I can understand trying to reduce costs, but what is this obsession with "free" software? If you're willing to pay for hardware why aren't you willing to pay for software? The best hardware often has the functionality of a rock without some good software to make it useful.

Perhaps a $2500 compiler is out of budget for many people but I think decent development software is worth more than zero to most people--or at least it should be. Otherwise it's like buying a car for $20k but only being willing to spend a buck per tire. You might have a great car, but with one-dollar tires you're not going to make the most of it and might actually end up spending more in the long run.

That's not to say that free software is bad. I'm a fan of Linux and the Metalink assembler has almost a cult following. But don't be afraid to spend money on software when the situation calls for it. If you're going to spend time writing a new assembler and/or IDE I'd be willing to bet that even a $2500 development toolkit will be cheaper when you consider the value of your time.

Regards,
Craig Steiner