Yes! you can build a compiler in assembly language!

[tenkey]

A C compiler for the Intel 8080 running the CP/M-80 operating system:

http://www.bdsoft.com/resources/bdsc.html

Those were the days.

I remember BDS C. It was a subset C compiler, as it didn't have floating-point. It had pretty much everything else, and was a very fast compiler. It was created long before C went the standardization route. At that time, the only "reference" for the language was The C Programming Language by Kernighan and Ritchie (K & R), which was based on the Unix v7 (not System 7) implementation. As type checking was very lax in this version, it was almost like programming in assembly language. This was also before the complications created by the 16-bit PC's segmented memory architecture.

There were also quite a number of Basic interpreters that were written in assembly language. Microsoft's original Altair Basic and the various versions of ROM-BASIC. Tarbell Basic. All kinds of Tiny Basics were created. All in 100% ASM.

[anta40]

You can also take a look at the PureBasic for AmigaOS. It's open sourced.
(Grab the lzx extractor at http://www.polycode.dk)

[jj2007]

There were also quite a number of Basic interpreters that were written in assembly language. Microsoft's original Altair Basic and the various versions of ROM-BASIC. Tarbell Basic. All kinds of Tiny Basics were created. All in 100% ASM.

Rumours say there are still BASIC assemblers around, with floats and SSE2 and all that stuff. They call it Martian Basic or something similar

[Antariy]

Is it Martian ASM BASIC?

[xandaz]

    time to bring back the 48k sinclairs with it's lowres and only 2 colors per box(8x8).