Re: java disassembler/assembler

[Per Bothner <per at bothner dot com>]

Daniel Reynaud wrote:
> Hello again,
>
> Thank you all for your comments, they have given me a certain number of 
> ideas.
> Here is what I have already implemented in Jasmin :
>
> - use of offsets or labels for branch targets, local variable 
> visibility, exception handlers...

It's useful if a disassembler prints offet (pc) of every instruction.
It might be optional, but I'd prefer for eth default to be on.
I suggest:
  NNN: instruction
The assembler can treat numbers as labels.  It should print a warning if
the numeric label doesn't match the pc - bu only once per method.

> - same thing for the EnclosingMethod attribute :
> .enclosing method "some/package/Foo/someMethod(I)V"
> or
> .enclosing method "some/package/Foo"

It would be nice to have an option to print methods, classesm
and signatures in external (Java) syntax, rather than as signatures

> Here is what I do NOT plan to implement for the moment
> - annotations. Unless someone finds a nice and smart syntax ;)
> - constant pool edition. I know it would be great but it's just too much 
> work for the moment. However, I think it would be possible to explicitly 
> add some items to the constant pool (but not too sure it's really 
> useful...)

If you want to create a replacement for jcf-dump should have an
option to print out the constant pool, and to display constant
pool indexes when printing instructions etc.  This probably
shouldn't be the default (it no longer i in jcf-dump), and it's
not requiried that the assembler be able parse a priinted
contant pool, but that would be nice.
--
	--Per Bothner
per@bothner.com   http://per.bothner.com/