Re: Best tools for writing an assembler?

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From	Ivan Godard <ivan@ootbcomp.com>
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Subject	Re: Best tools for writing an assembler?
Date	Tue, 18 Feb 2014 23:23:29 -0800
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On 2/18/2014 4:04 PM, tpphysik@gmail.com wrote:
> I want to write an assembler for my own processor architecture. It
> would be of middle complexity. ...

I strongly recommend the approach we took in the Mill assembler: we
use the C++ compiler as the first pass, then execute the resulting
program as the second pass. You write a C++ function for each machine
operation: "add(regNum r1, regNum r2)" or whatever. The bodies of each
of these call the emitters with the bit pattern to use, and the
emitters pack the bits into the output.

Note that the C++ forms the meta-language which is traditionally a macro
language. Thus you can rite:
  for(int i=0; i < 8; ++i)
      store(b+4*i, regs[i]);
and get the eight stores to flush your registers.

We actually generate all the function definitions from our specification
machinery, but you can wrte them by hand too, and the work will still be
much less than writing, debugging and documenting a traditional assembler.

Thread

Best tools for writing an assembler? tpphysik@gmail.com - 2014-02-18 16:04 -0800
  Re: Best tools for writing an assembler? "C. Bergström" <cbergstrom@pathscale.com> - 2014-02-19 11:14 +0700
  Re: Best tools for writing an assembler? glen herrmannsfeldt <gah@ugcs.caltech.edu> - 2014-02-19 04:25 +0000
  Re: Best tools for writing an assembler? Ivan Godard <ivan@ootbcomp.com> - 2014-02-18 23:23 -0800
    Re: Best tools for writing an assembler? Robert A Duff <bobduff@TheWorld.com> - 2014-02-19 18:20 -0500
      Re: Best tools for writing an assembler? Sébastien Fricker <sebastien.fricker@gmail.com> - 2014-02-21 12:00 +0100
      Re: Best tools for writing an assembler? "BartC" <bc@freeuk.com> - 2014-02-22 00:28 +0000
      Re: Best tools for writing an assembler? noitalmost <noitalmost@cox.net> - 2014-02-23 11:22 -0500
        Re: Best tools for writing an assembler? Sébastien Fricker <sebastien.fricker@gmail.com> - 2014-02-24 07:32 +0100
          Re: Best tools for writing an assembler? Louis Krupp <lkrupp@pssw.com> - 2014-02-24 15:39 -0700
          Re: Best tools for writing an assembler? Ivan Godard <ivan@ootbcomp.com> - 2014-02-24 15:04 -0800
            Re: Best tools for writing an assembler? rpw3@rpw3.org (Rob Warnock) - 2014-02-25 13:00 +0000
          Re: Best tools for writing an assembler? Hans-Peter Diettrich <DrDiettrich1@aol.com> - 2014-02-25 04:09 +0100
        Re: Best tools for writing an assembler? "James Harris" <james.harris.1@gmail.com> - 2014-02-24 23:18 +0000
        Re: Best tools for writing an assembler? noitalmost <noitalmost@cox.net> - 2014-02-27 18:11 -0500
          Re: Best tools for writing an assembler? George Neuner <gneuner2@comcast.net> - 2014-03-01 13:09 -0500
            Re: Best tools for writing an assembler? federation2005@netzero.com - 2014-03-26 17:57 -0700
              Re: Best tools for writing an assembler? federation2005@netzero.com - 2014-04-13 12:24 -0700
  Re: Best tools for writing an assembler? Sébastien Fricker <sebastien.fricker@gmail.com> - 2014-02-19 09:59 +0100
    Re: Best tools for writing an assembler? Robert A Duff <bobduff@shell01.TheWorld.com> - 2014-02-19 18:27 -0500
  Re: Best tools for writing an assembler? Patrik Túri <tpphysik@gmail.com> - 2014-02-20 17:15 -0800
    Re: Best tools for writing an assembler? Hans-Peter Diettrich <DrDiettrich1@aol.com> - 2014-02-21 12:09 +0100
      Re: Best tools for writing an assembler? glen herrmannsfeldt <gah@ugcs.caltech.edu> - 2014-02-24 20:42 +0000
        Re: Best tools for writing an assembler? Ivan Godard <ivan@ootbcomp.com> - 2014-02-24 15:13 -0800
        Re: Best tools for writing an assembler? hu47121@usenet.kitty.sub.org (Hannah) - 2014-02-25 00:43 +0000
          Re: Best tools for writing an assembler? Walter Banks <walter@bytecraft.com> - 2014-02-27 14:14 -0500
        Re: Best tools for writing an assembler? Hans-Peter Diettrich <DrDiettrich1@aol.com> - 2014-02-25 04:23 +0100
    Re: Best tools for writing an assembler? glen herrmannsfeldt <gah@ugcs.caltech.edu> - 2014-02-24 20:35 +0000

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