Taking an Assembly Course, Stuck in DOS!

Question

I'm taking a course on Microprocessor Programming as part of my Electronic Engineering degree. Unfortunately, in the labs, we have to work in DOS using MASM.

Now, I don't really find DOS a hindrance, but I just don't have it on a computer at home (and none of the computers that I have have floppy drives), so I am unable to practice writing programs. I have tried under Windows, but it just doesn't assemble (I am guessing this is because of Protected Mode).

Any advice on what should I do? Should I just learn to program in Protected Mode? Will that help me with the course? The course is focused on the 8086.

Perhaps a virtual machine could help? If so, where can I get DOS and MASM for it?

Answer 1

FreeDOS is another option, and running it in virtualbox

http://www.freedos.org/

BTW, Free DOS can also be booted from a CD. I think you can even install it on a thumb drive if so inclined.

Answer 2

I would suggest using a virtual machine such as the free VirtualBox, or qemu, an x86 (+ others) emulator. I would suggest using MS-DOS as the guest OS, as my previous attempts at trying some basic assembly under FreeDOS under VirtualBox were unreliable.

MASM v8 is available for download from Microsoft - but I don't remember if that includes a 16-bit assembler or not. Also read Randall Hyde's blurb on MASM. The Art of Assembly website is a go-to spot for learning assembly. Of course Wikipedia has a comparison of assemblers. You'll want one that is MASM compatible and runs under DOS (i.e. 16-bit).

Added Note: Older versions of MS-Windows prior to Windows XP included MS-DOS, including Windows 95 and 98. If you have or can find an old copy on CD, otherwise people will likely give the CD freely if they have one - ask friends, local computer stores, family, and you should be able to install them in a virtual machine with little or no effort.