FIX: Text Macros Cannot Serve as Data-Definition Replacements (30380)

The information in this article applies to:

This article was previously published under Q30380

SYMPTOMS

A text macro cannot be used to select data-definition directives. The following program demonstrates this problem:

    .MODEL SMALL
    .CODE
start: mov ax,@data
       mov ds,ax

gets   equ   <DW>
boat   gets   3
    END start

The following assembler error message is generated on the "boat gets 3" line:

A2105 Expected: instruction, directive, or label

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem with MASM versions 5.1 and 5.1a. This problem was corrected in version 6.0.

Modification Type:	Major	Last Reviewed:	10/29/2003
Keywords:	kbfix KB30380