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Software Engineering

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    You can always write a cross-compiler and use that to produce a code for new hardware nowadays. Commented Jan 8, 2012 at 20:26
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    @YannisRizos No problem, happens to the best of us :) Commented Jan 8, 2012 at 20:42
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    It is possible that first assembler might have been written in assembly on a piece of paper. Conversion to machine code might then have been performed still on paper and burned to some sort of ROM with switches, one word at a time. Commented Jan 9, 2012 at 8:29
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    My first computer was a ZX81, with 1KB RAM, so my (admitedly short) machine code programs were in fact hand-translated. Commented Jan 12, 2012 at 14:45
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    Likely, the first assemblers were people. Commented Jun 4, 2016 at 21:36