Preparatory Measures

The following will be useful for those new to the Visual Assembler Project:

  • Install Tree : Commented dir listing of the Visasm program install.
  • Source Tree : Commented dir listing of the Visasm source install.
  • Borland C++ Builder (1.0 +) : The tool needed to compile Visasm.



    Anticipated Developments

    In order to provide basic R.A.D. functionality in a shorter time period, Visasm is going drop direct support for all assemblers but Nasm for the time being. The reason for choosing Nasm is that it is 'free', it is portable to multiple OSes, and it is a quality assembler capable of win32 code generation; therefore it can be integrated into the Visasm IDE along with its disassembler and Net Walker's debugger without bringing up license agreements, royalties, etc.

    For this reason it will be necssary to produce insertables/snippets in nasm-compliant asm [most of the existing ones can be modified with little trouble]. In addition, work will be undertaken to develop nasm-compliant procedure --and possibly class-- libraries for common controls and routines for Win32 and DOS programs. This area has not been started yet and is open to all assembly language coders -- Nasm tutorials and training can be supplied.

    Useful Resources:

  • Nasm Assembler
  • Nasm Documentation
  • Nasm IDE
  • The Nasm Advocate

    Once Nasm is going full-blast, support for user-specified assemblers can be added. More important, however, will be the inclusion of a resource editor [and compiler] into the IDE. A 'Project Manager', various 'Project Wizards', and overall integration of projects into the IDE will be needed at this point as well. These areas of the project is open to any Delphi or C/C++ coders.

    Eventually Visual Assembler will be ported to run on multiple OSes. This will be done by re-designing the IDE in Tcl/Tk, using Nasm as the assembler; at this point it may be desireable to include support and integration of the basic Gnu tools [ld, gas, gcc, gdb, binutils] for cross-platform support. Additional libraries of procedures and classes will be needed to achieve the goal of this stage of the project, which will be the creation of a Linux version of Visual Assembler (with X-Windows support).

    Currently coders in C++/Delphi and Asm --using C++ Builder and Nasm-- are in great demand. Additional project support personnel -- testers, documentation writers, etc -- are in need as well. Contact with Visaul Assembler project administration can be made through email to [email protected] or by posting to the message board.