Re: FreeBSD Most wanted

On Fri, 5 Mar 2004, Chris Pressey wrote:

> On Sat, 6 Mar 2004 01:02:14 +0200 (EET)
> Narvi <[e-mail]> wrote:
>
> >
> > On Fri, 5 Mar 2004, Chris Pressey wrote:
> >
> > > On Fri, 5 Mar 2004 17:17:40 -0500
> > > Jim Zajkowski <[e-mail]> wrote:
> > >
> > > > On Mar 5, 2004, at 6:02 PM, Daniela wrote:
> > > >
> > > > > But I'm so into low-level programming, that it's (sometimes)
> > > > > easier for me to code in ASM than in C.
> > > >
> > > > Like I said, may you have a long and successful career in writing
> > > > device drivers and firmware.
> > >
> > > Or compilers.
> >
> > The majority of speed in compilers does not come from assembler
> > tricks.
>
> I know.  I was merely pointing out that firmware programming is not the
> only career path for someone who specializes in assembly.
>
> > [...]
> > Pick up a compiler book - any compiler book - and you will see
> > relatively little about ASM.
>
> I don't think that's because it's unimportant.  To the contrary:
>
> "Familiarity with the target machine and its instruction set is a
> prerequisite for designing a good code generator.  Unfortunately, in a
> general discussion of code generation it is not possible to describe
> the nuances of any target machine in sufficient detail to be able to
> generate good code for a complete language on that machine."
>   -- The "Dragon" Book, pp 519
>

Sure - but code generation is but one part of the compiler and usualy not
the largest.

> -Chris
>
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