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From: eachus@spectre.mitre.org (Robert I. Eachus)
Subject: Re: What's the best language to start with? [was: Re: Should I learn
 C or Pascal?]
Date: 1996/08/06
Message-ID: <EACHUS.96Aug5215524@spectre.mitre.org>#1/1
X-Deja-AN: 172339940
references: <sperlman-0507961717550001@p121.ezo.net>
 <dewar.838609515@schonberg>
organization: The Mitre Corp., Bedford, MA.
newsgroups: comp.lang.c,comp.lang.c++,comp.unix.programmer,comp.lang.ada
Date: 1996-08-06T00:00:00+00:00
List-Id: <comp.lang.ada>


In article <3202876B.BC7@online.no> "Alf P. Steinbach" <alfps@online.no> writes:

 > ...several assumptions, which can be summed up as a "mathematicians" view of
 > programming:  only abstract semantics matter.  At least when discussing C,
 > the most popular high level assembler in existence, that argument is
 > clearly not valid.  Could be valid in other contexts, though.

   There are still CPU chips being manufactured which implement the
semantics of something close to assembler in a direct manner.  But I
doubt any are used in new designs...  In most modern CPU chips the
relation between the abstract machine API and the execution state of
the chip is tenuous at best.  So the distinction between C and
assembler is a distinction without a difference.  They both provide
incompletely specified virtual machines which programs can be written
against.  (And no, the hardware is NOT a specification for the
assembler.  Things left unspecified by the API are different in
different SPARC chipsets for example.)

--

					Robert I. Eachus

with Standard_Disclaimer;
use  Standard_Disclaimer;
function Message (Text: in Clever_Ideas) return Better_Ideas is...