"It is simply a matter of familiarity." Your comment focuses on how fast the compiler generates lines of assembly, after the programmer has constructed a solut

"It is simply a matter of familiarity." Your comment focuses on how fast the compiler generates lines of assembly, after the programmer has constructed a solution. But unless I have misunderstood the author was focusing on how fast the programmer can construct a solution. The final step of depressing keys to input the solution into the computer can be sped up by using libraries and perhaps macros. It's also possible to write programs ("code generators") that generate lines of assembly based on a "template". And that "template" need not be written in C or any other popular computer language. It could be some "DSL", a shorthand for assembly, that the programmer creates for himself. djb's qhasm might be considered an example. While it may be generally true that C requires less key punching than assembly (certainly it requires fewer "lines"), this does not mean constructing a solution in C necessarily comes faster than constructing one in assembly... if the programmer is familiar and efficient working with assembly.