Re: A "Via Pascal" Modula 2 Compiler ?

On 2007-01-26, Chris Burrows <cfbsoftware@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> UNIX C compilers were intended to run on a wide variety of target CPU's.
I 
> don't know if the 'as' syntax is ****table

The syntax of »as« was never ****table, even for the same architecture.
I remember, for example, that the as syntax for the m68k architecture
as distributed by SunOS was compatible with the original Motorola
notation but the developers of gas, the GNU assembler, decided to
go for a syntax that was more close to that of the VAXes.

> but if it is it then works as a 
> sort of intermediate language separating the compiler writer from the 
> different CPU-specific variations of object code that had to be
produced.

I'm afraid that the only ****table assembler UNIX has to offer is C :)

>> I wonder whether the reasons MSDOS based compilers preferred to
>> generate object code directly
>
> It was not so much of a problem for MSDOS compiler writers as there was
only 
> one object file format (COFF?)

COFF, an acronym for Common Object File Format, was developed for UNIX
System V.3 as successor to the original a.out format to sup****t shared
libraries. Microsoft took that format, as far as I know, for Windows-NT
but not for MS-DOS. It is nowadays succeeded by ELF.

Andreas.