Using MasmBasic help

[jj2007]

I've updated the online MasmBasic Quick Reference. Note this is not the recommended way to use MasmBasic help, but it's sometimes convenient to post a link e.g. to the deb macro.

The proper way to get help is as follows:
- install MasmBasic (ok, that's obvious - consult What you absolutely need to get started if not)
- launch \Masm32\MasmBasic\RichMasm.exe
- go to menu File/New Masm source
- click on one of the available templates, e.g. on "Console" in line 4
- hit F6 just to test if assembling works (this is the moment to get \Masm32\bin\UAsm64.exe in case you don't have it already)
- start coding by overwriting the nop e.g. with Print "Hello World"

To get help, there are three options:

1. Use File/MasmBasic help: the file MbGuide.rtf will open. There is a Table of Contents in the bookmarks. Use the Find function and copy whatever you need.

2. In line 15 of MbGuide.rtf, click on try 90+ snippets. Use the Find function with Init and scroll through the examples using the listbox.

3. Use context help:
- hover over Print until the mouse cursor turns into a question mark (this works for all 400+ commands)
- right-click on Print
- you will see a greenish window with examples
- left-click into it to keep it open: now you can copy any example
- right-click to close the green window
- paste what you copied

[jj2007]

Since April 2018 MasmBasic's editor has a nice feature, provided that you download this archive and extract the only file as \Masm32\MasmBasic\Res\ApiAll.jno.

Open a source in RichMasm.exe and check what you see when hovering over, for example, MoveWindow. If it doesn't look as in the screenshot below, please let me know 8)

Note that after seeing the bubble help, there is an entry in the right-click popup menu called "Insert tooltip text".

[jj2007]

I've updated the online help, see here. Feedback is welcome, but remember The Real Thing^TM hides in RichMasm's menu File/MasmBasic help

[HSE]

You have a lot of new lines before sentence ends. You can test that changing browser width.

[jj2007]

Oops, that's correct. It's fine above a width of about 1600px, but below that value the parts with longer text look bad. Thanks for signalling that