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From: doug@terak.UUCP (Doug Pardee)
Newsgroups: net.lang
Subject: Re: structured assembler
Message-ID: <1053@terak.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 21-Feb-86 12:18:46 EST
Article-I.D.: terak.1053
Posted: Fri Feb 21 12:18:46 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 26-Feb-86 04:54:05 EST
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Organization: Calcomp Display Products Division, Scottsdale, AZ, USA
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[Oh, goody, one of my favorite topics, I think I'll butt in...]

> >  Why not have an assembler with data structures?
> 
> It's called C.

Balderdash.  C is not a substitute for assembler.  While C is basically
as flexible as assembler, it is nowhere near as efficient.  If the
application demands efficiency, there is still no alternative to
assembler.

As to the feasability of structured assemblers, IBM's ALC assembler for
the 360/370/30xx/43xx series computers has had data structures since the
mid '60s.  By the mid '70s IBM and others had also developed macro
packages which provided if/else/endif, do while, and similar control
structures.  

> The `world' may not be willing to wait the extra 6 months of
> development time

I hear this "gotta be first to market" argument a lot.  But I would like
to point out that historically, the "first to market" loses out.  IBM's
PC was many years behind other 8-bit CP/M-type systems, but look where
it is now.  To take a software example, Context MBA was a spreadsheet
program for the IBM PC.  It was written in Pascal, and was on the market
long before (assembler coded) Lotus 1-2-3.  Within a couple months after
1-2-3 was introduced, Context MBA was a dead product because 1-2-3 ran
a lot *faster*.  Lotus is now well off financially, and Context is bust.

[A "where are they now" discussion of other pioneer products might
be interesting, but net.lang doesn't seem the appropriate place...]
-- 
Doug Pardee -- CalComp -- {hardy,savax,seismo,decvax,ihnp4}!terak!doug