CODEWITHSUNDEEP
assemblyx86-16tasm
Mc Henry
Mc Henry

Reputation: 45

How do I solve "Assuming data segment is 32-bit" in TASM

I have this program underneath and it counts to 100 using DOSBox. It works perfectly with .286 but I want to know how can I make this work with .386.

.286
.model small
setCurPos macro x,y
    pusha
    mov ah, 02h
    mov bh, 0
    mov dl, x
    mov dh, y
    int 10h
    popa    
endm

writeChar macro char,color,ctr
    pusha 
    mov ah, 9
    mov al, char
    mov bh, 0
    mov bl, color
    mov cx, ctr
    int 10h
    popa
endm

delay macro
    mov cx, 0fh
    mov dx,4240h
    mov ah,86h
    int 15h
endm

.stack 100h
.data 
percentage db 0
ones       db ?
tens       db ?
.code
org 100
main proc far
    mov ax, @data
    mov ds, ax
    mov es, ax

    mov ah, 0
    mov al, 13h
    mov bh, 0
    int 10h

    jmp count

    to_printHundred:
    jmp printHundred

    count:
    delay
    cmp percentage, 64h
    je  to_printHundred
    cmp percentage, 0ah
    jae printTens

    ;printOnes
    mov al, percentage
    add al, 30h
    mov ones, al
    setCurPos 10, 10
    writeChar ones, 0fh, 1
    inc percentage
    jmp count

    printTens:
    xor ax, ax
    mov bx, 0ah
    mov al, percentage
    div bl
    add al, 30h
    add ah, 30h
    mov tens, al
    mov ones, ah
    setCurPos 10,10
    writeChar tens,0fh,1
    setCurPos 11,10
    writeChar ones,0fh,1
    inc percentage
    jmp count

    printHundred:
    mov tens, 31h
    mov ones, 30h
    setCurPos 10,10
    writeChar tens,0fh,1
    setCurPos 11,10
    writeChar ones,0fh,2

    mov ah, 4ch
    int 21h
endp
end main

It freezes up and outputs Illegal read/write whenever I use the delay.It sucks having to create relays all the time for conditional jumps when the program is really big.

Upvotes: 1

Views: 505

Answers (1)

Sep Roland
Sep Roland

Reputation: 39190

It freezes up and outputs Illegal read/write whenever I use the delay. It sucks having to create relays all the time for conditional jumps when the program is really big.

This is a problem with DOSBox that faults on the int 15h AH=86h function.
I worked around the issue by programming a delay mechanism based on the BIOS timer tick. You can find all details in a-low-tech-approach-to-measuring-game-speed

My 1st paragraphs there matches your problem description:

Whilst developing a game I needed a delay routine capable of doing delays ranging from 0.5 sec to just a few msec. The obvious choice was to use the BIOS delay function 86h on int 15h. In a true real address mode environment it works correctly but I saw that an emulator like DOSBox messes up things. Tons of illegal reads and writes. So I had to come up with another solution.

If you're concerned about program size, then you might want to change those macros into subroutines. Each time you invoke a macro all of its code gets inserted in the program whereas a subroutine is encoded once and invoked several times by a mere call instruction.

.code
org 100
main proc far
    mov ax, @data
    mov ds, ax
    mov es, ax

Are you sure that your .model small program needs this org 100 directive?

If, as indicated in a comment, you've changed to .model tiny, the ORG would rather have to be org 256.

Upvotes: 2

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