DOS ain't dead - TASM conversion

TASM conversion (Developers)

posted by Rugxulo , Usono, 21.04.2009, 20:48

Hey guys,
As you probably know, TASM is no longer developed. And even though you can get TASM32 5.3 (from 2000) from the Turbo C++ Explorer 2006 package, that's a whopping 390 MB or so, which is kinda a lot just for one 188k .EXE file. Besides, I think MMX is the most it supports.
Anyways, my concern is more about assembling old sources. I've even found some TASM stuff that 5.3 won't accept (oddly enough). :-| And to be completely honest, from a licensing standpoint, I'd rather use something totally free/libre with sources. And Japheth has made a valid point in mentioning that DOS support [e.g. FASM] is weak without .OBJ. However, even without that, there are other considerations to be made.
So here are the current options for reassembling TASM code (corrections and suggestions welcome):

* TASM32 5.3 (dialup users, have fun grabbing it!)
* LZASM 0.56 (Ideal only, case sensitive)
* upcoming WASM 1.9 (Ideal syntax added by Berth-Olaf)
* YASM 0.8.0 (-ptasm or -fdosexe, no .OBJ support)
* JWasm 1.94c (still a few hidden bugs)
* ArrowASM 2.00c (old, MASM 3.0 only, but good for what it does)
* FASM 1.67.38 (powerful macros and preproc help, in theory)

Examples of apps I would ideally like to convert to something better:

* Freemacs (seems easy with JWasm but hidden bugs persist, e.g. "comment \")
* PMODE/DJ (quite easy, at least with LZASM and JWasm)
* CWSDPMI (not too easy but not quite impossible, just tedious)
* TinyPlay (should be easy, I just haven't had the time or energy)

I just mention this because it's a small nuisance having old sources that use lots of TASM-specific stuff (ZRDX = nightmare!). Just wondering if others have any other suggestions (besides the obvious "disassemble it").

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Complete thread:

TASM conversion - Rugxulo, 21.04.2009, 20:48 (Developers)
- TASM conversion - ho1459, 22.04.2009, 12:51
  - TASM conversion - rr, 24.04.2009, 20:11
    - TASM conversion - Rugxulo, 24.04.2009, 21:00
- TASM conversion - DOS386, 26.04.2009, 02:25
- TASM conversion - marcov, 26.04.2009, 11:51
  - TASM conversion - Rugxulo, 27.04.2009, 04:51
    - TASM conversion - marcov, 27.04.2009, 10:03