I presume that the first assemblers were written in machine code, because as you correctly guess, nothing else was available back then.

Today, however, when a brand new CPU architecture comes out, we use what is known as a Cross-Compiler, which is a compiler that produces machine code not for the architecture on which it is running, but for a different architecture.

(As a matter of fact, as I am sure you will find out later on in the book you are reading, there is absolutely nothing which makes a compiler inherently more suitable for producing machine code for the architecture on which it is running than on any other architecture. It is just a matter of which architecture you, as the creator of the compiler, are going to target.)

So, today it is even possible (at least in theory) to create a brand new architecture and have high-level language compilers natively running on it (compiled on other architectures using cross-compilers) before you even have an assembler for that architecture.

I presume that the first assemblers were written in machine code, because as you say, nothing else was available back then.

Today, however, when a brand new CPU architecture comes out, we use what is known as a Cross-Compiler, which is a compiler that produces machine code not for the architecture on which it is running, but for a different architecture.

(As a matter of fact, as I am sure you will find out later on in the book you are reading, there is absolutely nothing which makes a compiler inherently more suitable for producing machine code for the architecture on which it is running than on any other architecture. It is just a matter of which architecture you, as the creator of the compiler, are going to target.)

So, today it is even possible (at least in theory) to create a brand new architecture and have high-level language compilers natively running on it (compiled on other architectures using cross-compilers) before you even have an assembler for that architecture.

I presume that the first assemblers were written in machine code, because as you correctly guess, nothing else was available back then.

Today, however, when a brand new CPU architecture comes out, we use what is known as a Cross-Compiler, which is a compiler that produces machine code not for the architecture on which it is running, but for a different architecture.

(As a matter of fact, as I am sure you will find out later on in the book you are reading, there is absolutely nothing in the art of creating compilers which makes a compiler more suitable for producing machine code for the architecture on which it is running than on any other architecture.)

So, today it is even possible (at least in theory) to create a brand new architecture and have high-level language compilers natively running on it (compiled on other architectures using cross-compilers) before you even have an assembler for that architecture.

I presume that the first assemblers were written in machine code, because as you correctly guess, nothing else was available back then.

Today, however, when a brand new CPU architecture comes out, we use what is known as a Cross-Compiler, which is a compiler that produces machine code not for the architecture on which it is running, but for a different architecture.

(As a matter of fact, as I am sure you will find out later on in the book you are reading, there is absolutely nothing which makes a compiler inherently more suitable for producing machine code for the architecture on which it is running than on any other architecture. It is just a matter of which architecture you, as the creator of the compiler, are going to target.)

So, today it is even possible (at least in theory) to create a brand new architecture and have high-level language compilers natively running on it (compiled on other architectures using cross-compilers) before you even have an assembler for that architecture.