***************************** * R E L E A S E N O T E S * ***************************** ASSEMBLER PLUS TOOLS VERSION 1.0 FOR THE IBM PERSONAL COMPUTER DISK OPERATING SYSTEM Copyright (c) 1983 by Digital Research, Inc. 1-1 Assembler Plus Tools Release Notes These release notes pertain to both the software and the documentation set for the Digital Research product: Assembler Plus Tools For the IBM Personal Computer Disk Operating System They provide the most current information regarding: o changes and corrections to the software that have been identified since the product was released. o errors or omissions in the documentation set that could not be corrected because of the lead time needed for production and printing. Note: These release notes have been formatted so you can print them on your own printer, cut them to size (6 1/2 x 8 1/2), and place them in your manuals. 1-2 Assembler Plus Tools Release Notes LINK-86 Notes A new command line option has been added to the linker. The $MY option directs LINK-86 to send the .MAP file to your line printer. A new optional parameter has been added to the MAP option. The NOCOMMON parameter directs LINK-86 to suppress the listing of common segment names in the MAP file. LINK-86 now displays the filename and module name indicating the location of an undefined symbol. The Assembler Plus Tools package does not include an overlay manager. The overlay manager is part of the run-time library that is packaged with your language software. LINK-86 can now report three additional error messages: CLASS NOT FOUND - The class name specified in the command line does not exist in any of the files being linked. GROUP NOT FOUND - The group name specified in the command line does not exist in any of the files being linked. SEGMENT NOT FOUND - The segment name specified in the command line does not exist in any of the files being linked. 1-3 Assembler Plus Tools Release Notes RASM-86 NOTES A new command line option has been added to the RASM- 86 assembler. The $NC option directs RASM-86 not to convert letters in symbol names to uppercase. This feature supports users of the C language. RASM-86 Version 1.3 now supports 8087 opcodes. However, RASM-86 does not allow types other than byte, word, and double-word. Therefore, in order to support the 8087 instructions, the form of the RASM- 86 instruction is slightly different from the Intel convention. All memory reference instructions have two characters appended to the end of the opcode name. The two characters represent the number of bits referenced by the instruction. For example, FADD64 byte ptr my_var This instruction assumes that my_var contains 64 bits (4 bytes). This convention applies to all 8087 instructions that reference user memory, except those that always reference the same number of bits (i.e. FSTCW). Also, in the Intel convention, any instruction that is followed by a P causes the stack to be popped. In RASM-86, the P follows the number of bits. For example, FSUB80P byte ptr my_var; sub and pop temp real We recommend that you carefully study all the Intel documentation about the 8087 coprocessor and its opcodes before using them in RASM-86. 1-4 Assembler Plus Tools Release Notes SID-86 Notes Currently, SID-86 does not fully support symbol files for programs configured according to the LARGE, COMPACT, or MEDIUM memory models. To reference symbols in a LARGE or MEDIUM model program, you must refer to the .MAP file generated for the program by LINK-86. The .MAP file provides you with relative segment locations. To reference a segment during debugging with SID-86, you must add the relative segment location provided by the .MAP file to the absolute segment location which is displayed by SID-86 when the file is loaded. END OF READ.ME FILE 1-5