From: "Paganini <Nathan E. Banks>" <paganini AT madisontelco DOT com>
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.djgpp
Subject: Re: Assembler types
Date: Sat, 6 Mar 1999 17:57:34 -0600
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References: <7bran9$eoh$1 AT news3 DOT infoave DOT net> <MxfBZaB97W42Ewiz AT xemu DOT demon DOT co DOT uk>
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To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com
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Reply-To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com

Hi...thanks for your reply. I've done some VAX assembler for school...are
you saying that the difference is in the way the source is arranged in teh
code file? That they both compile into the same machine instructions? (e.g.,
i386)

--
Paganini <Nathan E. Banks>
MOOk, the Great High Llama
ICQ 25308827
http:\\web.madisontelco.com\~paganini

Dave Bird <dave AT xemu DOT demon DOT co DOT uk> wrote in message
news:MxfBZaB97W42Ewiz AT xemu DOT demon DOT co DOT uk...
>In article <7bran9$eoh$1 AT news3 DOT infoave DOT net>, Paganini <Nathan E. Banks>
><paganini AT madisontelco DOT com> writes
>>Could someone explain the difference between AT&T, intell, and NASM
>>assebler? How are they different? Why does DJGPP use NASM and AT&T but not
>>intell?
>
> There are two distinctions.
>
> Intel SOURCE format ................  a t & t (backwards) SOURCE format
>            |                                         |
>    +-------+------------+                            |
>    |                    |                            |
> Intel OBJECT files:   dj/gnu OBJECT files:  dj/gnu OBJECT files:
> MASM                  NASM                  AS, standard built-in assem
>                         |                            |
>                         +----------------------------+
>                                                      |
>                                            Can be linked+debugged by dj
>
> DJ/GNU compilers copy the "backwards" format of Digital Equipment Corp
> pdp or vax computers that the original unix GNU ran under, well,
> because they do -- even if it is a pain in the neck (if not lower).
> Backwards format has source -> destination and explicitly identifies
> registers, constants, etc, versus the commoner destn = source format:
>          ->                                                =
> mov  $0A21,%eax;           versus                   mov eax,0A21H;
>
> NASM is a simplified MASM in most ways; but GNU people claim microsloth
> don't adhere to the published standard for object files, and do their
> own object format which they say is correct.  NASM can produce
> microsloth *or* GNU (or Linux) object formats, but the two are
> not interchangeable:  GNU debuggers & linkers eat only GNU files.
>
> One oddity of NASM is that you '+' the offset of a field in a struct,
> '+structname.fieldname' if there is ambiguity;  but not '.' it.
>
>
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