[Info-vax] Assembly languages, was: Re: Listeners in VMS Basic

[Simon Clubley]

On 2021-07-12, Chris Townley <news at cct-net.co.uk> wrote:
>
> When I joined out development team in 1997 (after years running an 
> operational unit using the software) I stated that I was fine with a 
> high level language, but I would refuse to use or learn macro -my only 
> experience of a low level language was Z80, and I failed then,and did 
> not want to go through that  again. This was accepted.
>

I have worked with multiple assembly languages. Examples are PDP-11,
VAX, Alpha, MIPS, ARM, x86 and Z80.

I am also of the opinion that anyone writing full production applications
in assembly language these days are either a poser or someone creating
a little "job security".

There are plenty of reasons why little bits of assembly language are
still required for some specific low-level things, but decades have
passed since it was appropriate to write full applications in them.

The same comments apply to Bliss BTW. The new low-level assembly
language is called C and has the advantage of being (mostly) portable
between multiple architectures without having to rewrite your code.

VSI rewriting parts of VMS in C as required is something I strongly
approve of.

And before anyone pulls me up about the Bliss comment, even _C_ is
much more type-safe than Bliss is.

I do wish however that a more type-safe alternative than C had taken
hold for low-level systems programming.

Simon.

-- 
Simon Clubley, clubley at remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP
Walking destinations on a map are further away than they appear.