4 ms·

Hmm. "AT&T"? I thought it at least came from DEC via the PDP-11,7 assembler. And I'm guessing Intel didn't invent doing it backwards in their own either.

ksherlock 4y ago
Wikipedia confirms it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X86_assembly_language#Syntax https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X86_assembly_language#Syntax "The AT&T syntax is nearly universal to all other architectures with the same mov order; it was originally a syntax for PDP-11 assembly. The Intel syntax is specific to the x86 architecture, and is the one used in the x86 platform's documentation." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/As_(Unix) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/As_(Unix) "As of November 1971, an assembler invoked as as was available for Unix. Implemented by Bell Labs staff, it was based upon the Digital Equipment Corporation's PAL-11R assembler."
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
monocasa 4y ago
AT&T as in Bell Labs in the work that would become Unix.
masklinn 4y ago
It's the AT&T syntax because AT&T are the one who unleashed that on the world against the wishes of everyone. See the sibling comment: > The AT&T folks did not even wait for Intel's assembler [...] Nor did they closely model their assembler after it. They just took the assembler they already had for the PDP-11 and adapted it with minimal changes for the 8086.
- AnimalMuppet 4y ago
  Wow, is your bias showing. "Against the wishes of everyone"? How about the wishes of those who wanted an x86 assembler before Intel got around to releasing theirs? And who wanted to be able to not have to switch their brains into a backward syntax when working on an x86?
  - musicale 4y ago
    Probably "against the wishes of assembly language programmers who were familiar with microprocessors like the 8080 and Z-80 - and those who would have preferred to standardize on the official intel syntax rather than deal with two different and incompatible assembly language syntaxes."
    - AnimalMuppet 4y ago
      So, reading the comments here I got the impression that the 8086/8088 order was backwards from everything else before it. Did the 8080 and Z-80 have the same order as the 8086? But even then, you have worlds converging. The 8086 was (barely) capable of running Unix, whereas the Z-80 definitely was not. Was the 8086 a part of the PDP-11 minicomputer world, or was it part of the 8080/Z-80 world? Well, it was both. Complaining that one world produced an assembler before the other did is... a bit exclusivist. Also whiny.
      - userbinator 4y ago
        The 8086 was (barely) capable of running Unix, whereas the Z-80 definitely was not. https://github.com/chettrick/uzics https://github.com/chettrick/uzics You're wrong ;-) Neither the 8086 nor the Z80 have virtual memory. The x86 has a larger instruction set and address space (1MB) but as it turns out, early Unix kernels didn't need that much RAM either.

ksherlock 4y ago

Wikipedia confirms it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X86_assembly_language#Syntax https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X86_assembly_language#Syntax "The AT&T syntax is nearly universal to all other architectures with the same mov order; it was originally a syntax for PDP-11 assembly. The Intel syntax is specific to the x86 architecture, and is the one used in the x86 platform's documentation." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/As_(Unix) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/As_(Unix) "As of November 1971, an assembler invoked as as was available for Unix. Implemented by Bell Labs staff, it was based upon the Digital Equipment Corporation's PAL-11R assembler."

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

monocasa 4y ago

AT&T as in Bell Labs in the work that would become Unix.

masklinn 4y ago

It's the AT&T syntax because AT&T are the one who unleashed that on the world against the wishes of everyone. See the sibling comment: > The AT&T folks did not even wait for Intel's assembler [...] Nor did they closely model their assembler after it. They just took the assembler they already had for the PDP-11 and adapted it with minimal changes for the 8086.

AnimalMuppet 4y ago
Wow, is your bias showing. "Against the wishes of everyone"? How about the wishes of those who wanted an x86 assembler before Intel got around to releasing theirs? And who wanted to be able to not have to switch their brains into a backward syntax when working on an x86?
- musicale 4y ago
  Probably "against the wishes of assembly language programmers who were familiar with microprocessors like the 8080 and Z-80 - and those who would have preferred to standardize on the official intel syntax rather than deal with two different and incompatible assembly language syntaxes."
  - AnimalMuppet 4y ago
    So, reading the comments here I got the impression that the 8086/8088 order was backwards from everything else before it. Did the 8080 and Z-80 have the same order as the 8086? But even then, you have worlds converging. The 8086 was (barely) capable of running Unix, whereas the Z-80 definitely was not. Was the 8086 a part of the PDP-11 minicomputer world, or was it part of the 8080/Z-80 world? Well, it was both. Complaining that one world produced an assembler before the other did is... a bit exclusivist. Also whiny.
    - userbinator 4y ago
      The 8086 was (barely) capable of running Unix, whereas the Z-80 definitely was not. https://github.com/chettrick/uzics https://github.com/chettrick/uzics You're wrong ;-) Neither the 8086 nor the Z80 have virtual memory. The x86 has a larger instruction set and address space (1MB) but as it turns out, early Unix kernels didn't need that much RAM either.