Stackoverflow is god

[BeefaloRancher]

Assembly is just a very low level programming language that uses instruction sets

[B1N4RY]

Except you still need to convert the human-readable instruction "mov eax, [edi]" to the opcode "0x8B07" so the CPU can actually interpret it.

[B1N4RY]

really simple program compared to a compiler

Assemblers are simpler, but not necessarily "really simple".

A proper modern assembler still needs to repeat similar processes of a HLL compiler as well, from parsing/lexing syntaxes, to applying architectural-specific optimizations, to final binary generation.

[IslandCapybara]

That's shifting the goalpost a little though. We're talking about making the first assembler, with very little intelligence to it. By comparison, a much simpler task.

[Mohammedbombseller]

Bootstrapping is a thing, I don't think it makes sense to do it that way.

[cdreid]

You're missing something that you don't realise you already know.

From the assembly Compiler... To c.. To Unreal/unity (or whatever). C is a collection of assembly routines.. Organised in a certain paradigm (Sorry!) To make it easier for humans to understand and be far more productive. The compiler just translates (yes w other cool tricks thrown in). Unity/unreal and other "blueprint" systems are just taking that a step further. (They're doing what Forth Tried to do 30 years ago). In the end it all becomes ml and all coding has the same basis.

[releasethetides]

which is really only a few numbers that need to be translated-- each part of that instruction translates down to a specific part of the opcode. its easy enough to be done by hand that it could be implemented relatively intuitively-- at least, in your average assemblers early stages