Editing High Level Assembly (section)

=== Design ===

The HLA v2.x language system is a command-line driven tool that consists of several components, including a ''shell'' program (e.g., hla.exe under Windows), the HLA language compiler (e.g., hlaparse.exe), a low-level translator (e.g., the HLABE, or HLA Back Engine), a [[Linker (computing)|linker]] (link.exe under Windows, ld under Linux), and other tools such as a resource compiler for Windows. Versions before 2.0 relied on an external assembler back end; versions 2.x and later of HLA use the built-in HLABE as the back-end object code formatter.

The HLA ''shell'' application processes command line parameters and routes appropriate files to each program in the HLA system. It accepts <code>.hla</code> files (HLA source files), <code>.asm</code> files (source files for MASM, TASM, FASM, NASM, or Gas assemblers), <code>.obj</code> files for input to the linker, and <code>.rc</code> files (for use by a resource compiler).