Re: from elsewhere, an assembler

On Apr 9, 8:38 am, "Wolfgang Kern" <nowh...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Randy wrote:
Maybe I just talk for me yet (I wrote an whole OS in machine code),
but the problem with lateron changed structures applies to all
programming methods and often a rewrite from scratch is the only
solution then, also for VHLL-source (as you mentioned this below).
You really *do* talk for yourself here. Being able to change the
composition of a structure without rewriting all your code is a
*fundamental* thing to be able to do. Even if your assembler doesn't
support structs/records that make this process trivial, you can still
achieve almost the same thing using equates (at least, as far as being
able to change your structures around without rewriting everything).
You are discovering one of the main reasons why almost *no one* works
in binary machine code as a matter of course. There are a *few* times
when working in machine code is acceptable, but the time this is
needed is very rare. Rewriting one's code to do simple things like
move objects around in memory, relocate subroutines, or change the
definition of some structure is a non-starter.

So please let me know how you react when vista's new windoze API
need more and/or other arguments than what's in your library.


How is this any different than when a new Linux or FreeBSD API needs
more or different arguments than the APIs I originally called? No big
deal -- it's easy enough to write a wrapper function to fill in
default parameter values, adjust data types, stuff like that. Indeed,
it's really no different than calling Windows or Linux primitives from
the HLA stdlib. And the HLA stdlib is the perfect place to put this,
as it insulates applications that are written using the stdlib from
such details. That is the beauty of such abstractions.
Cheers,
Randy Hyde

.

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