Apparently ml64 will not support high level directives (.WHILE, .FOR, INVOKE etc)

http://lab.msdn.microsoft.com/productfeedback/viewfeedback.aspx?feedbackid=db4193d3-14fa-49dc-84e5-f06089b7e496

http://lab.msdn.microsoft.com/productfeedback/viewfeedback.aspx?feedbackid=a481b7ae-c556-4e56-9fd2-c1e16095cf4a

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Posted on 2005-02-05 12:22:59 by Dr. Manhattan
It is nice to see these non-bugs squashed early on. :) I for one don't want to have ML64.EXE be the same as ML.EXE - there are too many instances where it just does not make sense. Furthermore, if that was the intent then MS would have just extended ML.EXE in the first place - not that that wont happen in the future, but I doubt it.
Posted on 2005-02-05 19:02:59 by bitRAKE
I agree that we don't need them to program. But I don't like the fact that MS is removing features from ml64. It means they think asm is not worth the effort. I hope they don't see ml64 only as a back-end to their C++ compiler...
Posted on 2005-02-06 02:35:32 by Dr. Manhattan
They don't even expose the assembler in their free compiler in the vctoolkit.
Posted on 2005-02-06 09:07:18 by drhowarddrfine
Can't remove a feature ml64 never had. :) MS's past is indication enough of them moving away from assembly support - c'mon they named something else assembly to totally exclude us from the software culture alltogether! This just leaves a hole for more competent people to fill, imho.
Posted on 2005-02-07 22:00:22 by bitRAKE
It's a pitty that MS is giving less support to ml.exe At the future, probably other asm tools will replace Masm
Posted on 2005-02-08 05:06:03 by Vortex
I agree that we don't need them to program. But I don't like the fact that MS is removing features from ml64. It means they think asm is not worth the effort. I hope they don't see ml64 only as a back-end to their C++ compiler...

I totally agree with you, Manhattan...

WHILE and FOR are high level language contructs that MASM supports for 32bit code... however it has been found that it is rarely used even for 32bit code. It was decieded to not support these types of directives for ml64. Does your code base actually use these directives heavily (i.e. how many usages do you have?).

Too bad, I use .WHILE, .REPEAT etc. often and I think it is very useful - it makes my sources much more readable and generates no additional code.

also, while we currently have proto directive for ml64 it isnt very useful as we have no INVOKE conterpart.... PROTO directive is likely to be removed from ML64 in the very near future.

MASM is probably really dying :cry:
Posted on 2005-02-10 06:24:49 by MazeGen
I wonder if it is possible to buy over the source code for masm and maintain it ourselves or maybe we have to just stick to fasm or some other alternatives.
Posted on 2005-02-10 08:32:06 by roticv
You can make offer to Microsoft :wink:
Posted on 2005-02-10 08:47:57 by MazeGen
If only I have the monry. I am just a poor college student without a job or money :-D
Posted on 2005-02-10 08:51:56 by roticv
Hmm. It may not take money. Just an offer to do so or an offer to maintain it in the public domain. Hmm.
Posted on 2005-02-10 12:35:15 by drhowarddrfine