AT&T vs Intel Syntax and Limitations?

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.

edit

Thank you to Zifre, Jacob B and Mehrdad. I wish I could choose all three answers, because they all contained great information, so I at least up-voted you all. Thank you for the information about the Linux kernel, the rest of the GNU tools, and the reassurance that it won't affect my learning in the long run. You all are great!

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.

Answer 3

It's the "same language", in that it compiles down to the same machine code, has the same opcodes, etc. On the other hand, if you are using GCC at all, you will probably want to learn AT&T syntax, just because it's the default--no changing compiler options, etc. to get it.

I too cut my teeth on Intel-syntax x86 ASM (on DOS, too) and found it more intuitive initially when switching to C/UNIX. But once you learn AT&T it'll look just as easy.

I wouldn't give it that much thought---it's easy to learn AT&T once you know Intel, and vice-versa. The actual language is much harder to get in your head than the syntax. So by all means just focus on one and then learn the other when it comes up.

Answer 4

i hate intel syntax.