I'm writing a compiler, but if I want it to be on more than one platform, it seems I have to learn every assembly language for the different platforms. I've seen a number of languages which try to be 'portable assembly languages' such as Linolium and C--, but they all seem to be incomplete or abandoned.

Is there any such language which can be used as a compiler back-end language?

If this is a stupid question for any reason, please say so, as I am new to writing compilers/interpreters.

--PieSquared

Yes, people try these ideas but they tend to go nowhere because this approach works against itself. Assembly is the language that the CPU understands ... therefore it is a highly hardware dependent language and this is where all the benefits come from -- take away this "close bond with the hardware" and you will loose all of the benefits. This is why C is still widely used today -- it is as close as one can get to ASM and still be portable.

Actually, the Java byte-code runs on a virtual machine (VM) and so does the MSIL for .NET (and mono) -- of course, this is managed code (runs in a "sandbox") but either of these could function as a 'portable assembly-like language' to be used as a compiler back-end.

Nathan.

That answered my question, thanks!