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page	Q67788: IRP Directive Has Single Line Limit of 120 Characters	/pubs/pc/reference/microsoft/kb/Q67788/

Q67788: IRP Directive Has Single Line Limit of 120 Characters

Article: Q67788
Version(s): 5.10 5.10a | 5.10 5.10a
Operating System: MS-DOS     | OS/2
Flags: ENDUSER | buglist5.10a
Last Modified: 6-FEB-1991

The IRP (Instruction Repeat) directive in MASM has a single line limit
of 120 characters. The example code below shows a macro with an IRP
that has 125 characters. The result of this program is an error
message that states:

        End of file encountered on input file
        Number of open conditionals:14
        End of file encountered on input file

This error occurs because the assembler is looking for a closing
bracket (>), but the line is over the limit of 120 characters. As a
result, the assembler accepts the rest of the code to be part of the
IRP parameters. By shortening the final parameter to be within the
limit (change TP$_EOS to TP), the bracket is read correctly and the
remainder of the program is assembled with no errors.

NOTE: In this example, the IRP argument list is stated in three lines;
however, it should be all on the same line to cause the error. The
120-character limit is only on the same line. A workaround is to
continue the argument on the next line as seen below.

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in MASM version 5.10 and
5.10a. We are researching this problem and will post new information
here as it becomes available.

Sample Code
-----------

$tran   macro   keyword
   irpc TP$_DUMMY,<keyword>
      ifidn <&TP$_DUMMY>,<T>
         irp TP$_DUMMY2,<TP$_ANY,TP$_ALPHA,TP$_DIGIT,
                        TP$_STRING,TP$_SYMBOL,TP$_BLANK,TP$_DECIMAL,
                        TP$_OCTAL,TP$_HEX,TP$_LAMBDA,TP$_EOS>
            %out TP$_DUMMY2
         endm
      endif
   endm
endm

   $tran     if_anything_cmd
end