[COFF] machine code translation, as mental architecture models

[Aron Insinga]

On 7/13/24 10:25, Dan Cross wrote:
> On Sat, Jul 13, 2024 at 5:57 AM Ralph Corderoy<ralph at inputplus.co.uk>  wrote:
>> John and Paul wrote:
>> Well, doesn't it depend on whether VAX MACRO kept the macros as
>> high-level entities when translating them, or if it processed macros in
>> the familiar way into instructions that sat at the same level as
>> hand-written ‘assembler’.  I don't think this thread has made that clear
>> so far.

The DEC assemblers [sic] for the PDP-11 and VAX-11 did macro expansion 
as text substitution.

AA-V027A-TC PDP-11 MACRO-11 Language Reference Manual
Section 7.1 (PDF file p 115, original document p 7-1) says
"Macro expansion is the insertion of the macro source lines into the 
main program."
Note: This manual also discusses concatenation with macro arguments and 
(on p 120 or p 7-6) macros that define other macros.

AA-D032B-TE VAX-11 MACRO Language Reference Manual
The beginning of chapter 6 (p 119 or p 6-1) says the same thing.

At least in those assemblers, macros were not inline procedures.

Google can find manuals for other assemblers.  For even earlier history, see
https://github.com/PDP-10/its/issues/2032
http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/mit/rle_pdp1/memos/PDP-1_MIDAS.pdf
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