CHAPTER 15
RELEASE HISTORY OF A86
Virtually all releases of A86 include bug fixes. If I don't say
anything about a release, then it was essentially only bug fixes.
V2.10
June 1986. Initial public release of the MSDOS version of
A86. The last previous version ran under the Xenix
operating system on the Altos series of computers. For
this "public offering", I cleaned up the invocation
syntax, upgraded the error-reporting facility, and started
adding compatbility features.
V2.11
June 1986.
Added RADIX command.
V2.13
July 1986.
Reduced memory requirements.
V2.15
August 1986. Implemented COMMENT directive for
compatibility; added floating point instruction set and DQ
and DT directives.
V2.16
August 1986. Made internal changes to accommodate forward
referencing in D86's patch-memory mode.
V2.18
November 1986.
V2.90
March 1987.
V3.00
April 1987. Major upgrade. Added added support for
linkable .OBJ files, long constants and floating-point
constants, A86LIB library tool and A86LIB support,
ability to forward-reference variables, 286
protected-mode and NEC-specific instructions, options not
to insert errors in source, long forward JMP for local
labels, and default decimal, "=" equate compatibility
feature, double-quoted strings, and parentheses no longer
required for most DUP right operands.
V3.01
April 1987. Added "S" suppress-symtab and "C"
case-sensitivity switches
Test release for .OBJ support.
V3.04
May 1987.
V3.05
June 1987. Added recognition of SEGMENT AT in non-OBJ
mode, and ignore END directive in non-OBJ mode
V3.07
July 1987. Added features necessary for Turbo C support
(+c, +f, +F switches; ignore DGROUP:). Generalized the
environment variable to include macro files. Added the
ampersand feature. Made = compatible with MASM.
V3.08
July 1987.
V3.09
August 1987. Legalized MOV segreg,immediate. Duplicated
MASM functionality for case-sensitive mode (A86's +C
switch).
15-2
V3.10
September 1987. Added a printed version of the manual.
Added +c switch, reinstating case sensitivity during
assembly, but this time without sensitivity in built-in
symbols.
V3.11
November 1987. Added the SEG operator for compatibility
with Turbo C, and made it possible to define relocatable
segments called CODE, DATA, or STACK, for compatibility
with Turbo Pascal.
V3.12
February 1988. Changed the format of SYM files, so that
they are much smaller yet hold more information. Allowed
an arbitrary expression to appear in a conditional
assembly (#IF) directive. Added macro features: #V value
operator, #S size operator, #N number operator, #EX exit
directive, string comparison of operands, and large
operand numbers (up to 255).
V3.13
March 1988. Made memory management more flexible, to
allow A86 to run with less available memory.
V3.15
May 1988. Allowed up-arrow in place of equals-sign in
invocation equates. Allowed MOV mem,mem and XCHG of a
variety of new forms, generating sequences of instructions
to implement the unavailable forms.
V3.17
June 1988.
V3.18
July 1988. For compatibility: allowed OFFSET segname, and
implicitly converted a constant with a segment override
into a memory type.
V3.19
August 1988.
V3.20
July 1989. Made internal redesign of handling of sizeoverride operators (B, W, D, F, etc.) so they are handled
more consistently. Outlawed first DATA SEGMENT without a
starting ORG statement, forcing an explicit ORG 0 for
future compatibility.
V3.21
August 1989.
V3.22
January 1990. Added support for additional coprocessors:
the 80387 and the IIT-2C87. Made numerous minor changes
to enhance MASM-compatibility.
V3.70
January 1994. Test release for INCLUDE support, forward
ORGs, default ORG for DATA SEGMENT to the end of the
program, listing files, macros in A86LIB, K numeric base,
the DEF and REF operators, numeric operands to MOVx and
STOSx, enforcement of processor-specific instructions,
forward references in complicated expressions, and symbols
beginning with a period.
V3.72
September 1994.
15-3
V4.00
December 1994. "Official" public release with all the new
features mentioned in V3.70 above. Added COMPAT.8 file to
implement some MASM directives as A86 macros.
V4.01
March 1995.