Limitations of Intel Assembly Syntax Compared to AT&T [closed]

Question

To me, Intel syntax is much easier to read. If I go traipsing through assembly forest concentrating only on Intel syntax, will I miss anything? Is there any reason I would want to switch to AT&T (outside of being able to read others' AT&T assembly)? My first clue is that gdb uses AT&T by default.

If this matters, my focus is only on any relation assembly and syntax may have to Linux/BSD and the C language.

Answer 1

There is really no advantage to one over the other. I agree though that Intel syntax is much easier to read. Keep in mind that, AFAIK, all GNU tools have the option to use Intel syntax also.

It looks like you can make GDB use Intel syntax with this:

 set disassembly-flavor intel 

GCC can do Intel syntax with -masm=intel.

Answer 2

The primary syntax for the GNU assembler (GAS) is AT&T. Intel syntax is a relatively new addition to it. x86 assembly in the Linux kernel is in AT&T syntax. In the Linux world, it's the common syntax. In the MS world, Intel syntax is more common.

Personally, I hate AT&T syntax. There are plenty of free assemblers (NASM, YASM) along with GAS that support Intel syntax too, so there won't be any problems doing Intel syntax in Linux.

Beyond that, it's just a syntactic difference. The result of both will be the same x86 machine code.