Date: Tue, 9 May 2000 21:26:37 +0100 From: J McKitrick <jcm@freebsd-uk.eu.org> To: chat@freebsd.org Subject: assembly vs C Message-ID: <20000509212637.A73322@dogma.freebsd-uk.eu.org>
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I've heard some debates recently, mostly by 'old-school' hackers from the C64 days who are calling for a return to machine language. They claim that CPU speed, memory size, and HD space will begin to plateau soon, and that ML would bring a much needed return to efficiency and clean coding. The other side of the coin argues differently. I can think of 2 arguments against: first, OOP and C++ were developed almost expressly to make it easier to deal with the size of today's apps. Modularity only goes so far, they claim. Objects are needed to further simplify development and maintenance. The other point is illustrated by Unix itself. ML was abandoned for C, since compilers are advanced enough in time and space optimization to make hand-coding unnecessary, even obsolete for everything but device drivers. What does everyone think about this? Will there ever be a need for ML again, besides optimized device drivers? Or will advanced compilers and OOP replace low level programming for most tasks? Even though C is not OOP, it is low-level enough that a good compiler and a tight C program make the benefits of ML almost irrelevant, correct? jm -- ------------------------------------------------------------------- Jonathon McKitrick -- jcm@freebsd-uk.eu.org I am a bomb technician. If you see me running, try to keep up. ------------------------------------------------------------------- To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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