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Originally posted by DimViesel
I belive your opinion of compiler optimisations sheds some light on the usual 'coding in assembler is obsolete because modern compilers produce as optimised code as the average ASM programer' argument.
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Hmmm...........I didn't mean to start THAT discussion back up.
For most code written by your average programmer, modern optimizing compilers can do a pretty good job, and they are steadily improving. Believe it or not, I have actually learned a couple of tricks from disassembling the code produced by compilers. The thing is, a compiler can only produce optimizations at the local level. It doesn't have the big picture about what problem the application is trying to solve, and so misses things that a good programmer will be able to do because he has the totality of the solution in his mind.
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Originally posted by DimViesel
We must not get trapped into arguing over terminology. When I speak of learning a [formal computer]language I do not consider knowing the set of reserved words or instructions sufficient. I mean the point where the knowledge aquired permits the user to write apt solutions to problems which are well defined and perhaps at some reasonable rate correcting a reasonable amount of errors as he goes along.
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Ok. For the sake of discussion, I will accept your definition, although I don't completely agree.
Quote:
Originally posted by DimViesel
I think you have to agree it would take more than a couple of weeks for a learner to have got his head around the intricacies and idiosynchracies of the particular architecture he was working on before he had actually mastered the use of a particular ASM.
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Oh, I wasn't attempting to suggest that I could MASTER a language in the space of a couple of weeks. I was simply stating that I could begin being productive in a language in a couple of weeks.
Mastery of ANY programming language can potentially take months or even YEARS of work. (Example: You argue that VC++ with MFC is a language unto itself. I have been working working with MFC non-stop for nearly two years. I consider myself proficient in this language, but I would NOT call myself a MASTER. About the only language I would consider having ever MASTERED would be 6502 ASM, and that was 20 years ago.)