Re: Assembler using Lex/Yacc

Sanky <sanketsharma@gmail.com> wrote:
> I was working on an assembler for X64 architecture. I was wondering
> what are the tradeoffs in designing an assembler using lex or re2c and
> yacc? Why is that handwritten assemblers are more popular than those
> developed using lex/yacc? Developing a grammar is the toughest part,
> but once you have a grammar ready, I think the rest of the routines are


[...]




I've written several of both (incl some full-blown ones generating proprietary
multi-seg relocatable binaries) and there seems no good reason -- apart from
lethargy and pride -- not to use the tools.




I don't know what you mean by "tough" to design assembler syntax. ;-)




The only overhead I'd imagine is the learning curve. A rec descent
parser requires almost 0 learning. Getting yacc and lex to do same
requires knowing how to handle end-of-lines (i.e. whatever
record-oriented processing is required for your assembler -- usually
getting the listing right!), etc.

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