On Mon, 22 Oct 2001, Rudel Obed B. Dianala wrote:

> the closest link you
> can get to the hardware is the language used to create your high level
> language.

The language used to create the high-level language is usually
the same high level language.  For example, the C compiler gcc-2.95.3
or gcc-3.0.1 is written in C.  To convert it to machine language
an existing C compiler is used.  This is usually an older version of
gcc, or it can be the K&R C compiler.

I am not contesting the usefulness of assembly language.  In an earlier
post, I mentioned that assembly is needed for time critical code.
I am just explaining that "the language used to create your high level
language" need not be assembly language.

Of course, the very first mini-C compiler used to compile the first
full-blown C compiler was hand assembled from the C source code by
Ritchie and Kernighan.  Historical accounts tell us that since yacc/bison
was not yet written at that time, Kernighan and Ritchie had to manually
generate the parse tables from the C grammar.  The computations for
the closure of sets of LR(1) items was done on large pieces of Manila
paper spread on the floor of the computer room.  What we now do on the
computer in a few seconds, they had to do manually over several days.

Call that love.

PMana

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