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Hate to change the subject, but I've been using TASM/TLINK lately to "practice." It's the first one I've used, I like it so far. Would you say trash TASM for MASM?
Wanted to write something to utilize my Tandy 1000 SL or TL's Mode E video mode, 640x200x16. There's no BIOS routine to set up this video mode, so all of the video registers have to be set up manually. Made a A-Z font set in PC-PAINT in uncompressed TIFF format, I found TIFF format makes it easy to rasterize the image. All I've got so far is setting the video mode and displaying either the entire font set or just one character of it. Next thing I'm going to try is smooth bouncing ball animation utilizing both 64k pages of this video mode and switching back and forth between the two.
The last time I assembled for an x86 device was 1993. I have no experience with Turbo Assembler, so I can't really guide you. I know the version of Microsoft Assembler I was using probably didn't understand anything past 8086 instructions, so I would say don't use that one.
But I doubt you could, seeing as how it had to be lifted from an 8" floppy...The only thing I can say is TASM is probably a good period-correct choice for your machine. They all produce executable code, so it's whatever your comfortable with. I just preferred the old MASM because you didn't have to define memory models and segment definitions, it by default only produced single-segment code.
Thanks for the advice. First live person to ever mention these things to me. Didn't realize you're probably 20 years older than I am until today... I haven't even reached double-digit age by 1993!
There were still COBOL classes when I was in college. That was the 90s, but it doesn't seem like that long ago...
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