Problem with [text] or text

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freeze

Joined: 27 Oct 2004
Posts: 3

freeze 27 Oct 2004, 05:04

forgive me for being stupid. Sad

, please be patient with me
I just started to learn assembly using flat assembler.

1.

Code:

org 256 ; offset addressing by 256 bytes
mov ah,2 ; value 2 in ah
mov dl,[text] ; load byte value form offset text now = 'a' into dl
int 21h ; dos function call ah=2h
int 20h ; exit to dos
text db 'a' ; declare byte a

Code:

org 256 ; offset addressing by 256 bytes
mov ah,9 ; value 9 in ah
mov dx,text ; load word address of text into dx
int 21h ; dos function call ah=9h
int 20h ; exit to dos
text db 'hello world$' ; declare byte array with end symbol for dos function

Code:

org 256 ; offset addressing by 256 bytes
mov ah,9 ; value 9 in ah
mov dx,[address_of_text]
int 21h ; dos function call ah=9h
int 20h ; exit to dos
text db 'hello world$' ; declare byte array with end symbol for dos function
address_of_text db 'text$'

why in no.1 when we assing dl with label 'text' we have to dereference it (using []) but you can assign dx with address of label 'text' in no.2 while in no.3 you must dereference it again
can someone explain to me?

27 Oct 2004, 05:04

Matrix

Joined: 04 Sep 2004
Posts: 1166
Location: Overflow

Matrix 27 Oct 2004, 06:21

Hy freeze
comments by me, hope i have answered your question.

27 Oct 2004, 06:21

freeze

Joined: 27 Oct 2004
Posts: 3

freeze 27 Oct 2004, 07:14

Matrix wrote:

Hy freeze
comments by me, hope i have answered your question.

thank you Matrix,
but ...

Code:

org 256 ; offset addressing by 256 bytes 
mov ah,9 ; value 9 in ah 
mov dx,[address_of_text] 
int 21h ; dos function call ah=9h 
int 20h ; exit to dos 
text db 'hello world$' ; declare byte array with end symbol for dos function 
address_of_text db 'text$'

can't be compiled
maybe it should

Code:

org 256
mov ah,9
mov dx,[address_of_text]
int 21h
int 20h
text db 'hello world$'
address_of_text dw text

I could understand this if I assume that 'mov ah,9' needs an address as an input, while 'mov ah,2' needs an ascii code as an input, right? Confused

27 Oct 2004, 07:14

Matrix

Joined: 04 Sep 2004
Posts: 1166
Location: Overflow

Matrix 27 Oct 2004, 09:50

Helo there,
yeah, you're right, i see you're getting it.

if you wnna put address of string to dx you needn't declare its offset first Smile

however i used to do it somtimes even with procedures, this way you can use an index instead of variable name.
You're on the right track if you write a vesatest program for example which indexes the messages to be written.

Code:

org 256 ; offset addressing by 256 bytes  
mov ah,9 ; value 9 in ah  
mov dx,address_of_text
int 21h ; dos function call ah=9h  
int 20h ; exit to dos  
text db 'hello world$' ; declare byte array with end symbol for dos function  
address_of_text db 'text$'

this is another thing but you didn't mean this i think:

Code:

org 256 ; offset addressing by 256 bytes
mov ah,9 ; value 9 in ah
mov dx,address_of_text
mov cx,[difference]
add dx,cx
int 21h ; dos function call ah=9h
int 20h ; exit to dos
text db 'hello world$' ; declare byte array with end symbol for dos function
address_of_text: db 'Your message here$'
address_of_text2: db 'Hy , how could this be? $'
difference: dw address_of_text2-address_of_text

however you can force using [] with strings like:

Code:

org 256 ; offset addressing by 256 bytes
mov ah,9 ; value 9 in ah
mov dx,word [address_of_text-2]
int 21h ; dos function call ah=9h
int 20h ; exit to dos
text db 'hello world$' ; declare byte array with end symbol for dos function
pre_address_of_text dw address_of_text
address_of_text db 'text$'

27 Oct 2004, 09:50

vid
Verbosity in development

Joined: 05 Sep 2003
Posts: 7105
Location: Slovakia

vid 27 Oct 2004, 11:11

hey, seems like from my tutorial Wink

well, your code seems right, but name of variable should describe contents of variable, so "address_of_text" should hold ADDRESS of text, not text itself.

27 Oct 2004, 11:11

freeze

Joined: 27 Oct 2004
Posts: 3

freeze 28 Oct 2004, 00:42

Thank you Matrix
m(_ _)m
now I can understand it.

28 Oct 2004, 00:42

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