Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!bellcore!rutgers!ucsd!ucsdhub!esosun!seismo!uunet!sco!seanf
From: seanf@sco.COM (Sean Fagan)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: using (ugh!  yetch!) assembler
Message-ID: <416@scolex>
Date: 25 Jul 88 07:09:07 GMT
References: <6341@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU> <60859@sun.uucp> <474@m3.mfci.UUCP> <2926@utastro.UUCP> <476@m3.mfci.UUCP>
Reply-To: seanf@sco.COM (Sean Fagan)
Organization: The Santa Cruz Operation, Inc.
Lines: 31

In article <2926@utastro.UUCP> nather@utastro.UUCP (Ed Nather) writes:
>In article <474@m3.mfci.UUCP>, colwell@mfci.UUCP (Robert Colwell) writes:
>> Hell, there are still
>> people who think assembly language programming is better; how would
>> you prove to them they're wrong?  
>
>Until I can buy a compiler [stuff deleted arbitrarily]
>than can generate code that runs as fast as I can write by hand, I will
>use assembly language where speed is essential.

I used to work on a CDC 170 state mainframe, and got to be pretty good at
writing assembly language programs for it (natural skill [blush] plus a very
simple but powerful instruction set made for fun programming).  A friend and
superior (Marc Furon; I knew him before I started working with him) was 
*very* good with it, definitely one of the better COMPASS programmers around.
He maintained, I believe him (hey, I trust the guy's opinion), that the
FORTRAN compiler could generate better code than he could, sometimes.

'Course, the MSC 5.x compiler will also generate better code than I will, at
times (other times, it's so *stupid* 8-)).  Compiler technology is getting
*very* good, and will, for a time, continue to improve.  I think if you wait
a few years (or decades), then we will probably have a compiler that won't
need the noalias keyword:  it will be able to figure it out from
comprehensive code analysis and a good understanding of the machine.

Fun thought, ain't it?

-- 
Sean Eric Fagan  |  "An Amdahl mainframe is lots faster than a Vax 750."
seanf@sco.UUCP   |      -- Charles Simmons (chuck@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com)
(408) 458-1422   | Any opinions expressed are my own, not my employers'.