Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!rex!rouge!ralph!elgamy!elg From: elg@elgamy.RAIDERNET.COM (Eric Lee Green) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.programmer Subject: Re: Lemmings - a tutorial Part IV Message-ID: <00670282706@elgamy.RAIDERNET.COM> Date: 29 Mar 91 21:38:26 GMT References: <23787@well.sf.ca.us> Organization: Eric's Amiga 2000 @ Home Lines: 31 From article , by mykes@amiga0.SF-Bay.ORG (Mike Schwartz): > Jim Goodnow used 'C' to write his assembler (as), and HiSoft used > Assembler language. AS is > 50K and is a slow pig. Devpac is 27K on > disk and is blindingly fast. Which is the right tool? I don't care AGH! This is getting ridiculous! Matt Dillon wrote DASM in plain old "C", and it's the fastest 6502/6800 assembler that I've ever seen, anywhere -- because he chose good algorithms. AS6502 (the ancestor of Jim Goodnow's "as") was written in "C" also, but took EIGHT MINUTES to assemble a file that took 15 SECONDS with Matt's assembler. Matt Dillon also wrote an "as" in "C" for his DCC "C" compiler. Jez San and others compared HiSoft, Jez San's assembler (also pure assembler, and faster than Devpac), Devpac, MetaCompost, and (urgh, what's Wes Howe's assembler? Also written in assembly language). Matt's assembler, written in "C", was about as fast as Devpac, faster than Wes Howe's assembler (written in assembly language), slower than Jez San's assembler (written in assembly language). And much MUCH faster than the PD 68000 assemblers or MetaBombCo's assembler. Matt got that speed because he chose good algorithms, and because he wrote a good "C" library in which the parts that need to be assembler for speed, ARE in assembler (unlike with Lattice etc.). Matt says "Sure, I could have wrote it in assembler and gotten another 10% or so, but I'd still be working on it today." Or, more likely, wouldn't be working on it at all, because he just plain wouldn't have had time to do it (Matt's a busy boy... he be doing RTU's at the moment). -- Eric Lee Green (318) 984-1820 P.O. Box 92191 Lafayette, LA 70509 elg@elgamy.RAIDERNET.COM uunet!mjbtn!raider!elgamy!elg