Microsoft Macro Assembler Version 5.1

[mazu]

Hello friends

I have an application written with Borland Turbo Assembler. I will reactivate this software under Windows 10.
Borland Turbo Assembler 2.0 and Microsoft Macro Assembler 5.1 are very similar.
Is it possible and wise to operate the modified application in actual Windows environment?
Are Microsoft Assembler 5.1, Linker, Debugger and Manuals available?
Are experienced users of Microsoft Assembler 5.1 known?
Your recommendations?

Thanks and regards

[hutch--]

Mazu,

They are both very old assemblers, how big is the app, is it 16 or 32 bit and do you know if it worked back when it was written.

[aw27]

There is a subforum here for
The MASM Forum »Miscellaneous »16 bit DOS Programming

Sure, it can be a lot of fun but you may need a virtual machine to run 16-bit, unless you have Windows 10 32-bits (nobody does, or do you?)

[jj2007]

If it's plain DOS, try this, it works fine for me in Win7-64 (see e.g. \Masm32\MasmBasic\Res\HelloWorld16.asc in case you have MasmBasic)

[FORTRANS]

Hi,

   If you download and install the MASM32 SDK,
you will have a copy of MASM 6.14.  This is
backwards compatible with earlier versions of
MASM and is a Windows program.  And you
can search the forum for the MASM 6.1 Reference
Manual.  (Or a similarly named document.)

Regards,

Steve N.

[aw27]

You can download MASM 5.x from here
https://winworldpc.com/product/macro-assembler/5x

As mentioned, you will get more or less the same development power with MASM 6.x.

[TimoVJL]

to test it in Windows x64 DosBox or
https://www.vdos.info
https://sourceforge.net/projects/vdos/
https://sourceforge.net/projects/vdosplus/
http://www.columbia.edu/~em36/wpdos/vdosplus.html

[Butter64]

This is interesting. I have all the original manuals for MASM 5.1, probably find them on the web though. Also all the original floppy disks and DOS 6.11, WIN 3.1, but all that will only be good for building and running the original code. But not going to help you I know.

Any Intel x86 based processor will still run DOS natively I believe. It's actually kind of cool to do this as you will see pure speed 

I'm guessing the purpose here is to add features and functionality to this old app. If that is the case maybe build the executable or obtain it, disassemble it with your current platform tools then begin modifying it from there. Maybe just rewrite it in C/C++.

Just some thoughts and 2 cents.

[hutch--]

With only rare exceptions, people write DOS software for amusement or perhaps as homework but real mode 16 bit DOS is long gone and only old OS versions can run it. Win32 is in its twilight and the slowly coming Windows assembler code is 64 bit. For anyone who wants to write 16 bit real mode code, MASM 6.00 is in fact a very nice version to use and the IDE and debugger both worked well.

[mazu]

Hello friends

My decision is to rewrite the application in Microsoft Macro Assembler Version 6.14. Additional posts will follow.

Thanks