Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!think.com!ames!ucsd!ucrmath!rhyde
From: rhyde@ucrmath.ucr.edu (randy hyde)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2
Subject: Re: IIgs Unzip thing
Message-ID: <13156@ucrmath.ucr.edu>
Date: 30 Mar 91 01:24:42 GMT
References: <15609@smoke.brl.mil> <1991Mar28.012635.14869@nntp-server.caltech.edu>
Organization: University of California, Riverside
Lines: 35

Gee, Todd don't get so defensive! (:-))

First, let me state that I agree with you.  Time critical code should be
written in assembly language.  Anyone who think's that's a crock is fooling
themselves.

Now, let me have some fun with you.  Have you ever wondered why the GS isn't
selling as well as you feel it should?  It's because there is better software
available for Macs and PCs.  Why is this?  Well, normal applications like high-
end desktop publishing programs, massive spreadsheets, and power-user databases
are "time-crtical" applications.  If they ran to slow, no one would use them.
On a GS, Just about any major application would run too slow if written in C
(especially given the Quality of the C compilers available for the GS).
However, it is *almost* possible to write reasonably fast software in C or
Pascal (or whatever HLL) on a fast PC or MAC.  Since people (in general) have
so little assembly experience, they insist on writing their code in HLLs.  That's
why there is lots of software for the Mac and PC and almost none for the GS
(Interesting point, back in the days of slow 8088's and lousy 8086 compilers,
back when most people still programmed the PC in assembly language, there was
a lot of development on the Apple II as well).

One thing really amazes me: people's insistence on writing Operating Systems
in HLLs like C.  It is actually *easier* to write most of the OS in assembly
than it is to write it in C.  It's just that modern day OS writers are
incompetent assembly language programmers so they force C to do the job for them.
I know.  In my introductory OS class I've made my students write their code in
assembly (8086).  They bitch like mad at the beginning of the quarter about this.
but by the end of the quarter a majority (certainly not all) of the students
thank me for putting them through it because they were able to master assembly
concepts on a real project like an OS.

Most people who refuse to use assembly language on anything, or even as
little as possible, are displaying their ignorance.  All languages have
their place.  I make a big stink about assembly because someone (a prophet
perhaps) needs to keep yelling in the wilderness supporting this subject.