PureBasic Forums - English

Restored from previous forum. Originally posted by theogott.

If we read in the history, it says:

"Changed: Assembler (FASM)"

~~~~~

We go to Chapter:
"Inline x86 ASM" - there we read ONLY from NASM, NASM & NASM.

FASM has realy GREAT Features about defining MACROS, is super-fast
has features that are better then anything I saw before.

HOW can I access these features from inside Purebasic ?
Why are they hidden ? No word nowhere. But its a fact: FASM
is part of the system.

Also when reading the DEMO-Codes I find things like
"?var" "@var" and much more, nowhere a desription in my help-file what its all about.

Which ASM-Commands from FASM are supported ?
How do I access FASM directly ?

After seeing the Help-File, I thought "Old story ... coders don't like to write about their work ...".

Maybe Fred should ask someone to PARALLEL while he codes implement things into documentation.

Also FASM - if accessible - has A LOT of features.
the FASM itself is included - WHY not his documentation ?

The inclusion of the Assembler is one of the STRONG POINTS of Purebasic. It should not be hidden.

If I see it right, there is access to FASM and then it has MUCH MORE
Features then for example Powerbasic. No single word about that in the help.

First I thought "My files are too old - look online".

I looked online, but the Online-Doku (so far it was accessible (part seemed broken) was as old or older as mine.

So far the Powerbasic-Assembler is much better documented,
or should I say "not much there but they WRITE MUCH MORE AND BETTER ABOUT IT". And that makes it easy to use for beginners.

Even the Basic itself has a very good help file maybe you should
take a look at it !

However ... Even the new Macro-feature in Powerbasic was not what I expected. FASM's is MUCH better !
But again ... its like we carry abig bag with GOLD inside the Purebasic-System and we do not show it to anyone.
LOOK what great things you can do with this !
Show them what you can do others can't.

At the moment don't talking from error-messages in Assembler-code
parts.
I'll have to try this with the newer 3.51 version first. Older versions just said something like "Assembler-error", hiding the real error message from the assembler.

Hopefully that has changed since old versions.


*************************
The best time to do things is now !

Restored from previous forum. Originally posted by tinman.

Originally posted by theogott

Also when reading the DEMO-Codes I find things like
"?var" "@var" and much more, nowhere a desription in my help-file what its all about.

Then you obviously have not read the manual. The @ operator is described somewhere (variables, types, pointer or memory access, I cannot remember). The ? operator is described inthe labels section.

Which ASM-Commands from FASM are supported ?
How do I access FASM directly ?

All commands are supported as far as I know. To access it you simply need to specify the "inline asm" option and use the assembly language. That's in the manual.

After seeing the Help-File, I thought "Old story ... coders don't like to write about their work ...".

Maybe Fred should ask someone to PARALLEL while he codes implement things into documentation.

The help files are poor, no doubt about it, and I do not think the editor docs have been updated since 3.40. But people are working in parallel (or are supposed to be), with CVS access to the documentation. But it takes time, especially if the coders do not let anyone know what is happening until things get released.

Also FASM - if accessible - has A LOT of features.
the FASM itself is included - WHY not his documentation ?

Maybe the documentation is quite big? Not everyone needs it. The same reasons that the MS SDK is not included in the documentation.


--
It's not minimalist - I'm increasing efficiency by reducing input effort.
(Win98first ed. + all updates, PB3.51, Ed3.53)

Restored from previous forum. Originally posted by freak.

> Also when reading the DEMO-Codes I find things like
> "?var" "@var" and much more, nowhere a desription in my help-file what its all about.

It is there. 'Pointers and Memory access' it is at 'Various Topics' at the beginning of the Help file.

> Which ASM-Commands from FASM are supported ?

Hmm, here the Help must be updated. Still talks about using the Nasm Syntax.
I can't help you here.

> How do I access FASM directly ?

If you write '!' at the beginning of a Line, this Line is directly passed to the Assembler.

> First I thought "My files are too old - look online".

I don't know where you get it from, but the Online Verion at http://www.purebasic.com/support.php3 is PB3.51 which is the newest one avaiable.



Timo

Restored from previous forum. Originally posted by theogott.

Yes, True TImo,

but even this one talks from NASM and that was not really helpful.

Secondly, the fact that the documentation for FASM is too big
is not a reason to hide it. If its not included in the package at least the OPTION
to get it anywhere should be avaiable.

Currrently its just hidden.

Third again: The size of a documentation is a reason for buying a product not
for leaving the documentation away.

This FASM-Documentation shows builtin FEATURES !


*************************
The best time to do things is now !

Restored from previous forum. Originally posted by tinman.

Originally posted by theogott

Secondly, the fact that the documentation for FASM is too big
is not a reason to hide it. If its not included in the package at least the OPTION to get it anywhere should be avaiable.

Of course you have the option to get the FASM documentation, just download FASM. However, I found that the FASM documentation is not big (200kb PDF) so perhaps Fred could find out if it would be possible to include it with PureBasic?

Third again: The size of a documentation is a reason for buying a product not for leaving the documentation away.

It is not as simple as that. If Fred got permission to include the whole of MSDN, all the Linux man pages and the Amiga OS developer docs you would have multiple gigabytes of documentation. The documentation would be vast and useful in some cases (but not all), but it would not be a reason for purchasing PureBasic.


--
It's not minimalist - I'm increasing efficiency by reducing input effort.
(Win98first ed. + all updates, PB3.51, Ed3.53)