, system requirements, evaluation tools, standard, academic and volume pricing, FAQ, and support policies. The basic URL is: http://www.microsoft.com/products/prodref/450_ov.htm Contributor: Raymond Moon, raymoon@moonware.dgsys.com Last Changed: 16 Aug 97 Return to the Table Of Contents------------------------------
Subject 8. How To Get The Patchs For MASM 6.12 and 6.13
There are patches available to patch MASM 6.11 to update for support Pentium Pro and MMX instructions (Version 6.12) and AMD 3D instructions (Version 6.13). Numerous bug fixes have been added. You do not need to download each, ml613.exe contains everything to upgrade your 6.11, 6.11a or 6.11d. Again, these patches will not upgrade MASM 6.11c ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/softlib/mslfiles/ML612.EXE ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/softlib/mslfiles/ML613.EXE Contributor: Raymond Moon, raymoon@moonware.dgsys.com Last Changed: 20 Mar 98 Return to the Table Of Contents------------------------------
Subject 9. MASM Free From Microsoft REVISED
MASM Version 6.11d is available on the Windows 98 Software Development Kit. It is part of an 18+ Meg file. The URL to the file is: http://www.microsoft.com/hwdev/ddk/download/win98ddk.exe I still could not download the file, but thanks to Barry Brey who sent me the expanded directory listing I have discovered the following. Also included is a linker, but I could not find the Programmer's Work Bench nor CodeView for debugging, so downloading this file will provide only the assembler and linker without any supporting programs nor documentation. Contributor: Raymond Moon, raymoon@moonware.dgsys.com Last Changed: 19 Sep 98 Return to the Table Of Contents------------------------------
I would like to acknowledge all the people who have assisted me or any of the contributors. For their time and effort, this FAQ is a better product. Barry Brey, Daniel Cardenas and Kevin Weinrich Return to the Table Of Contents