Compare Assemblers

Paragon (1160)

27-01-2017, 12:26

Hi,
I was chatting with a few people and talking about assemblers and which one was their preferred assembler and why.
So, I thought, maybe a good topic, there are a few old ones, but those are 10 years old and in the meantime there are a few new assemblers on the market.

Name your preferred assembler, cross or native, doesn't matter, and tell us why it is your preferred assembler.

Mine is TNIasm 0.45 (freeware version), after my first Wbass, I tried this one and stuck to it, it does what I want, but also toying with some others to compare.

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Van Josb

Master (206)

27-01-2017, 13:52

My favourite assembler is asMSX (the old version 0.12g under linux). Why? Because I’m used to writing code in it. It is conceptually easy to use and it has the simplicity and functionallity I need. It is not problably the best one but I think that assemblers should be as simple as possible and asMSX fulfils all requirements to make things easy. Just whatever I want and need. Apart from that, you can go through many games and tools which were created for it.

I gave TNIasm and others a go but I didn’t find it as easy as I though. Even more, I wasn’t able to find docs for using them rightly.

Anyway, if you don’t mind, I would like to add the next question “what will the ideal assembler be for you?”. For instance, I miss the possibility of using simple conditional structures for register as “if hc>bc ld a,(hl) else ld a,(bc)”. Futhermore, It would be a good idea to have predefined functions which allow you to use music trackers, to manage pictures or something like that. I believe that it would make coding easier.

Van Wolverine_nl

Paragon (1160)

27-01-2017, 14:00

A modernized assembly program you mean, well tniASM 1.0 has macros.

Van Wolverine_nl

Paragon (1160)

27-01-2017, 14:01

My ideal assembly program would be cross platform and with a Nowind to a MSX, a realtime monitor preview or such.

Van Metalion

Paragon (1628)

27-01-2017, 14:32

I am exactly at the same crossroad.

I've been using AsMSX for the last few years, because it's easy and it's customized for MSX (BIOS names recognition, megaROM mapper management, easy ROM creation, ...). But it misses macros and it's still not stable, as there is the famous "NOP" bug. So I'm on the lookout for a new one.

At the moment, I'm very interested by Glass, but I have yet to make my first steps with it.

Van santiontanon

Paragon (1831)

27-01-2017, 16:38

I've been using Glass for the past 4 - 5 months and I am very happy with it. The biggest advantages for me are: (1) cross platform, (2) open source, (3) still being updated, which ensures it's current. That being said, I do not have much experience with other assemblers as for comparing

Van assembler

Champion (417)

27-01-2017, 16:46

My history:
asmsx: M-Tanks was programmed with that program, but the 'NOP' bug was really anoying)
TniAsm licensed version: similar problems as asmsx and slow. Later GuyveR800 told me he had found a bug that solves those problems. Not tested since then.
sjasm: It's the one I'm currently using to program GNG. I am very happy, but I will look at others when I finish it (tniasm between them).

Van jltursan

Prophet (2619)

27-01-2017, 18:27

Recently I've been testing an Eclipse setup based on Z80Editor plugin. It uses WLA-DX as its assembler and seems that it's a powerful one, somewhat different to the others; but with a lot of features.

Of course Eclipse is a monster and you need a beefed up PC; but if you have enough resources, why not use them?. The plugin has all the usual Eclipse facilities and some Z80 related are really cool (Z80 instructions help, T-states counter, etc.)

Van Philip

Champion (380)

27-01-2017, 18:48

I use sjasmplus
Works for me, but I don't do any complicated assembly...

Van AxelF

Champion (398)

27-01-2017, 19:27

What are the differences beteen Sjasmplus and Sjasm ?

Van Philip

Champion (380)

27-01-2017, 20:08

Good question
I just chose it as it seems to be somewhat maintained (on github), works well and is fast.
There is even a syntax hightlighting plugin for atom.