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: 109fba,baaf5f793d03d420 X-Google-Attributes: gid109fba,public 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 From: Dan.Pop@cern.ch (Dan Pop) Subject: Re: What's the best language to start with? [was: Re: Should I learn C or Pascal?] Date: 1996/08/06 Message-ID: #1/1 X-Deja-AN: 172479804 sender: news@news.cern.ch (USENET News System) x-nntp-posting-host: ues5.cern.ch references: <01bb73e3.1c6a0060$6bf467ce@dave.iceslimited.com> <1996Jul20.124025.122789@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu> <01bb7b06$311fabc0$87ee6fce@timpent.airshields.com> <31FBC584.4188@ivic.qc.ca> <01bb7da2$6c505ac0$96ee6fcf@timhome2> <01bb8027$de0e9c80$96ee6fcf@timhome2> <4u5a11$siv@mulga.cs.mu.OZ.AU> <01bb8342$88cc6f40$32ee6fcf@timhome2> organization: CERN European Lab for Particle Physics newsgroups: comp.lang.c,comp.lang.c++,comp.unix.programmer,comp.lang.ada Date: 1996-08-06T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: In <01bb8342$88cc6f40$32ee6fcf@timhome2> "Tim Behrendsen" writes: >Maybe I'm weird, but I just don't see assembly as being harder >than a HLL, and in fact, it seems to me that it's much easier. >The number of fundamental things to learn is *very* small, and >I would think that being able to show a problem in terms of the >"array of memory" being manipulated would just make it infinitely >easier than having to wrestle with all the abstract nonsense. > >Now, you wouldn't want to *maintain* large systems of assembly, >which is why HLLs have taken over the world, but it seems to >me that assembly per se is just not that hard to use. OK, try to implement the "hello world" program in assembly, so that it works on x86, 68k, MIPS, SPARC, Alpha, PPC, PA-RISC machines and, why not, a 3090, a Cray and a CM-5. When you're done, you might get a clue about why assembly per se is a pain to use. Unix is what it is today because Thompson and Ritchie realized the importance of having a kernel implemented almost exclusively in a HLL and created a suitable HLL for that purpose. Other people discovered that that language was very well suited for other purposes, as well, and the rest is history... Dan -- Dan Pop CERN, CN Division Email: Dan.Pop@cern.ch Mail: CERN - PPE, Bat. 31 R-004, CH-1211 Geneve 23, Switzerland