I started out hand assembling RCA 1802 code and entering it one bit at a time on toggle switches. I have code for that processor running on SoS in ORBIT. I spent the latter half of the ‘80’s and a good chunk of the early ‘90’s integrating MASM code to Pascal, ADA, and C. I’ve written ASM driver level code for QNX.

None of which pays worth a damn anymore, which is why I do web dev. :P

Hell, I write 8088 level assembly code for FUN; just to see how far I can push the hardware. See my goofball pac-man ripoff that runs full speed on a original 5150 in the “undocumented” CGA 160x100 16 color mode with full compatibility across EGA and VGA for same with proper aspect (a trick and a half on EGA) with drivers for the majority of ‘80’s and ‘90’s sound cards including Tandy, C/MS, Adlib, and MIDI. All clean room implemented from scratch mostly using Assembly with TP7 acting as glue and memory management.

But sure, I’ve never looked at assembly.

And honestly, anyone who doesn’t worry about performance at ANY level, or at least doesn’t make it one of the many things they consider in balancing off the positives and negatives are the ones REALLY in the wrong line of work.

That’s really the key though, it needs to be a balancing act. That’s the problem with programming purists ; from Java’s “everything needs to be an object”, to functional programming’s prattling on about “purity” and the nutjob “if/else is an evil virus of satan” rubbish.

After 40 years of programming I hear this same type of bullshit every five or six years. This idea that writing more code is easier. That adding more steps is simpler. That starting out with massive libraries for things any competent coder should have no problem doing in ten lines is “better for collaboration”. And it’s ALL 100% grade A farm fresh BULLSHIT peddled by liars and parroted by fools.

Which is why tasks I handled cleanly and neatly on a 486DX-50 (real one with the 50mhz bus) in Ada on Netware 3 now beats the ever living tar out of octo-core Xeons like one of “War Machine’s” porn star girlfriends.

The worst part being it’s all just repeating mistakes of the past. I’d chalk it up to every generation needing to learn the hard way, but for about a decade and a half or so it feels like nobody’s learning a damned thing anymore!