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Welcome to the MASM32 SDK, fast track high performance software development.
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The MASM32 SDK has now been installed but there are a number of things to do
to finally set it up so that you can maximise your output with this SDK.
Configure this editor so that it suits your progamming style. The "Edit"
menu has a settings option so you can configure the editor to your own
preferences.
If possible, download the old WIN32.HLP file from the internet then set
it up as the F1 help file so you can access Windows API functions, messages
and equates directly from the editor with the F1 key.
If you are not already familiar with the MASM32 SDK it is recommended that
you start with the default editor to learn how the SDK is put together and
what makes it work. Once you are familiar with it you can safely customise
how you set up and use the MASM32 SDK.
You should set the file associations in either Explorer or Winfile for ASM
files to the default editor so that you can open assembler files by double
clicking on the file in either Explorer or Winfile.
The default editor is set up ready to run with scripts and help files
available on the menus but there is additional information that you need
for developing software in assembler in Windows. This cannot be included
for both size and copyright reasons.
1. The INTEL Pentium 4 or later manuals which can be downloaded from INTEL.
2. The Microsoft PLATFORMSDK or its successor that can either be downloaded
from Microsoft or purchased for the price of the shipping.
It will also be to your benefit to download the resource editor RESEDIT
written by Ketil Olsen as it is a viable and very useful tool to have available
for creating resource dialogs. You will need to become familiar with how
it works and the format that it saves RC files with but it is a modern and
very up to date tool that can produce professional results when used properly.
The MASM32 SDK has a large body of example code that deals with a wide range
of common code types and it also has extensive documentation on the HELP
menu to help to get you up to pace quickly in writing assembler. In
particular check out the "High Level Macro Help" help file on the help menu
as it is designed to introduce programmers to the MACRO capacity of MASM.
Note that the complete library and macro system for the MASM32 SDK is
available for you to read and build, there is no secret code in the MASM32
SDK.
Steve Hutchesson for the MASM32 SDK, 1998-2011