Message-ID:	<334BC15C.4D55@pobox.oleane.com>
Date:	Wed, 09 Apr 1997 17:18:36 +0100
From:	Francois Charton <deef AT pobox DOT oleane DOT com>
Organization:	CCMSA
MIME-Version:	1.0
To:	Peter Steele <ps13 AT ic DOT ac DOT uk>
CC:	djgpp AT delorie DOT com
Subject:	Re: decompiler
References:	<334A9255 DOT 4B15ACCF AT ic DOT ac DOT uk>

Peter Steele wrote:
> 
> Anyone know of any decompilers for c ? It would be especially nice if
> there was one for djgpp? Anyone  got any ideas.
> 

AFAIK, not many. I did some hand decompiling a while ago and am 
willing to write such a beast, but it is a long and hard job (though 
certainly very instructive). Anyone wanting to help please email me. 

Normally, a decompiler should be able reverse code from any compiler (ie 
any exe): it basically translates source from machine code to C (not 
caring whether the code was originally written in asm, pascal or C). 
However, you can make a decompiler more or less good at guessing one or 
another compiler, by giving him special info on how this compiler 
optimises, produces code, etc...

In such a case, I would not start with a DJGPP-friendly decompiler 
because:
1/ it might be difficult : gcc is a very good optimising compiler, and it 
will be hard to reverse efficiently
2/ it would not serve djgpp to be "the only compiler which produces 
decompilable code"... I'd rather start with the commercial competitors...


Francois

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