Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!mcvax!ukc!acorn!cam-cl!scc
From: scc@cl.cam.ac.uk (Stephen Crawley)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.misc
Subject: Re:  Re: Assembly or ....
Message-ID: <418@scaup.cl.cam.ac.uk>
Date: 25 Nov 88 01:44:36 GMT
References: <1388@aucs.UUCP> <791@dinl.mmc.UUCP>
Sender: news@cl.cam.ac.uk
Organization: U of Cambridge Comp Lab, UK
Lines: 23

In article <791@dinl.mmc.UUCP> noren@dinl.uucp (Charles Noren) writes:
>In article <1388@aucs.UUCP> Andreas Pikoulas write:
>>I would like to ask them if it really worth it to spend time to
>>learn assembly language...

>It is very much worth while to learn assembly language.  Reasons:
>1.  Sometimes (although rarely) speed is absolutly crucial. [...]
>2.  [...] interfacing to operating system, service interrupts, and 
>    control hardware.
>3.  Assmembly language gives you a better understanding of the architecture
     of the machine [...]
>4.  It is good to know several different classes of languages.

5.   You need to know about assembly language programming if you want to
     get any benefit from a course on optimising compilers.

6.   Some programs need to be written in assembler to make them SMALL enough.
     (The micro in your average washing machine does not have much memory)
     
7.   There are some (8 bit typically) machines out there that you can't get
     HLL compilers for.

-- Steve