From: nedlatham@nospicedham.woden.valhalla.oz   
      
   Terje Mathisen wrote:   
   > Ned Latham wrote:   
   > > Frank Kotler wrote:   
   > > > Melzzzzz wrote:   
      
   > > > > > You have plenty of assemblers nowadays which are better then masm.   
   > > > > > I use nasm and fasm.   
   > > > >   
   > > > > What's besser than MASM ?   
   > > >   
   > > > :) :) :)   
   > > >   
   > > > As moderator, I really should point out that "My assembler is better   
   > > > than your assembler" is really not on topic here... (differences are   
   okay)   
   > >   
   > > Or comments on quality?   
   > >   
   > > Back in 1994 a year 2 assigment was to write an automaton in assembler.   
   > > They gave us three weeks and MASM, EDIT (or was it EDLIN?) and some M$   
   > > system calls to work with. The editor and the asembler were pathetic.   
   > >   
   > > I mean they were both *really* bad. And the system calls were slo-o-o-w.   
   > >   
   > > So after nine days of struggling with those grossly inadequate tools   
   > > I spat the dummy. Got onto usenet looking for some help. Found PC-Write   
   > > and a86. Also did a bit of checking on the IBM PC BIOS.   
   > >   
   > > Rewrote the assigment using those tools and info. Finished ahead of   
   > > time and got 110/100 for it.   
   > >   
   > > What's better than MASM? a86. Streets ahead.   
   >   
   > My personal favorite was tasm, the assmbler shipped alongside Borland's   
   > Turbo languages.   
      
   Mmm. Borland were good. I had Turbo Pascal on my CP/M machine.   
      
   I'm a bit confused about a86 now; ISTR the author as a  Brown:   
   now it's an Erik Isaakson.   
      
   > It could run in masm-compatible modus, then they added a few   
   > nice-to-have extensions.   
      
   I had all that stuff on my Archimedes, which had a really good 80186   
   emulator. But I threw all my old stuff out a couple of years ago.   
      
   That was a monumental blunder.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)