Newsgroups: comp.lang.misc
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: HLLs vs asm (was Re: portable "asm")
Message-ID: <1988Mar27.002601.17038@utzoo.uucp>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <11702@brl-adm.ARPA> <243@eagle_snax.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 27 Mar 88 00:26:01 GMT

> >``C'' allows you to
> >ignore types when you really want to,

Well, not quite: what it allows you to do is to cheat the type system.
You still have to be aware of it, so in a strict sense you aren't
"ignoring" types, but you can get around the restrictions they impose.

> > plus it allows access to the "bare
> >metal", etc.)
> 
> Are we talking about the same language?

Probably.  One of C's strengths -- and a major reason for its popularity --
is that it *does* let you get at much of the underlying machine if you
really want to *and* understand your implementation in detail.  It's not
enough to understand C and the machine, you have to understand the mapping
between them that the compiler provides.  But once you do, you can use C
to do most of the things an assembler can do.  C insists on managing the
stack and some of the registers itself, places constraints on what you
you can do to the PC, and won't generate funny instructions for you, but
these limitations often aren't a problem.  Otherwise it opens the machine
up pretty thoroughly, *if* you know what you're doing.
-- 
"Noalias must go.  This is           |  Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
non-negotiable."  --DMR              | {allegra,ihnp4,decvax,utai}!utzoo!henry