From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me
X-Spam-Level: 
X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.3 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,INVALID_MSGID
	autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4
X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit
X-Google-Thread: fc89c,97188312486d4578
X-Google-Attributes: gidfc89c,public
X-Google-Thread: 103376,97188312486d4578
X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public
X-Google-Thread: 1014db,6154de2e240de72a
X-Google-Attributes: gid1014db,public
X-Google-Thread: 109fba,baaf5f793d03d420
X-Google-Attributes: gid109fba,public
From: huang@mnsinc.com (Szu-Wen Huang)
Subject: Re: What's the best language to start with? [was: Re: Should I learn
 C or Pascal?]
Date: 1996/08/13
Message-ID: <4upuru$peb@news1.mnsinc.com>#1/1
X-Deja-AN: 173924033
distribution: inet
references: <01bb846c$e51df220$87ee6fce@timpent.airshields.com>
 <4ug4eh$qn8@zeus.orl.mmc.com> <01bb86f5$f7f8ae40$32ee6fce@timhome2>
 <4uk67k$ii2@solutions.solon.com>
 <01bb87d2$1752b9c0$87ee6fce@timpent.airshields.com>
followup-to: comp.lang.c,comp.lang.c++,comp.unix.programmer,comp.lang.ada
organization: Monumental Network Systems
newsgroups: comp.lang.c,comp.lang.c++,comp.unix.programmer,comp.lang.ada
Date: 1996-08-13T00:00:00+00:00
List-Id: <comp.lang.ada>


Tim Behrendsen (tim@airshields.com) wrote:

: Of course you can enter constants in different bases, but
: that doesn't affect the code that's generated.  The entire
: *point* of assembler is to be a 1-to-1 corresponence.  Otherwise,
: it would be a HLL.

An example is in order.  The 80x86 conditional branches are relative,
so it can't jump too far.  At least one x86 assembler will convert:

   ...
   JLE  somewhere_far    ; jump if less than or equal
   ...

into:

   ...
   JG   skip_next        ; jump if greater than
   JMP  somewhere_far
skip_next:
   ...

There goes your one-to-one correspondence, yet it is immensely useful
for the *assembly* language programmer.