[Unix-jun72] status on disassembler

[doug@remarque.org (Doug Merritt)]

Interim status on disassembler:

Usually we think "crank out opcodes and operands, how hard could it be?"

But for our effort, we really would like to have disassembly produce
something as close to the original source code as possible, including
many things such as which parts are code versus data, and much else.

It turns out there is in fact "much else", and I have been addressing
all that, starting from the basic "decode opcodes and operands"
disassembler of Jeffery L. Post.

My initial efforts are directed at disassembling s2 programs and
comparing them to reconstructed s1 sources. This is a rich experimental
playground, for now.

It's coming along very nicely, but there are a lot of "little"
issues, and I will only skim the surface here.

It understands all v1 syscalls, and disassembles appropriately.

It generates all needed "not in assembler" syscall definitions, when used.

My first approach to "temporary labels" (1f/1b, see Knuth) failed badly;
if anyone has insights on how such things should be disassembled,
please tell me; I'm still mentally going through various possible
algorithms.

Currently it supports a "directives file" to insert human-defined labels
and parameter types. The latter successfully disassembles constructs
of the form
     jsr  f5, mesg; <This is a mesg\n\0>

...after being told that address (say 0200) equals "mesg" and that
that subr takes a jsr_r5 parameter of type asciz.

It does other cool stuff, too, but alas, still fails in all sorts
of horrible ways, e.g. in not being aware of the difference between
rvals and lvals when it should.

In general, I'm trying to automate any aspects of disassembly that
can be, to avoid needing human intervention. Doing so increases
the fidelity of the reconstruction: minimizing intervention
is inherently desirable, for historical reconstruction.

Another example of philosophy: it converts BCS to BES if it follows a syscall.

In short, it is pretty cool in certain regards, but is not ready
for prime time by any means. It's not beta, it's not alpha, it's
prototype -- but pretty promising.

Handling simple BSS issues is another TODO example (probably next on my list)

Just thought I should report on current progress, since
people get impatient sometimes. Feedback appreciated.
   Doug
--
Professional Wild-eyed Visionary        Member, Crusaders for a Better Tomorrow