Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!swrinde!ucsd!ucbvax!UTCVM.BITNET!MQUINN From: MQUINN@UTCVM.BITNET Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2 Subject: Re: Re- HLLs vs. Assembly Message-ID: <9104212027.AA17441@apple.com> Date: 21 Apr 91 20:15:28 GMT References: Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Organization: The Internet Lines: 42 On Fri, 19 Apr 91 16:07:30 CDT said: > MQUINN@UTCVM.BITNET writes: > >On Wed, 10 Apr 91 05:04:41 GMT Doug Gwyn said: >>In article <1991Apr9.150402.563@latcs2.lat.oz.au> stephens@latcs2.lat.oz.au >> (Philip J Stephens) writes: >>>You can't program effectively in a HLL if you don't know the hardware >>>you're working on, it's limitations and it's features. >> >>Wrong -- any decent HLL should be exploited in terms of the abstract >>model of computation that it supports, most definitely not in terms >>of any specific machine architecture. > >Doug's right: [about 100 lines of why it's not necessary to know assembly] Let me give another real world example (with my boss again)... My boss calls herself a programmer. She uses a pseudo language on both the IBM and Mac. They're both pathetically slow (although that has nothing to do with this). Whenever she declares an integer variable, she ALWAYS declares it as a FOUR BYTE variable... even when she KNOWS that it's value will always contain a number between 0 and 199 (a variable for the Y location on a 320x200 res. screen). She does that because she doesn't know that a 2 byte variable will do the job just as well (even better) and save RAM space, disk space, load time, and most importantly... execution time in animation loops that constantly recalculate that variable. I could give 100 other examples with this one person alone, but I believe I've made my point. The main point of all of this is, you're MUCH better off knowing Assembly, on top of what you already know, than NOT knowing assembly. ---sorry, I accidentally deleted the first line in your sig.--- >I wrote Z-Link and BinSCII - send me bug reports. {...}!uunet!microsoft!davewh >I only work here. All opinions herein aren't Bill's, they're mine. >"We're samplin' - Yeah we're doin' it. We take good music an' we ruin it." > -- "Rap Isn't Music" ---------------------------------------- BITNET-- mquinn@utcvm <------------send files here pro-line-- mquinn@pro-gsplus.cts.com