Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!rutgers!mit-eddie!genrad!decvax!decwrl!nsc!nsta!instable!amos From: amos@instable.UUCP (Amos Shapir) Newsgroups: comp.lang.c Subject: Re: Portable C vs Efficient C or "Cost of Portability" Message-ID: <757@instable.UUCP> Date: Wed, 29-Apr-87 11:53:33 EDT Article-I.D.: instable.757 Posted: Wed Apr 29 11:53:33 1987 Date-Received: Sat, 2-May-87 02:40:10 EDT References: <213@pyuxe.UUCP> <636@edge.UUCP> <1316@frog.UUCP> <658@edge.UUCP> <226@osupyr.UUCP> <685@edge.UUCP> Reply-To: amos%nsta@nsc.com (Amos Shapir) Distribution: world Organization: National Semiconductor (Israel) Ltd. Home of the 32532 Lines: 30 Summary: An articulated assembler is still less than C Hdate: 30 Nisan 5747 In article <685@edge.UUCP> doug@edge.UUCP (Doug Pardee) writes: >I kinda suspect this is one of the big reasons that many people think that >assembly programming is difficult: the assembler software they're using is >terrible. In particular, most U*ix-based assemblers contain only the bare >minimum features needed in order to assemble the output of PCC. > ... >I have yet to see an assembler for a microprocessor which has the functionality >of mainframe assemblers written a quarter century ago. So, people do not like assembler because they have no macros - ok, let's give them named macros to name their constructs, and macro libraries, and why not recursive macros so they can use nested IF/WHILE macros - and Voila! you have created an almost HLL syntax, but unlike a 'real' HLL, the generated code is ugly and inefficient, and you do not have the security of type checking. The syntax of early dialects of C suggest that it also strated that way. Then it became popular and people started to port it to different architectures. This required stronger definitions than just the 'whatever your hardware does' of early C, adding more keywords and constructs to the language. Now we have come around a full circle, and people want a 'back to earth' small language (as is evident by articles describing the SPL language in comp.lang.misc yesterday, or the 800-line FOOGOL compiler posted to net.sources last month). Is that the end of carefree C as we know it? -- Amos Shapir National Semiconductor (Israel) 6 Maskit st. P.O.B. 3007, Herzlia 46104, Israel Tel. (972)52-522261 amos%nsta@nsc.com {hplabs,pyramid,sun,decwrl} 34.48'E 32.10'N