[Info-vax] Dvorak on Itanic

[glen herrmannsfeldt]

Richard B. Gilbert <rgilbert88 at comcast.net> wrote:
(snip)
 
> Very few people program in assembler any longer.  Usually an optimizing 
> compiler can do as well as, or better than, hand optimized code!
 
> The higher level languages allow you to concentrate on solving the 
> problem rather than the nuts and bolts!
 
> Some of us LEARNED programming in assembler; sometimes there wasn't 
> anything else!  SDS 900 series assembler was my first programming 
> language.  I learned COBOL later but never really used it.  I taught 
> myself Fortran from Daniel D. McCracken's book "A Guide to Fortran IV 
> Programming" and then used it to make a decent living for many years, 
> coding for people who hadn't a clue about computers or programming but 
> needed the results.

I mostly learned Fortran from "IBM System/360 and System/370
Fortran IV Language."   Later I had the McCracken book from
the library.  At some point I learned the 'LIST' option from
the compiler which prints out the generated assembly code.

I also had some assembly (Fortran callable subroutines) to
read and after not so long tried writing my own.  
S/360 assembler isn't quite as readable as VAX but isn't
so hard either.  

-- glen