I've never used JWASM but some things that come to mind:
- doesn't the 'Reg8' parameter need some kind of affix? Like "@Reg8"? I seem to remember this from old TASM days.
- are you defining the macro in keeping with JWASM's manual? See the example in section 3.17 of the link you posted.
- the error refers to the UPC macro. What happens if you comment out the part where it is called? The 'UPC BH' line.
- what happens if you just inline the macro?

Looking at my old TASM code, it's just could be possible that you need to wrap Reg8 parameter name in some brackets in the IF statement, but only within that statement. You did wrap BL already in round brackets, same could be required for Reg8 too.
TASM required angle brackets, the macro did look like this:

1macro paramstr parm
2	ifdifi <parm>,<ax>
3		mov ax,parm
4	endif
5	; ... blah-blah...
6endm

dunzdeck wrote on 2022-10-24, 15:43:

I've never used JWASM but some things that come to mind:
- doesn't the 'Reg8' parameter need some kind of affix? Like "@Reg8"? I seem to remember this from old TASM days.
- are you defining the macro in keeping with JWASM's manual? See the example in section 3.17 of the link you posted.

I don't know if there is an affix necessary. I got the syntax mainly from an assembler book written for MASM and I'm trying to adapt my code to JWASM.

Using

1IF (Reg8 EQ @BL)

doesn't work and gives the error message:

Error A2102: Symbol not defined: @BL

- the error refers to the UPC macro. What happens if you comment out the part where it is called? The 'UPC BH' line.

The error is in the IF..ELSE section inside the UPC macro. If i comment out all the IF...ELSE stuff, then it assembles without errors.

- what happens if you just inline the macro?

The error stays the same.

vstrakh wrote on 2022-10-24, 17:59:

Looking at my old TASM code, it's just could be possible that you need to wrap Reg8 parameter name in some brackets in the IF st […]
Show full quote

Looking at my old TASM code, it's just could be possible that you need to wrap Reg8 parameter name in some brackets in the IF statement, but only within that statement. You did wrap BL already in round brackets, same could be required for Reg8 too.
TASM required angle brackets, the macro did look like this:

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1macro paramstr parm
2	ifdifi <parm>,<ax>
3		mov ax,parm
4	endif
5	; ... blah-blah...
6endm

I tested now:

1IF ("Reg8" EQ "BL")

This gets assembled, but the output is not correct. (uses the ELSE statement)

1IF ((Reg8) EQ (BL))

Leads to the same E2189 error.

1IF ([Reg8] EQ [BL])

Leads to:

1ERROR: A2033: Must be index or base register

and

1IF ({Reg8} EQ {BL})

Leads to:

1ERROR: A2151: Unexpected literal found in expression: {BL] EQ {BL})

I simplified the code a little bit just for testing.

If you want to do some test for yourself, just rename
MTEST_INC.TXT to MTEST.INC
and
MTEST_ASM.TXT to MTEST.ASM

1IF (<Reg8> EQ <BL>) 

Also doesn't work:

1ERROR: A2151: Unexpeteced literal found in expression: <BL> EQ <BL>)

The good thing is, Reg8 gets at least substituted by BL.
Now i need to find a way to compare BL with BL by using EQ in the IF statement.

The " quotes should not be used, it will mean you're comparing two constant string literals, sure the result will be static.

I agree. I've just tried the brute force method because I'm running out of options. 😉

The manual mentions upercase IF and ELSE and other key words in the Appendix A. JWasm Reserved Words chapter at least.
But how to use them with JWASM and register names? That's the big question. Is it not supported? Is it a bug?
https://www.japheth.de/JWasm/Manual.html#AA

I'm not sure what are you doing, because it works exactly the same as in TASM, which in turn follows the MASM rules.
Here's with case-insensitive IF comparison:

1	.model small
2	.stack 256
3
4upc macro Reg8
5	ifidni <Reg8>,<BL>
6		mov Reg8, 35h
7	else
8		mov Reg8, 39h
9	endif
10	endm
11
12	.code
13
14	UPC bh
15	UPC ax
16	UPC bl
17
18	end

Compiling it with -EP option to get the preprocessed listing I get the following output in the console:

1C:\ASM\jwasmr.exe -EP j.asm
2	.model small
3	.stack 256
4	.code
5		mov bh, 39h
6		mov ax, 39h
7		mov bl, 35h
8	end
9		mov bh, 39h
10		mov ax, 39h
11		mov bl, 35h

Note the BL branch is taken for bl register, and the other branch is taken for all the other registers, just what you tried to achieve.

Your issue with EQ might be related to data types expected by this operator.
TASM manual say the EQ treats its arguments as unsigned numbers. I'd guess the same applies to MASM, so EQ should not be used for texts comparison.

vstrakh wrote on 2022-10-24, 20:07:

I'm not sure what are you doing, because it works exactly the same as in TASM, which in turn follows the MASM rules.

Well

1	ifidni <Reg8>,<BL>

and

1	if (Reg8 EQ BL)

do have a different key word and syntax and are not the same.

The latter is an example from the assembler book i am reading which is written for MASM. Thus, this works in MASM.
JWASM trys to be compatible to MASM, but it seems that here the compatibility ends.

Your

1	ifidni <Reg8>,<BL>

is a completely other solution. And yes it works. But how should i know that, when my MASM books says i should use

1	 IF (PART1 Operator PART2)

?

With one of the following operators:
EQ = equal
NE = not equal
LT = less than
LE = less or equal
GT = greater
GE = greather or equal

And where PART1 and PART2 can be registers.

