This is just a reminiscence. Feel free to hit 'delete'. My need for assembly language changed over my 40 year career. When I started programming professionally, it was assembly language all the time, because decent compilers for 'C' or Pascal just didn't exist in the 70's and early 80's. Later on, late 80's, while doing embedded systems work, we finally had a good C compiler, and one only had to drop into assembly language to code up interrupt handlers or particularly speed-sensitive device drivers. In the early 90's, when I was writing a CAD program for PCs (x86), I would code up the video drivers in 'C', and then hand optimize the assembler produced by the compiler to speed it up. In the final era of my career, I was writing Perl on UNIX boxes, and had no need for assembly language at all. Bill Dudley retired EE/programmer This email is free of malware because I run Linux. On Mon, Aug 7, 2017 at 7:46 PM, Bob Applegate via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote:
Just for reference, assembly language is still used quite a bit today in the real world. Too many kids coming out of college don’t bother (or aren’t offered) assembly and are completely clueless about how a computer actually works. While that’s great for many environments and jobs, the reality is that there are a lot of jobs where having assembly would get someone in the door quicker, a better starting salary, and in a more stable position.
From the perspective of someone current conducting interviews for a senior level software engineer, having ANY assembly language would give someone a huge edge over someone without it. We wouldn’t care if it was an 1802 back in the 70s or a Pentium yesterday; if you understand the concepts of how a processor operators you can quickly learn a different architecture.
Knowing assembly is still a good skill to have.
Bob