[Info-vax] Assembly languages

[Bob Gezelter]

On Saturday, April 9, 2022 at 2:51:56 PM UTC-4, Simon Clubley wrote:
> On 2022-04-09, Bill Gunshannon <bill.gu... at gmail.com> wrote: 
> > On 4/9/22 00:31, Dave Froble wrote: 
> >> 
> >> 
> >> I doubt that many, if any, choose assembler because they like it.  At 
> >> times it is the best choice.  That appears to have decreased. 
> >> 
> 
> Sometimes it is the only choice, but those cases are limited these days. 
> 
> > 
> > I always like assembler. Have done some recently and expect to more 
> > in the near future. I know the assembler for at least 10 processors. 
> > But then, I am a dinosaur. 
> > 
> 
> Assembly languages I've used in recent years: ARM, x86, MIPS, Macro-32, 
> and Alpha native assembly language. 
> 
> Older assembly languages I knew at one time: Macro-11, Z80. 
> 
> The above is not an exclusive list, but the point is that I am experienced Simon,
> when it comes to assembly language. 
> 
> And with that experience, I believe the time for assembly language is 
> well and truly past, unless it's needed for something specific such 
> as some inline assembly fragment to access a CPU-specific register 
> (for example), or really low-level stuff such as the initial interrupt 
> handling and dispatch the interrupt to a device driver stuff or other 
> such low-level work where not even C would be ble. 
> 
> Simon. 
> 
> -- 
> Simon Clubley, clubley at remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP 
> Walking destinations on a map are further away than they appear.
Simon,

In my career, I have probably written well over 100K lines of various assembler code (not counting my work writing a code generator back end). Assembler has its place, but today's resources and tools make it a small niche in the overall firmware/software world.

For certain tasks, assembly language is the cleanest choice. Accomplishing the same task in a higher-level language requires all manner of tricks, including embedding assembler code inline. If those special-case features are needed, I am better off writing that module  as straight assembler.

- Bob Gezelter, http://www.rlgsc.com