Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!asuvax!ncar!gatech!usenet.ins.cwru.edu!eagle!data.nas.nasa.gov!mustang!nntp-server.caltech.edu!toddpw
From: toddpw@nntp-server.caltech.edu (Todd P. Whitesel)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2
Subject: Re: IIgs Unzip thing
Message-ID: <1991Mar30.045243.6081@nntp-server.caltech.edu>
Date: 30 Mar 91 04:52:43 GMT
References: <13156@ucrmath.ucr.edu>
Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena
Lines: 35

rhyde@ucrmath.ucr.edu (randy hyde) writes:

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

Actually, I was trying to be polite. You should have seen the first response
I wrote but didn't send.

>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.

You're ignoring the biggest advantage C has over assembly, Randy. C is a
PORTABLE high-level language whose primitives are geared towards reasonably
efficient object code. I learned assembly first, then C; C's treatment of
pointers and integer math made infinite amounts of sense to me, especially
after many skirmishes with Pascal. To me, C is the best damn assembly macro
set ever invented (and then some).

>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.

I cannot agree with this completely. There are many applications for which
portability and development time are slightly higher in priority than raw
performance. I do agree that all languages have their place, but it is
important to realize that portable HLL's have a much more important place
in commercial software today. My guess is that the trend is going to be
towards better compilers and towards CPU's designed to successfully support
those compilers better.

Todd Whitesel
toddpw @ tybalt.caltech.edu