Revisions to TASM not covered in the 2.8 documentation:

ENABLE RANGE CHECK FOR 8051 AJMP/ACALL.
 
The assembly control flag (-a)  may be used to enable this  optional 
error  check.   To enable,  invoke TASM with '-a10'  on the  command 
line.   This check will ensure that a branch off the current 2K byte 
page will result in an error message. 


WORD ADDRESSING

A  word (16  bit)  addressing mode was added to support those target 
processors that  use word addresses instead of byte  addresses (e.g. 
TMS320).  

CONVERSION TO MICROSOFT C 6.0 AND TURBO C++

As of version 2.8.3 the TASM executable is built using TURBO C++.
Makefiles for both TURBO C and Microsoft C are provided, however.
Use:

        MAKEFILE.TC             for TURBO C++
        MAKEFILE.MSC            for Microsoft C 6.0



LOCAL LABELS

Labels that start with the '_'  character are considered to be local 
to  a  given module and may be reused in subsequent  modules.    The 
scope of a module is determined by a new directive (MODULE).  
Here is an example:

                .module xxx
                lda regx
                jne _skip
                dec 
        _skip   rts

                .module yyy
                lda regy 
                jne _skip 
                dec 
        _skip   rts 

In the above example,  the _skip label is reused without harm.  As a 
default,   local  labels  are not shown in the label  table  listing 
(resulting  from  the '-l'  command line  option).    See  following 
section for options on the label table listing. 

LOCALLABELCHAR DIRECTIVE

To override the default "_" as the label prefix indicating a local 
label, use the LOCALLABELCHAR directive.  For example, to change the
prefix to "?" do this:

        .LOCALLABELCHAR "?"

Be carefull to use only characters that are not operators for 
expression evaluation.  To do so causes ambiguity for the expression 
evaluator.  Some safe characters are "?", "{", and "}".



LONG FORM LABEL TABLE LISTING

Two options have been added (as suffixes) to the '-l' option which 
causes a label table to be generated in the listing file.  They are 
as follows:

    Secondary option       Description
    -------------------------------------------------
    l                      Use long form listing
    a                      Show all labels (including local labels)

The secondary flag should immediately follow the the '-l'.  For 
example:

        -l              to show non-local labels in the short form 
        -lal            to show all labels in the long form listing
        -ll             to show non-local labels in the long form


ENHANCED 6800 FAMILY TABLE TO SUPPORT 68HC11

Use the '-x7' (or just 'x') command line option to enable the 68HC11 
instructions.    TASM deviates from standard Motorola syntax for the 
BSET,  BRSET,  BCLR,  and BRCLR instructions.   TASM requires commas 
separating  all arguments.   Motorola assemblers use white space  to 
separate the last one or two arguments for these instructions.  Here 
are examples of each applicable instruction: 

        TASM                            MOTOROLA
        ----------------------          --------------------
        BCLR    addr1,Y,bmsk            BCLR    addr1,Y bmsk
        BCLR    addr1,X,bmsk            BCLR    addr1,X bmsk
        BCLR    addr1  ,bmsk            BCLR    addr1   bmsk 
        BSET    addr1,Y,bmsk            BSET    addr1,Y bmsk
        BSET    addr1,X,bmsk            BSET    addr1,X bmsk
        BSET    addr1  ,bmsk            BSET    addr1   bmsk  

        BRCLR   addr1,Y,bmsk,lab1       BRCLR   addr1,Y bmsk lab1
        BRCLR   addr1,X,bmsk,lab1       BRCLR   addr1,X bmsk lab1
        BRCLR   addr1  ,bmsk,lab1       BRCLR   addr1   bmsk lab1 
        BRSET   addr1,Y,bmsk,lab1       BRSET   addr1,Y bmsk lab1
        BRSET   addr1,X,bmsk,lab1       BRSET   addr1,X bmsk lab1
        BRSET   addr1  ,bmsk,lab1       BRSET   addr1   bmsk lab1 


COMMENTCHAR DIRECTIVE

To enhance compatibility with motorola syntax, the COMMENTCHAR 
directive can be invoked.  For example,

        .COMMENTCHAR "*"

as the first line of an assembly source file will cause TASM to 
expect a '*' in the first column to indicate that a whole line of 
comment follows (the TASM default is ';').  Note that this does not 
change the need for a semicolon to initiate a comment at the end of 
a line.  This is, admittedly, a partial solution, but enables TASM
to assemble the output of the Small C compiler for the 68HC11 
(SC11).  


SAMPLE FILES FOR THE SMALL C COMPILER (68HC11)

TASM  can  be  used  in conjuction with the public  domain  Small  C 
Compiler  by  J.  Hendrix (as published in Doctor  Dobb's  Journal).  
Unarchive the MISC.ZOO file to access the files of interest: 

        booz misc.zoo

Refer to the README.C11 file for an explaination of the files.


TASM VERSION WITH INCREASED LABEL/MACRO MEMORY SPACE

If you encounter error messages such as:

        unable to malloc for label storage

try using TASMB.EXE which is in the MISC.ZOO archive.  It is built 
with a different memory model that results in a larger memory heap 
from which label and macro storage is allocated.  It is about 10% 
larger and runs about 10% slower than TASM.EXE.