"Fatal assembly error" when opening dasm?

[O'Bobson]

This may not be the right place and probably is very simple indeed (like that I've downloaded the wrong version. Now, that would be embarrassing), but, still...

 

I downloaded dasm, unzipped it and went to the Mac OSX version (I have a Mac [Version 10.6.4]). When it opened, it said (typed, whatever):

redistributable for non-profit only

 

DASM sourcefile [options]

-f# output format

-oname output file

-lname list file

-Lname list file, containing all passes

-sname symbol dump

-v# verboseness

-t# Symbol Table sorting preference (#1 = by address. default #0 = alphabetic)

-Dname=exp define label

-Mname=exp define label as in EQM

-Idir search directory for include and incbin

-p# max number of passes

-P# max number of passes, with less checks

Fatal assembly error: Check command-line format.

logout

 

 

[Process completed]

 

 

 

I have no idea what I'm doing wrong (it does this immediately on startup, I'm not trying to compile anything yet!) and it doesn't appear to me that others are getting this problem. What am I doing wrong?

[GroovyBee]

Why are you expecting it not to complain when you haven't given it a file to assemble?

 

What are you typing at the command line?

[O'Bobson]

Why are you expecting it not to complain when you haven't given it a file to assemble?

 

What are you typing at the command line?

 

Absolutely nothing. It does this on startup.

[GroovyBee]

Absolutely nothing. It does this on startup.

 

I don't use DASM on Macs only on PC. On the PC its a command line tool so I assume its the same on the Mac. In which case you need to tell it what to assemble.

[O'Bobson]

Absolutely nothing. It does this on startup.

 

I don't use DASM on Macs only on PC. On the PC its a command line tool so I assume its the same on the Mac. In which case you need to tell it what to assemble.

 

Ok, I'll try that. Thanks for your help! (if you couldn't already tell, I'm quite a newbie).

[SeaGtGruff]

Absolutely nothing. It does this on startup.

 

I don't use DASM on Macs only on PC. On the PC its a command line tool so I assume its the same on the Mac. In which case you need to tell it what to assemble.

 

Ok, I'll try that. Thanks for your help! (if you couldn't already tell, I'm quite a newbie).

No worries. This is actually a common mistake with newbies. It would be nice to have a 6502 assembler that runs in a GUI mode, but the few I'm familiar with use a CLI (command line interface) mode, so you can't just double-click or execute the assembler-- you have to type a command line that indicates the source file to be assembled, along with any other parameters. The DASM.TXT file should give you an explanation of the different parameters that are available. One thing you need to know-- if you want to assemble a file for the Atari 2600, be sure to include -f3 in your command line, so the output file will be in the "raw" format.

 

Michael

[O'Bobson]

Absolutely nothing. It does this on startup.

 

I don't use DASM on Macs only on PC. On the PC its a command line tool so I assume its the same on the Mac. In which case you need to tell it what to assemble.

 

Ok, I'll try that. Thanks for your help! (if you couldn't already tell, I'm quite a newbie).

No worries. This is actually a common mistake with newbies. It would be nice to have a 6502 assembler that runs in a GUI mode, but the few I'm familiar with use a CLI (command line interface) mode, so you can't just double-click or execute the assembler-- you have to type a command line that indicates the source file to be assembled, along with any other parameters. The DASM.TXT file should give you an explanation of the different parameters that are available. One thing you need to know-- if you want to assemble a file for the Atari 2600, be sure to include -f3 in your command line, so the output file will be in the "raw" format.

 

Michael

 

Sorry for replying late, but thanks for the help!