Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!necntc!ima!johnl
From: peter@sugar.UUCP (Peter da Silva)
Newsgroups: comp.compilers
Subject: Re: Simplistic Assemblers?
Message-ID: <1288@sugar.UUCP>
Date: 20 Dec 87 14:16:42 GMT
References: <789@ima.ISC.COM>
Sender: johnl@ima.ISC.COM
Reply-To: peter@sugar.UUCP (Peter da Silva)
Organization: Sugar Land UNIX - Houston, TX
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Approved: compilers@ima.UUCP

[ Refernced article compained about the simplicity of AS and how much more
  useful some high-zoot macro jobbadoo was ]

Have you ever heard of preprocessors?

I found the UNIX "as" assembler plus the "m4" preprocessor much more useful
than DEC's fully-featured Macro-11. For EXACTLY the same program on the same
processor: John-James FIG-Forth for the PDP-11. Some of the features of PDP-11
"as" are very nice indeed. Much more useful than combining two programs in one
piece (macro pre-processor and assembler).

Don't you prefer:

	head(type,,docol,)		/ not entirely sure of the number
	over; plus; swap		/ of commas in the macro here.
1:	pdo; i; emit; ploop; 1b-.
	semis

to:

TYPE::	HEAD	<TYP,E>,,DOCOL		; Ditto.
	.WORD	OVER, PLUS, SWAP
XTYPAA:	.WORD	PDO, I, EMIT, PLOOP, XTYPAA-$
	.WORD	SEMIS
 
-- Peter da Silva  `-_-'  ...!hoptoad!academ!uhnix1!sugar!peter
-- Disclaimer: These U aren't mere opinions... these are *values*.
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