Re: HLA and Lisp macros

From: Randall Hyde (randyhyde_at_earthlink.net)
Date: 12/16/03 

Date: Tue, 16 Dec 2003 03:30:23 GMT

Parsing really isn't simpler - most of the work in a well-featured
assembler comes in parsing declarations and the like -- not the
instructions.

Note that HLA is *two* different languages - the run-time (assembly)
language and the compile-time language. A Lisp-like syntax would
be a boon to the compile-time language, but I'm not sure it would
be helpful for the run-time language. Then again, if you had students
who learned LISP as their first programming language (and some
schools do this), then a LISP-like syntax would be useful for those
students. Alas, that's a fairly small number of students.
Cheers,
Randy Hyde

"thelifter" <thelifter@gmx.net> wrote in message news:b295356a.0312151651.1cc235cc@posting.google.com...
> "Randall Hyde" <randyhyde@earthlink.net> wrote in message news:<GRcDb.4506$0s2.3871@newsread2.news.pas.earthlink.net>...
> > A Lisp-like assembler would be pretty cool, though.
> > e.g.,
> >
> > (add, 0, eax)
> > (sub, ebx, [edx])
> > (add, (mov, i, eax), esi )
> >
>
> I wonder, wouldn't that kind of syntax have following advantages:
>
> 1) Very easy parsing because of the parenthesis.
> 2) Easier to make a macro language, because the parenthesis can be
> parsed into list structures and then you can operate on the lists,
> creating program code at compile time(like in Lisp)
>
> Wouldn't that be a way to leverage the power of Lisp?

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