Assembly language programming in unix environment

[Christopher Lemire]

He's aware c is low, just he's saying not as low
------Original Message------
From: Odd
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To: ubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com
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Subject: Re: Assembly language programming in unix environment
Sent: Sep 20, 2009 4:19 PM

freeburn wrote:
> i don't think there is a better way to understand the microprocessor
> without assembly language. yes it's too processor specific, but still
> without understanding assembly, microprocessor will not be fully
> understood. next semester i will have an OS course. As far as i know
> it's very important to understand the processor if the kernel has to be
> understood. whatever i still think in small low level device related
> application will be more efficient if they are wrote in assembly. in low
> level applications only other choice i have is "c"(java/python is
> useless here), so why not a little assembly if it executes 50% faster
> than the fastest high level language "c"?

Not really. Today's compilers are very good at optimising code.
Hand-tuned asm may be faster, but not by much. You'd have to
have a very skilled asm coder to beat a compiler these days.
It's simply not worth it for projects where time to delivery is important.

But for learning how a computer works, it's a very good thing. I used
to write asm many years ago, and it has given me a good understanding
of how computers operate. So I think you should pursue it, if it's
of interest to you.

(Oh, and C is a low level language.)

-- 
Odd

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