Hi Eddy,

Replying to a message of Eddy Thilleman to Murray Lesser:

My shortest such utility has a file length of 44 bytes and isn't
"self-modifying."

Is this a contest of the shortest and smallest .COM file?? ;-)

Try this [I first posted this code in this echo back in 1998]:

=========================== HWORLD.ASM ================================
; OS/2 32-bit command line program. Sample of assembler code.
; Copyright: Public domain
.486
.MODEL FLAT,PASCAL

.CONST
MsgText DB "Hello, World!"
MsgLen EQU $-MsgText

EXTERN DosPutMessage: NEAR
STDOUT EQU 1 ; File handle for STDOUT: device

.CODE
HelloWorld PROC NEAR
PUSH EBP
MOV EBP,ESP

; Call DosPutMessage to display our message
PUSH OFFSET MsgText
PUSH MsgLen
PUSH STDOUT
CALL DosPutMessage
ADD ESP,12

; Clean stack area and return
MOV ESP,EBP
POP EBP
RET
HelloWorld ENDP

.STACK

END HelloWorld =======================================================================

This program occupies 37 bytes plus its stack; as there are 4 DWORD PUSHes that
makes 53 bytes all up. You can reduce it further by outputting a shorter message.

Another approach would be to change the memory model from FLAT to SMALL [after all, this is a 32-bit, native OS/2 program] which will reduce the size of some of the instructions. This is left to the student as an exercise. ... :-)

Regards

Dave
<Team PL/I>

--- FleetStreet 1.25.1
* Origin: My other computer is an IBM S/390 (2:257/609.5)

Hello David,

Monday 22 January 2001 20:55, David Noon wrote to Eddy Thilleman:

Try this [I first posted this code in this echo back in 1998]:

HWORLD.ASM OS/2 32-bit command line program.

Hmm, maybe I'll try to assemble this, does TASM do the job? I don't have a real
OS/2 assembler, where would I find a decent one? I can vaguely remember ALP, does that ring a bell?

Another approach would be to change the memory model from FLAT to
SMALL [after all, this is a 32-bit, native OS/2 program] which will
reduce the size of some of the instructions. This is left to the
student as an exercise. ... :-)

Yet another approach would be to do it in REXX or in a batch file, they have the same functionality (display a small message) and are smaller. ;-))


Greetings -=Eddy=-

email: e.thilleman@freeler.nl
e.thilleman@hccnet.nl

... Get gun, shoot computer, turn off lights, go to bed, sigh
--- GoldED/2 3.0.1
* Origin: _REAL_ programmers use COPY CON PROGRAM.ZIP (2:280/5143.7)

Hi Eddy,

Replying to a message of Eddy Thilleman to David Noon:

HWORLD.ASM OS/2 32-bit command line program.

Hmm, maybe I'll try to assemble this, does TASM do the job?

That depends on which TASM you have. If it supports .MODEL FLAT then you are in
luck. Just remeber to link the object code using LINK386.EXE or ILINK.EXE.

I don't
have a real OS/2 assembler, where would I find a decent one? I can
vaguely remember ALP, does that ring a bell?

ALP is the IBM assembler for OS/2. It is bundled with the OS/2 Warp Developer's
Toolkit 4.0 and the OS/2 Device Driver Kit 4.0. The latter can be downloaded from one of IBM's Web sites.

If you can find a copy of Watcom C/C++ then you will get a copy of WASM, which is also an OS/2 assembler. Just be aware that the Watcom linker was very flakey
in the 11.0 releases, but quite good in the 10.x releases.

Another approach would be to change the memory model from FLAT to
SMALL [after all, this is a 32-bit, native OS/2 program] which will
reduce the size of some of the instructions. This is left to the
student as an exercise. ... :-)

Yet another approach would be to do it in REXX or in a batch file,
they have the same functionality (display a small message) and are smaller. ;-))

But that requires that the command shell and, in the former case, REXX interpreter be loaded, so its memory footprint is a couple of hundred kilobytes
larger.

