[Info-vax] C versus Macro-32 readability, was: Re: Listeners in VMS Basic

[Simon Clubley]

On 2021-07-13, Dave Froble <davef at tsoft-inc.com> wrote:
>
> Maybe for someone familiar with C, and not so familiar with Macro-32.
>

I know both and I am very glad that I don't have to use Macro-32 or
another assembly language to write a full application.

Assembly languages have their uses even today for specific low-level tasks
(and I use them for those specific tasks). Outside of that, programmers
are far more efficient using higher level languages to write their
applications.

> Regardless, the topic was about comments, and the Macro-32 example is 
> commented enough to allow readers to understand rather quickly what is 
> happening.
>

Yes, and a heavy amount of commenting is required to understand that
section of Macro-32 compared to the same code in C or another HLL.

In C or another HLL, you need one comment per variable and a comment
before the block of code and that is all that is required.

There is far higher cognitive overhead in understanding and writing
Macro-32 compared to C or another HLL, especially when it comes to
larger sections of code.

Simon.

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