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FPC for DOS / FreeDOS (DOSX)

posted by Rugxulo Homepage, Usono, 12.04.2008, 20:34

> However if you ask them, they have very sane reasons, and can back this up
> by actual facts. _ALL_ of them have the same application also in a HLL
> btw.
So the HLL didn't save them any development time? (Since they wrote it twice.) Or do they just use the compiler output?

> Correct. However what worries me more in these kinds of discussions is the
> failure to come up with any sane reasons. Everybody talks about "embedded",
> but if you ask further, it turns out they use yesteryears PC, which were
> never embedded in the first place.
Not everyone has the luxury to upgrade their computers every year / two years / five years!! So they make do with what they have. That's just reality.

> But it remain workarounds, and the processing program (the
> assembler/compiler) has way less information to work with (and to check
> things) in the assembler case then in the compiler case. And that already
> assumes you plugged the other defects.
You have to workaround all the quirks in the C language and compiler, it's very very hard to stuff it exactly the way it wants. Even the stupidest mistakes (forgetting a semicolon) can cause tons of superfluous error messages. Extremely annoying.

> Moreover, C is known as the assembler of HLLs. So you comparing already to
> rock bottom.
Bare ANSI C may be considered low-level, but it hardly does anything. Very few programs can be completely written in ANSI C. And the cpu has many more features than C itself. You're at the mercy of the OS and your libs every bit as much as the language itself.

> Depends. In general, people still doing asm are doing that for a very
> specifical reason, and they (or their boss) are typically not paid
> directly in proportion to their output, like e.g. a contract programmer.
If all you want is to get paid by number of lines or how fast you write, you won't care if it works optimally or not. Why study hard to get an A (assembly) when you can get a C? You only do it because you want to, because there's a perceived benefit, or you're a perfectionist.

> In those kinds of niches, people can do pretty much anything they want,
> not hampered by any competition (since not assembler, but their often long
> experience with the company is the main factor).
Assembly isn't niche, it's the norm. Just because some companies or programming groups focus on something else doesn't mean assembly has disappeared. It's still there, they just rely on someone else doing the heavy lifting.

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