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From: gillies@p.cs.uiuc.edu
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: using assembler
Message-ID: <76700041@p.cs.uiuc.edu>
Date: 27 Jul 88 21:54:00 GMT
References: <1086@garth.UUCP>
Lines: 29
Nf-ID: #R:garth.UUCP:1086:p.cs.uiuc.edu:76700041:000:1136
Nf-From: p.cs.uiuc.edu!gillies    Jul 27 16:54:00 1988


I have a hard time believing people who claim that assembly is more
modifiable than a high level language.  Consider:

(a) Changing an *int* declaration to a *long int* declaration.

(b) Changing a *float* variable to a *double* variable.  Changing an
*int* to a *float*.

(c) Extensively revising a struct {} data type to add and remove
fields, then recompiling.

(d) increasing the local storage of a subroutine from 5 words (smaller
than the register set) to 50 words (probably larger than the register
set).

(e) Changing a subroutine interface specification (adding & removing
arguments) & making sure all the calls are updated appropriately.

With a high level language (C/Modula-II), these changes are instant
and trivial.  In assembly, even if you plan ahead to be "tricky" with
macros, etc, the changes are nontrivial.

Let's just say "It is possible to make changes to assembly language
programs", but I don't want to hear about how easy it is.


Don Gillies, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Illinois
1304 W. Springfield, Urbana, Ill 61801      
ARPA: gillies@cs.uiuc.edu   UUCP: {uunet,ihnp4,harvard}!uiucdcs!gillies