Here's with case-insensitive IF comparison:

Thanks.

Note the BL branch is taken for bl register, and the other branch is taken for all the other registers, just what you tried to achieve.

Exactly.
But it doesn't work with this MASM syntax in JWASM, at least not when using a register. It seems to work with other things like constants.

vstrakh wrote on 2022-10-24, 20:14:

Your issue with EQ might be related to data types expected by this operator.
TASM manual say the EQ treats its arguments as unsigned numbers. I'd guess the same applies to MASM, so EQ should not be used for texts comparison.

No, MASM eats this. The book and its examples are written for MASM.

But it seems to be this could be true:

TASM manual say the EQ treats its arguments as unsigned numbers. I'd guess the same applies to MASM JWASM, so EQ should not be used for texts comparison.

It's also a pitty, that the JWASM manual doesn't mention, that i should use ifidni instead of if ( ... EQ ...).

By MASM book has also only about 300 pages with a large font size. ifidni isn't even mentioned in the book.

One more question

Can you tell me, which if##### key word corresponds to which if operator of the following list?

1EQ = equal  
2NE = not equal 
3LT = less than 
4LE = less or equal
5GT = greater 
6GE = greather or equal 

Now i know, that ifidni <parm1>, <parm2> can be used instead of IF ( parm1 EQ parm2..).
But the others?

Exploit wrote on 2022-10-24, 20:33:

It's also a pitty, that the JWASM manual doesn't mention, that i should use ifidni instead of if ( ... EQ ...).

By MASM book has also only about 300 pages with a large font size. ifidni isn't even mentioned in the book.

This is the link to MASM reference, here's the 'ifidni' directive:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cpp/assembl … n?view=msvc-170

Now EQ is a relational operator, comparing results of two expressions.
See this:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-har … c---expressions

1In an MASM expression, the numeric value of any symbol is its memory address. In a C++ expression, the numeric value of a variable is its actual value, not its address. Data structures do not have numeric values. Instead, they are treated as actual structures and you must use them accordingly. The value of a function name or any other entry point is the memory address and is treated as a function pointer. If you use a symbol that does not correspond to a C++ data type (such as an unmodified module name), a syntax error occurs.
2
3The MASM expression evaluator treats all numbers as ULONG64 values. The C++ expression evaluator casts numbers to ULONG64 and preserves type information of all data types.

This hints that result of expression is always a number. If something is not a number, then it's a symbol, and the value of such expression is the address of the symbol. That's why JWASM could not immediately tell "this is not a number", it hoped to find the address of the symbol, that's why the warning message say it wanted "a constant or relocatable item".

The JWASM can't recommend one operator over another, it's assumed you know the rules and use appropriate operators or directives.

Exploit wrote on 2022-10-24, 20:38:

Can you tell me, which if##### key word corresponds to which if operator of the following list? […]
Show full quote

Can you tell me, which if##### key word corresponds to which if operator of the following list?

Copy code to clipboard

1EQ = equal  
2NE = not equal 
3LT = less than 
4LE = less or equal
5GT = greater 
6GE = greather or equal 

Now i know, that ifidni <parm1>, <parm2> can be used instead of IF ( parm1 EQ parm2..).
But the others?

Did you notice the 'i' at the end of 'ifidni'? This means case-insensitive. The case sensitivity does not apply to numbers. EQ/NE/LT/LE/GT/GE - it's all relational operators, they compare numbers obtained after evaluating the expressions. Now 'ifidni', 'ifdif' - are the directives, doing something else than IF. It does not take the expression, it operates on some other conditions. These do not mix, and not an alternatives of each other.

Thanks.

vstrakh wrote on 2022-10-24, 20:53:

This hints that result of expression is always a number. If something is not a number, then it's a symbol, and the value of such expression is the address of the symbol. That's why JWASM could not immediately tell "this is not a number", it hoped to find the address of the symbol, that's why the warning message say it wanted "a constant or relocatable item".

MASM uses the @ sign to tell MASM that a register is a register and not a hexadecimal number.
So

1IF (param1 EQ BL)

should be better written as:

1IF (param1 EQ @BL)

But JWASM doesn't accept that either.
The value of a register should be treated as a number in this case. MASM does this at least.

The JWASM can't recommend one operator over another, it's assumed you know the rules and use appropriate operators or directives.

Yes, it seems so. MASM provides at least the @ sign to make clear if AH is a name of a register or a hexadecimal number.

Thanks.

vstrakh wrote on 2022-10-24, 20:58:

Did you notice the 'i' at the end of 'ifidni'? This means case-insensitive. The case sensitivity does not apply to numbers. EQ/NE/LT/LE/GT/GE - it's all relational operators, they compare numbers obtained after evaluating the expressions.

I wasn't referring about the is case sensitive and is not case insensitive issue.

I asked what directive is the replacement for the following operators.

1if (a>b)
2if(a>=b)
3if (a<b)
4if (a<=b)
5if (a!=b)
6if(a==b) // that's ifidni

Now 'ifidni', 'ifdif' - are the directives, doing something else than IF. It does not take the expression, it operates on some other conditions. These do not mix, and not an alternatives of each other.

Well, what i learned today is. That i can't use IF in JWASM when using registers. I must use ifidni (EQ) and other directives (for the other operators NE/LT/LE/GT/GE) .

So for

1if (xy EQ @register)  ;MASM

i must use the directive

1ifidni <xy>, <register> ;JWASM

as an alternative.