> For those of you that went through Z80, 6502, 68000, x86 macro assemblers like myself, it is just me or does the AT&T syntax just suck?
My assembly programming background is heavily Intel syntax based, I've done some x86 programming in the 16 bit days and also some Z80 for my TI calculators. So I found the AT&T syntax difficult to read (and write) at first.
But recently I was working on an operating system project and I needed some assembly code. I initially used NASM, then tried GAS/GCC inline asm with .intel_syntax, but I finally settled on AT&T syntax. It was easier to have just one asm syntax in my program (for inline asm in C code and in separate asm files). And it was easier to integrate in my build and toolchain, and no need to install another assembler for my target arch, just gcc+binutils.
So, in the end it was less pain to use AT&T syntax when it comes to tooling. But here's the thing: in less than a week I didn't mind the syntax any more.
So yeah, you might (as I did) think that the AT&T syntax sucks, but sometimes it's easier to use that than to reconfigure tools to use Intel syntax. But just get over it and use the default syntax of your tools. It's not such a big deal.
My assembly programming background is heavily Intel syntax based, I've done some x86 programming in the 16 bit days and also some Z80 for my TI calculators. So I found the AT&T syntax difficult to read (and write) at first.
But recently I was working on an operating system project and I needed some assembly code. I initially used NASM, then tried GAS/GCC inline asm with .intel_syntax, but I finally settled on AT&T syntax. It was easier to have just one asm syntax in my program (for inline asm in C code and in separate asm files). And it was easier to integrate in my build and toolchain, and no need to install another assembler for my target arch, just gcc+binutils.
So, in the end it was less pain to use AT&T syntax when it comes to tooling. But here's the thing: in less than a week I didn't mind the syntax any more.
So yeah, you might (as I did) think that the AT&T syntax sucks, but sometimes it's easier to use that than to reconfigure tools to use Intel syntax. But just get over it and use the default syntax of your tools. It's not such a big deal.