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From: dewar@cs.nyu.edu (Robert Dewar)
Subject: Re: Should I learn C or Pascal?
Date: 1996/07/21
Message-ID: <dewar.837997683@schonberg>#1/1
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references: <4sf9e7$kl7@news.jump.net> <4slt4p$9jj@ns.broadvision.com>
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organization: Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences
newsgroups: 
 comp.lang.c,comp.lang.c++,comp.unix.programmer,comp.dos.programmer,comp.lang.ada
Date: 1996-07-21T00:00:00+00:00
List-Id: <comp.lang.ada>


"> Programmers who do not assembly language are dangerous,
> because they do not fundamentally understand what the
> compiler is generating."

What I tell my students is that learning assembly language (or rather
machine architecture and machine language, which is really the issue) is
like learning how internal combustion engines and other elements of a car
work. Even if you do not plan to become an auto mechanic, you will find
that this knowledge is very useful, both from the point of view of allowing
you to figure out what might be wrong, and in understanding what the
auto-mechanic has to say when something really does go wrong.