Assembling Code Developed for MASM 5.x with MASM 6.x

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To provide these major functionality enhancements while continuing to offer backward compatibility with previous versions, MASM 6.0 and later provide a special compatibility mode of assembly. You can access this mode in any of three ways:

• Use the MASM.EXE conversion driver. This method converts your existing command-line options to the new syntax, adds a compatibility option (/Zm), and invokes the new ML.EXE assembler. This method also preserves your existing makefiles and batch files.
• Use the new ML.EXE assembler with the /Zm option. This method eliminates the requirement to run the conversion driver but it requires you to convert your command-line options to the new MASM 6.0 and later syntax.
• Edit each source code file to start with the OPTION M510 statement. This method is equivalent to adding the /Zm option to the command line. It allows you to assemble both old and new modules in ML.EXE using one command line.

Any of these three methods will, in most cases, support assembling existing code with MASM 6.0 and later, gaining access to some of its new capabilities. If you code assembles in MASM 5.1 or earlier, but does not assemble in the compatibility mode, please refer to Appendix A of the "Programmer's Guide."

In most cases, using the /Zm option or OPTION M510 to assemble your existing code is the best solution. This method requires the minimum changes to the code and you can add some of the new assembler features as you modify or add to your code. If you prefer to modify your code to support assembling it without the /Zm or OPTION M510 options, perform the following four steps:

1. Convert the command line to the equivalent ML.EXE form and assemble your code. Verify that your code assembles with the /Zm option. You must convert the command line manually because the MASM.EXE conversion driver automatically adds the /Zm option to the command line.
2. Add the appropriate OPTION directives to your code.
   
   
   • Always add the following

              OPTION OLDSTRUCTS ; Supports old-style structures
              OPTION OLDMACROS  ; Supports old-style macros
              OPTION DOTNAME    ; Supports naming identifiers with
                                ; a leading dot [.]
     								

   • If your code does not specify the .386 or .386P directive, add the following:

              OPTION EXPR16     ; Use 16-bit precision in expressions
     								

   • If your code does not contain a .MODEL directive, add the following:

              OPTION OFFSET:SEGMENT ; Specifies that the OFFSET operator
                                    ; defaults to segment-relative rather
                                    ; than group-relative
     								

   • If your code does not contain a .MODEL directive or if the .MODEL directive does not specify a language, add the following:

              OPTION NOSCOPED       ; Makes code labels global rather than
                                    ; local to the procedure in which they
                                    ; appear
              OPTION PROC:PRIVATE   ; Makes code labels defined with PROC
                                    ; local unless specified otherwise

3. Remove the /Zm option from the command line and assemble your code. Because the OPTION statements replicate most of the effects of the /Zm option, the code should assemble without problems. However, because certain effects of the /Zm option do not have corresponding OPTION statements, some applications may not assemble.
   
   The most common cause for an application to fail to assemble in this situation involves using processor or coprocessor instruction names as label names. If this is the case in your code, use the OPTION KEYWORD directive to remove these label names from the reserved word list. The syntax for the OPTION KEYWORD directive is as follows:

   OPTION NOKEYWORD:<keyword>

   If you have other assembly problems, please refer to Appendix A of the "Programmer's Guide" for information about these effects and suggested methods to work around them.
4. Remove each OPTION directive, one at a time, and assemble the code after you remove each one.
   
   Usually, it is best to remove the OPTION directives in the opposite order in which you added them. In some cases, you may decide that you prefer the MASM 5.x compatibility behavior instead of the new MASM 6.x behavior. When this is true, do not remove the corresponding OPTION statement from your code. Please refer to Appendix A of the "Programmer's Guide" for more information on resolving any problems that appear.