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From: franka@mmintl.UUCP (Frank Adams)
Newsgroups: net.lang
Subject: Re: structured assembler
Message-ID: <1166@mmintl.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 4-Mar-86 16:43:40 EST
Article-I.D.: mmintl.1166
Posted: Tue Mar  4 16:43:40 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 8-Mar-86 21:02:44 EST
References: <350@3comvax.UUCP> <463@kontron.UUCP> <1078@mmintl.UUCP> <454@ho95e.UUCP> <409@3comvax.UUCP> <1056@terak.UUCP>
Reply-To: franka@mmintl.UUCP (Frank Adams)
Distribution: net
Organization: Multimate International, E. Hartford, CT
Lines: 28

In article <1056@terak.UUCP> doug@terak.UUCP (Doug Pardee) writes:
>> if you have good programmers, [assembler] is not a problem.
>
>You almost got the point...  "if you have good programmers".  You see, a
>good programmer costs money to hire.  But almost any twit can eventually
>mangle a C program around enough that it looks like it does something
>similar to what it was supposed to do.  And that twit will be glad to
>work for a lot less money than good programmers command.

You have it half right.  Companies willing to pay for good programmers will
get their code produced in less time, at less cost, and it will work better,
without regard to what language(s) are used to write it.  You see, the
good programmer working in C will write a good, clean program which does
exactly what it is supposed to, and take a lot less time about it.  (Because
(s)he doesn't waste time mangling it.)

I believe that given good programmers, you will get good code a lot faster
in a higher level language than in assembler.  Unless you need the ultimate
in performance, you don't need to use assembler.  Even then, it usually
suffices to write a few key routines in assembler, and leave the rest in
a higher level language.

Comparing products written in assembler by good programmers with products
written in higher level languages by bad programmers is comparing apples
and oranges.

Frank Adams                           ihnp4!philabs!pwa-b!mmintl!franka
Multimate International    52 Oakland Ave North    E. Hartford, CT 06108