A limited inline assembler is built into the Alpha version of the Visual C++ compiler. Inline assembly code can be a powerful tool for those tasks that are otherwise very difficult or impossible to accomplish in C/C++. Additionally, using the inline assembler may be more convenient than using a separate assembler because it doesn’t require an additional assembly step.
A key feature of the inline assembler is that it allows you to pass references to C/C++ objects and expressions into the assembly code you write. This feature makes it possible to write useful C/C++ macros consisting of assembly code, and to apply these macros to different objects and expressions with C/C++ code.
This chapter covers the following topics: