Date: Wed, 23 Dec 1998 14:11:14 +0000 (GMT) From: Robert <robert@namodn.com> To: Gustavo Vieira G C Rios <grios@netshell.vicosa.com.br> Cc: David Wolfskill <dhw@whistle.com>, eddie@silk.net, freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: FreeBSD and C Programming Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.3.96.981223140318.24286D-100000@namodn.com> In-Reply-To: <36805FBF.6C31DF5E@netshell.vicosa.com.br>
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It's such a hassle to program in machine language for a particular machine. Take DOS for instance. Using 32-bit memory extenders, you can run some decent programs, and actually take advantage of your memory.. took a long time for it to be available, too! But unfortunately, so much of DOS is machine language, it'd be a hassle ( and a waste of a machine :) to port. C is highly portable; machine lingo is not. Programming to the machine you're on is only useful for low-level drivers; ASM may be faster, but if you have a good C compiler and a fast machine, the functionality the OS will provide far outweighs the tons of machine language that goes down the drain when the machine becomes obsolete. -rob ( www.namodn.com ) ( robert@namodn.com ) On Wed, 23 Dec 1998, Gustavo Vieira G C Rios wrote: > Yeah, you are right, but this does not mean i am worng. > Your suggestion is what i told "known as many as possible from the > machine you are programming to" . No matter if it is virtual or "real > machine". And more, i believe that using a virtual machine is not > practice. > > > That's all folks. > > David Wolfskill wrote: > > > > >Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1998 00:43:32 -0200 > > >From: Gustavo Vieira G C Rios <grios@netshell.vicosa.com.br> > > > > >if you wanna be a real programmer you should know the hardware you are > > >programming to, right ? > > > > I respectfully disagree. > > > > Consider, for example, that Donald Knuth's "The Art of Computer > > Programming" uses an reference machine that doesn't really exist (though > > I'm sure folks have written emulators for it... after he wrote the > > book(s)). > > > > Best suggestion I have is to find a problem that you need to solve, and > > for which a (set of) program(s) written in C might reasonably be considered > > a viable approach to solving it. Look at good code as a starting-point; > > try /usr/src/*, for example. Often, I've found that starting by > > figuring out how to make a least-intrusive change to an existing program > > can be quite instructive. (Then again, sometimes what the program > > really *needs* is to be gutted & re-constructed from the ground up. > > Experience can help you distinguish the two cases.) > > > > Start small; build on that. Revise your building-blocks until they're > > reliable. > > > > Caveat: I don't write code for a living (usually); I do sysadmin work. > > I have written code for a living, though, and have been known to do so > > somewhat recently. > > > > david > > -- > > David Wolfskill UNIX System Administrator > > dhw@whistle.com voice: (650) 577-7158 pager: (650) 371-4621 > > -- > +-------------------------------------------------------------------+ > " ... Overall we've found FreeBSD to excel in performace, stability, > technical support, and of course price. Two years after discovering > FreeBSD, we have yet to find a reason why we switch to anything else" > -David Filo, Yahoo! > > > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org > with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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