Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!bu.edu!polygen!jerry
From: jerry@polygen.uucp (Jerry Shekhel)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2
Subject: Re: HLLs vs. Assembly (was Re: IIgs Unzip thing)
Message-ID: <1029@stewart.UUCP>
Date: 3 Apr 91 15:59:44 GMT
References: <15609@smoke.brl.mil> <1991Mar28.012635.14869@nntp-server.caltech.edu> <13156@ucrmath.ucr.edu> <1991Mar30.080418.16299@ee.ualberta.ca>
Reply-To: jerry@stewart.UUCP (Jerry Shekhel)
Organization: Polygen Corporation, Waltham, MA
Lines: 36

jpenne@ee.ualberta.ca (Jerry Penner) writes:
>
>I agree that using assembly is
>probably easier to write an OS in, because you don't have to fight the
>HLLs tendencies to constrict you into doing something in a certain
>way.
>

I doubt it.  Modern OS's with their multitasking and inter-process
communication capabilities are much more complex than most application
programs.  They have to manipulate process lists, maintain I/O request
queues, use statistical methods and even heuristics to re-prioritize tasks,
etc.  And I'm not even talking about things like graphical window management
and such.  Don't tell me all these things are easier to code in assembly
language than, say, C.

Sure, operating systems used to be simple; all they did was talk to the
hardware.  For these, assembly language was acceptable.  MS-DOS is such
a system.  But for modern OS's like UNIX, assembly language just gets in
the way, and doesn't provide significant performance advantages.

By the way, what tendencies do HLL's have that "constrict you into doing
something in a certain way"?

>
>    Jerry Penner	alberta!bode!jpenne	Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
>
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