15 Dec
2006
15 Dec
'06
7:42 p.m.
On 12/16/06, Dave Dunfield <dave06a at dunfield.com> wrote:
For an old embedded product (c. 1986), we had to maintain a
Perkin-Elmer workstation to compile the product C source to .ASM files
that were compatible with our home-grown relocating linker. We could
have replaced everything with more modern software, but it was just
easier to keep the ancient workstation running for the odd code
change. At the time we were still using it, it was more common for C
compilers to not generate intermediate ASM files than it was years
earlier, making the transition to a newer environment less than
trivial.
-ethan
Is it a *recent* development of compilers that
as an
intermediate step the source code will first be
reduced to assembler mnemonics, before being reduced
to object code?
No, this is how many compilers traditionally worked it dates
back a long ways. All of my compilers generate assembly
language as an intermediate step. Some of mine date back
to mid- 80s, and I've worked with others before that which
used an assembly intermediate step.