Regards

Dave
<Team PL/I>

--- FleetStreet 1.25.1
* Origin: My other computer is an IBM S/390 (2:257/609.5)

Hi Eddy,

Replying to a message of Eddy Thilleman to David Noon:

Try this [I first posted this code in this echo back in 1998]:

HWORLD.ASM OS/2 32-bit command line program.

Hmm, maybe I'll try to assemble this, does TASM do the job?

Try this one, if your TASM does only 16-bit code. Just remember to link it with
OS/2's LINK.EXE and use OS2.LIB from the OS/2 Developer's Toolkit 1.3 [although
OS2386.LIB in the later DTK's also contains the 16-bit imports, I think].

========================== HWORLD16.ASM ============================
; OS/2 16-bit command line program. Sample of assembler code.
; Copyright: Public domain
.286
.MODEL SMALL,PASCAL

.CONST
MsgText DB "Hello, Eddy!"
MsgLen EQU $-MsgText

EXTERN VioWrtTTY: FAR

.CODE
HelloWorld PROC NEAR
PUSH BP
MOV BP,SP

; Call VioWrtTTY to display our message
PUSH SEG MsgText
PUSH OFFSET MsgText
PUSH MsgLen
PUSH 0
CALL VioWrtTTY

; Clean stack area and return
MOV SP,BP
POP BP
RET
HelloWorld ENDP

.STACK

END HelloWorld ====================================================================

It works out a couple of bytes smaller than the 32-bit program I posted before [44 bytes, compared to 53 bytes]. This is like counting archangels on the head of a pin.

Regards

Dave
<Team PL/I>

--- FleetStreet 1.25.1
* Origin: My other computer is an IBM S/390 (2:257/609.5)

Hello David,

Monday 29 January 2001 20:58, David Noon wrote to Eddy Thilleman:

Hmm, maybe I'll try to assemble this, does TASM do the job?

That depends on which TASM you have. If it supports .MODEL FLAT then
you are in luck.

No, it doesn't, but then again it's only the DOS version. I've some version of a Borland C for OS/2 on floppy, but I don't have time for that.

I don't have a real OS/2 assembler, where would I find a decent one?
I can vaguely remember ALP, does that ring a bell?

ALP is the IBM assembler for OS/2. It is bundled with the OS/2 Warp Developer's Toolkit 4.0 and the OS/2 Device Driver Kit 4.0. The latter
can be downloaded from one of IBM's Web sites.

I can barely keep up with the messages.

Yet another approach would be to do it in REXX or in a batch
file, they have the same functionality (display a small message)
and are smaller. ;-))

But that requires that the command shell and, in the former case, REXX interpreter be loaded, so its memory footprint is a couple of hundred kilobytes larger.

O yes, that's true. :)


Greetings -=Eddy=-

email: e.thilleman@freeler.nl
e.thilleman@hccnet.nl

... Brace for impact, Picard said parenthetically.
--- GoldED/2 3.0.1
* Origin: Unable to open Windows. Try the door? [Y]/N (2:280/5143.7)

Hello David,

Wednesday 31 January 2001 18:54, David Noon wrote to Eddy Thilleman:

Try this one, if your TASM does only 16-bit code. Just remember to
link it with OS/2's LINK.EXE and use OS2.LIB from the OS/2 Developer's Toolkit 1.3 [although OS2386.LIB in the later DTK's also contains the 16-bit imports, I think].

I found LINK.EXE, but I didn't find OS2.LIB and I don't have one of the OS/2 DTK's (maybe I could download one, but I don't have the time anyway).

This is like counting archangels on the head of a pin.

I agree. :)


Greetings -=Eddy=-

email: e.thilleman@freeler.nl
e.thilleman@hccnet.nl

... General Failure reading drive A: Please remove your fist
--- GoldED/2 3.0.1
* Origin: Pakled DOS: We look for things to make us .EXE. (2:280/5143.7)