garbage and beeping PC speaker

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herbally

Joined: 29 Jul 2009
Posts: 4

herbally 30 Jul 2009, 16:54

I wrote this hello world app that is very simple. I thought that I had everything coded properly, and it compiles and runs without error, but for some reason instead of showing my text string in DOS I get about 3-4 lines of garbage characters and the PC speaker beeps at me on each line. Here's the code:

Code:

format MZ
entry main:START
STACK 100H

segment text
myString: db "I'm a string!",24h

segment main
START:

mov ax, myString
mov ds, ax

mov dx, myString
mov ah, 9
int 21h

mov ah, 4ch
mov al, 00h
int 21h

Any ideas where I went wrong? Thanks!

Herbally

30 Jul 2009, 16:54

LocoDelAssembly
Your code has a bug

Joined: 06 May 2005
Posts: 4624
Location: Argentina

LocoDelAssembly 30 Jul 2009, 16:59

mov ax, myString -> mov ax, text

That will fix the issue.

mov ah, 4ch
mov al, 00h

Could be just mov ax, 4c00h.

30 Jul 2009, 16:59

herbally

Joined: 29 Jul 2009
Posts: 4

herbally 30 Jul 2009, 22:26

thanks Loco....that did resolve the issue. I'm curious though....what if I had multiple string variables in the text segment? How would the program know which one I am referring to?

Thanks again!

30 Jul 2009, 22:26

LocoDelAssembly
Your code has a bug

Joined: 06 May 2005
Posts: 4624
Location: Argentina

LocoDelAssembly 31 Jul 2009, 05:30

herbally, not sure what you mean but if you are referring to something like this:

Code:

segment text
string1 db "hello", "$"
value dw $1234

Then this should work:

Code:

mov ax, text
mov ds, ax ; This shouldn't be done again unless you need to switch to a different data segment and it is not suitable for you using ES segment.

mov cx, [value]  ; CX = 1234h
mov dx, myString ; DX = myString's offset inside "text" segment

31 Jul 2009, 05:30

herbally

Joined: 29 Jul 2009
Posts: 4

herbally 31 Jul 2009, 15:46

To begin with I'm a self-taught VB.NET programmer so my logic as it pertains to assembly is all messed up!

Apparently I was just confused about a very basic part of ASM. I went back and re-read some of the documentation and figured out the answer to my question. Thanks again for your assistance!

31 Jul 2009, 15:46

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