Interesting decompiler

[Ethan Dicks]

On 12/16/06, Dave Dunfield <dave06a at dunfield.com> wrote:
>
> >  Is it a *recent* development of compilers that as an
> > intermediate step the source code will first be
> > reduced to assembler mnemonics, before being reduced
> > to object code?
>
> No, this is how many compilers traditionally worked it dates
> back a long ways. All of my compilers generate assembly
> language as an intermediate step. Some of mine date back
> to mid- 80s, and I've worked with others before that which
> used an assembly intermediate step.

For an old embedded product (c. 1986), we had to maintain a
Perkin-Elmer workstation to compile the product C source to .ASM files
that were compatible with our home-grown relocating linker.  We could
have replaced everything with more modern software, but it was just
easier to keep the ancient workstation running for the odd code
change.  At the time we were still using it, it was more common for C
compilers to not generate intermediate ASM files than it was years
earlier, making the transition to a newer environment less than
trivial.

-ethan