Re: Evolution

From: hutch-- (hutch_at_movsd.com)
Date: 11/18/03 

Date: 17 Nov 2003 16:08:03 -0800

smile,

> The RosAsm age
> --------------
>
> True Assembly:
>
> > push StringBuffer | call GetLength | mov D$MyStringLength eax
>
> or Macro-Assembly:
>
> > call GetLength StringBuffer | mov D$MyStringLength eax
>
> or HLL:
>
> > D$MyStringLength = call GetLength StringBuffer
>
> or even:
>
> > D$MyStringLength = GetLength StringBuffer

What a highly self acclaimed leading assembler guru like Betov has
revealed in this posting is his ignorance of what he is trying to
compete against in HLLs and the existing set of skills that many
programmers already have.

MASM already can compete with a C compiler as it emulates C very well
and this has been shown in the MASM32 user base where a very large
number of C programmers have MASM as an option for doing a range of
program types that it is better suited to do.

While I agree with Randy that the macro system in MASM is a bit long
in the tooth, it is easily powerful enough to do a number of different
language emulations as in fact he has already done so in emulating
pascal in assembler.

While many may not admit it, most have a background in basic at some
stage of their development career and rather than throw away an
existing skill, emulating some of the string handling capacity of
basic while generating good quality code in pure assembler allows a
programmer to leverage an existing skill and save on the learning
curve required to get many of these tasks up and running.

This below is pure MASM, I wonder how the highly self acclaimed
leading guru of the assembler market emulates this code in BetovAsm ?

    mov str1, trim$(lcase$(right$(str1,eax)))

Any basic programmer already knows how this code works and they don't
have to recreate the wheel to get it going. If and when they have
reason to when using MASM, they can write their own libraries and
macros and do even better. This is the difference between a
professional level industrial strength assembler like MASM and what
Betov is trying to pass off as a "true" assembler, put simply MASM is
powerful enough to emulate other languages where BetovAsm is
struggling to emulate an assembler.

PS: Doc,

I just could not resist the temptation in the face of someone like
Betov who is such a generous giver of criticism yet such a lousy
receiver of criticism from others. It helps to make him 'umble. :)

hutch at movsd dot com

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