[Info-vax] The (now lost) future of Alpha.

[invalid]

On 2018-08-02, John E. Malmberg <wb8tyw at qsl.net_work> wrote:
> On 8/2/2018 4:56 AM, Johnny Billquist wrote:
>> On 2018-08-02 02:51, Arne Vajhøj wrote:
>>> Well - a compiler can be written in pure C with no system calls at all
>>> beyond the C RTL.
>>>
>>> So no need for any assembler to make system calls.
>> 
>> Well, the C RTL needs some assembler in order to make those system 
>> calls... Hiding it in another library does not make it go away...
>
> Only if you do not implement the needed helper code as built-ins.
>
> The compiler should be able to generate any code that an assembler can.

That's just it. In this environment that was not true of C/C++ until fairly
recently and it's only true if you drop into assembler in C. And of other
languages it is not true at all, because those languages are for the
applications programs and do not generate any instructions and cannot call
any systems services used by systems software written in assembler.