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Passing parameters to invoke ---------------------------- If you are on the way of size and speed optimization (wich is actually easier then in any HLL) first thing you need to set easy methods to culculate speed and size. Without it all you do will be something close to speculations. If it will not easy way - then your work will be hard and uneffective. But with easy methods it becomes most fun and exciting game. ------------- One of common mistakes in the writing HLL imitation in asm is to use local variables to pass parameters in invoke though those parameters are already in some regs and may be pushed in memory for it. To get clear picture of what the difference is let's recall simple and wellknown things. invoke SomeFunc,LocalVariable will result in push call SomeFunc. push is 3 bytes size and 2 clocks speed and NP! push reg is 1 byte size 1 byte speed and UVP! (thats mean if code in pipes you can perform additional operation whithin one clock if two operations are pareble) ----------------------------- To illustrate it let's have a look at the FrameWindow proc from M32LIB

FrameWindow proc hndle:DWORD, step:DWORD, wid:DWORD, direction:DWORD

  ; -------------------------------------------------------------
  ; This proc is used for framing the client area of a window.
  ; Parameters.
  ; 1. The handle of the window.
  ; 2. step, the distance from the inside edge of the client area
  ;    in pixels to draw the frame
  ; 3. wid, the width of the frame in pixels.
  ; 4. direction, 0 = sunken frame, 1 = raised frame.
  ; -------------------------------------------------------------

    LOCAL btn_hi    :DWORD ;it's local variable
    LOCAL btn_lo    :DWORD ;it's not bad thing actually to create them
    LOCAL hDC       :DWORD ;To get space for them we need just one oneclock
    LOCAL Rct       :RECT ;instruction no matter how many of them we need

    invoke GetDC,hndle ;push hndle 3 bytes, 2 clocks
    mov hDC, eax

    invoke GetClientRect,hndle,ADDR Rct
			;lea eax, - 3bytes 1 clock
			;push eax - 1 byte 1 clock
			;push hndle - 3 bytes ,2 clocks
			;and so on.....
    mov eax, step
    mov edx, wid

    add eax, edx

    add Rct.left,   eax
    add Rct.top,    eax
    inc eax
    sub Rct.right,  eax
    sub Rct.bottom, eax

    invoke GetSysColor,COLOR_BTNHIGHLIGHT
    mov btn_hi, eax

    invoke GetSysColor,COLOR_BTNSHADOW
    mov btn_lo, eax

    .if direction == 1
      mov eax, btn_lo
      mov ecx, btn_hi
      mov btn_lo, ecx
      mov btn_hi, eax
    .endif

    invoke Frame3D,hDC,btn_lo,btn_hi,
                   Rct.left,
                   Rct.top,Rct.right,Rct.bottom,wid

    invoke ReleaseDC,hndle,hDC

    ret

FrameWindow endp

; #########################################################################

Lets see if we can decrease number of locals pushes using values in regs. (Mind we get 1(+1) clock speed and 2 clocks size decrise for each of those replacements + we for instructions we need to put values in the locals) A little bit optimized version of FrameWindow

FrameWindow proc hndle:DWORD, step:DWORD, wid:DWORD, direction:DWORD

  ; -------------------------------------------------------------
  ; This proc is used for framing the client area of a window.
  ; Parameters.
  ; 1. The handle of the window.
  ; 2. step, the distance from the inside edge of the client area
  ;    in pixels to draw the frame
  ; 3. wid, the width of the frame in pixels.
  ; 4. direction, 0 = sunken frame, 1 = raised frame.
  ; -------------------------------------------------------------

;    LOCAL btn_hi    :DWORD
;    LOCAL btn_lo    :DWORD
    LOCAL hDC       :DWORD
    LOCAL Rct       :RECT

    invoke GetDC,hndle
    mov hDC, eax

    invoke GetClientRect,hndle,ADDR Rct

    mov eax, step
    mov edx, wid

    add eax, edx

    add Rct.left,   eax
    add Rct.top,    eax
    inc eax
    sub Rct.right,  eax
    sub Rct.bottom, eax