Making a Windows EXE file yourself. How?

[JKE]

I need to make a Win-16 exe "manually" that is I have some ASM code which has
been translated binary. I need info how to make the exe headers etc..
Any pointers?
I was thinking that LHA file zipper has an ability to make self extracting exe.
Does anyone have pointers to it's (or similar) source code?
--------------------------
To email me remove the NOSPAM from my email address

[J.M. Thompson]

That's a tough question to deal with. I wonder how much already know
about the topic. If you are an engineer, and you pose such a
question, I'd have to say - good luck. My guess is you are not an
engineer, so I'll just put it to you like this...
That really isn't the right approach. What kind of program do you
need? What do you want it to do? Do you want it to run in the
windows gui? Or do you want it to be a console, text based
application.
Assembler is what I started with, 5 years ago. I even wrote part of a
video game in assembler. All of the programming languages get their
roots from assembler, but Windows programmers don't work at that low
of a level anymore, until real time is needed (usually for video
games) and the upper level routines can't be used. But I don't think
anyone would even do that anymore 'cause there are better, safer ways
to do just about everything that you need to do.
Good luck - hope it helps.

[re...@yahoo.com]

In article <356d19ee...@news.inet.fi>,

NOSPA...@icon.fi (JKE) wrote:
>
> I need to make a Win-16 exe "manually" that is I have some ASM code which
has
> been translated binary. I need info how to make the exe headers etc..

Well, for Win32 apps, you should study the PE (Portable Executable) format.
For Win16 apps, I think the EXE format is the same as MS-DOS executables.
Goto www.microsoft.com and search for info on "EXE format" and you should
find what you need.

Rik

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[da...@my-dejanews.com]

In article <356d19ee...@news.inet.fi>,
NOSPA...@icon.fi (JKE) wrote:
>
> I need to make a Win-16 exe "manually" that is I have some ASM code which
has
> been translated binary. I need info how to make the exe headers etc..

> Any pointers?
> I was thinking that LHA file zipper has an ability to make self extracting
exe.
> Does anyone have pointers to it's (or similar) source code?
> --------------------------
> To email me remove the NOSPAM from my email address
>

I had a book somewhere called "Inside Windows File Formats" (can't remember
author or publisher). It does have some specs for .EXE header, although not
really thorough. Book says that win3.1 .EXE is has an OLDDOS header and STUB
for compatibility.

It's quite an old book, so you might be able to find it in some PC bookstores
for really cheap. It also comes with a disk where these structures for .EXE
header are defined. I got the disk, so if you want I can e-mail these files to
you.

Good luck.

Damir V.

[Davide Marcato]

On Fri, 29 May 1998 19:41:16 GMT re...@yahoo.com wrote:

>In article <356d19ee...@news.inet.fi>,
> NOSPA...@icon.fi (JKE) wrote:
>>
>> I need to make a Win-16 exe "manually" that is I have some ASM code which
>has
>> been translated binary. I need info how to make the exe headers etc..
>

>Well, for Win32 apps, you should study the PE (Portable Executable) format.
>For Win16 apps, I think the EXE format is the same as MS-DOS executables.

No, by no stretch of imagination! Win16 apps used the so-called NE (New
Executable) file format, which was different from plain DOS executables.

Documentation for NEs may be found in old MSDN Archive CDs I guess.

Davide Marcato.
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