Path: csiph.com!v102.xanadu-bbs.net!xanadu-bbs.net!nntp.club.cc.cmu.edu!micro-heart-of-gold.mit.edu!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!panix!not-for-mail From: Grant Edwards Newsgroups: comp.arch.embedded Subject: Re: Portable Assembly Date: Sat, 27 May 2017 21:58:50 +0000 (UTC) Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and UNIX, NYC Lines: 22 Message-ID: References: NNTP-Posting-Host: c-50-148-195-179.hsd1.mn.comcast.net X-Trace: reader1.panix.com 1495922330 1485 50.148.195.179 (27 May 2017 21:58:50 GMT) X-Complaints-To: abuse@panix.com NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 27 May 2017 21:58:50 +0000 (UTC) User-Agent: slrn/1.0.2 (Linux) Xref: csiph.com comp.arch.embedded:26654 On 2017-05-27, Theo Markettos wrote: > Back in the 80s, lots of software was written in assembly. But it was > common for software to be cross-platform - a popular game might come out for > half a dozen or more machines, using Z80, 6502, 68K, 8086, 6809, etc. > > Obviously 'conversion' involved more than just the instruction set - parts > had to be written for the memory available and make use of the platform's > graphics capabilities (which could be substantially different). But were > there tools to handle this, or did the programmers sit down and rewrite the > assembly from scratch for each version? Usually the latter. There were tools that were supposed to help you do things like port 8080 assmebly language programs to the 8086, but from what I read/heard they didn't turn out to be very useful in the real world. -- Grant