[Info-vax] Dvorak on Itanic

[Richard B. Gilbert]

glen herrmannsfeldt wrote:
> 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.  
> 

The readability of code, in any language, depends, to a great extent, on 
how well it's written!  Comments are important but so is the underlying 
design of the program.  Spaghetti minds produce spaghetti code!