On Tue, 30 Apr 2002, Randy Grafton wrote:

> I am trying to learn assembly programming on the M68K family. I thought that
> getting an old Quadra 800 with NetBSD would be the way to go. Unfortunately,
> I'm having a hard time verifying that an assembler/compiler comes with this
> distribution that will let me tap in to the full capability of the M68K
> architecture. Does this distro come with the tools to help develop this
> skill and if so what are they? Thanks for your assistance!

"info as"; "info gcc"; "man as"; "man gcc".

With GNU "as" 2.11.2 (which ships with NetBSD-current), you need to
prefix register names with a "%". If you use gcc's __asm__() macro,
you need to escape the "%"'s with another "%". Except for that, it
accepts Motorola syntax (as well as variations). NetBSD also ships
with the GNU debugger, "gdb", and a disassembler, "objdump", which
each have their own info and man pages.

If you choose to, getting involved with NetBSD would a great way to
hone your skills: there are lots of examples, in the form of the
source to the system itself, a fine brain trust, and lots of real work
to be done (just browse the problem report database). In any case,
welcome!

Frederick