Disassemblers - Generate compiler code-x's source code?

[Peter Gargano]

Okay, if we're talking disassembler features... (please forgive me if 
this sounds like thinking out loud...)

Subject: Re: MC68332 disassembler ?
Donald Whisnant wrote

[snip]

> It even has library pattern matching which is
> especially good for disassembling x86 programs -- by pattern matching,
> it will find common library functions and comment them for you -- for
> example, no more wasting hours pouring through several pages of code
> just to find out it is a "printf" -- it will comment it as "printf" and
> hide the code (unless you just want to see it anyway)... 

I take it the emphasis of the (IDA Pro's) disassembler is to find
high level code, meaning it could be told enough about a compiler's
output, to allow it to make intelligent choices at converting sequential
assembler into something like if/then/else, etc. structured code?

I find this concept pretty appealing for "hacking" GM code. But there are 
at least two hurdles to overcome to capitalise on these thoughts:

  1. Do we know (ie. not speculate) what GM's source was written in?
     I'm assuming that they didn't use assembler, and I'm not speculating
     that they used anything I've heard rumours about. (OTOH, does it 
     matter?)

  2. Assuming we know GM's source language, can we find/make a compiler
     that can compile our high level source we can "disassemble" into?

OTOH, perhaps we, as a group, are smart enough to think up with our own
language that compiles back to an original GM style. 

For those whose eyes have glazed over - I'm suggesting that it's possible
to write a "disassembler" that converts GM bins to a language "code-x",
and that it's possible to write a code-x compiler to compile code-x
source, and produce P4 (etc.) assembler.

Anyone finds this appealing (or is that appalling?)

PG.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe from gmecm, send "unsubscribe gmecm" (without the quotes)
in the body of a message (not the subject) to majordomo at lists.diy-efi.org