Re: Best tools for writing an assembler?

Since it hasn't come up in the discussion, I'd like to mention linking
and loading. You should at least be aware of what they do, especially
the loader.


I wouldn't bother with any generation tools like flex or bison, unless
you want to gain experience with those tools for some other project.
Since it's your own architecture, which has no native tools, you'll be
cross-compiling so speed of the assembler won't matter. It'll be a
long time before you write a program for your architecture that'll
take longer than a second to compile, even if you use Perl. So the
language you use should be the one you know best. My bias is toward
C++, but it really won't matter in your case.


I think that by hand-writing your own scanner and parser, you'll get
to know your assembly syntax better. And unless you have something
really strange, simple recursive descent will work fine for the
parser.


First, just get something that works for a simple assembly program.
That'll give you the encouragement to add a few more features. Then
you're off and running.

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