7 ms·

Is assembly not common knowledge anymore?

• nf05papsjfVbc 8y ago
  I'm not even sure if C is.
• jacquesm 8y ago
  It's interesting how many people would not recognize assembly language if shown a sample. In a way that is a statement as to how far compilers have come, that it is possible to produce perfectly good software that runs fast enough that only a limited number of people still has to know about the details of the underlying processor. And in the case of interpreted languages or JIT'd languages the lines get blurred a bit more but even there it is clear that whoever uses say 'numpy' does not need an understanding of the underlying operations to get through their working day. Higher levels of abstraction translate into higher productivity, in ever more rare cases it is worth breaking open those black boxes to go to work on the underlying plumbing.
  • saiya-jin 8y ago
    If IT person doesn't know even the general looks of assembly code then something is wrong with the education. For non-IT that's another topic
  • Sharlin 8y ago
    Now I'm wondering if there are frontend devs who don't know where the name "WebAssembly" comes from...
• benj111 8y ago
  In the parents defense 'assembly' isn't one thing. Every assembler has a different syntax, as does every chip family. The parent might be a master of 6502 ASM. And as that XKCD comic says. Everyone has to learn even the most obvious thing for the first time at some point.
  • m0skit0 8y ago
    Hm... If you know one assembly you can easily recognize when it is assembly, even if you don't know the specific architecture.
    • vanderZwan 8y ago
      Not if it is your first time seeing assembly.
      • dpcx 8y ago
        Doesn't that then imply that you don't know assembly?
        • vanderZwan 8y ago
          Blargh, I somehow read that as "if you don't know assembly" instead of "if you know one assembly".
    • odn86 8y ago
      I'm the worst type of bootcamp web developer you can imagine. I only knew it was Assembly because i once looked at the apollo guidance computer's source code.
  • hondadriver 8y ago
    https://xkcd.com/1053/ https://xkcd.com/1053/
    • klohto 8y ago
      This applies to general public but someone with Freelance Web developer based in Amsterdam. Mostly Node and React. in their bio should probably know what Assembly is...
      • codetrotter 8y ago
• thanosnose 8y ago
  There is a significant portion of developers ( particular web and app ) and IT staff who never studied computer science in college but instead moved into programming/IT mid career. Most of them probably never heard of or seen assembly code. However, I would be shocked if anyone who went through a CS program wasn't aware of assembly programming.
  • AstralStorm 8y ago
    CS tends to be algorithms not low level programming. Unlike say robotics or electronics.
    • wtetzner 8y ago
      Even so, don't most CS departments have an assembly class? Or maybe get introduced to it in a Computer Architecture class?
    • patzal 8y ago
      CS usually includes classes on compilers, at least that's where I learnt some assembly
• vectorEQ 8y ago
  lots of 'programmers' don't even know what a debugger or a cpu is xD let's not talk about common knowledge in 2018 please its depressing :D
  • reaperducer 8y ago
    Last week I had to explain to an IT guy what a tractor feed printer is. He'd never heard of "tractor feed."
    • taejo 8y ago
      ASM is arguably not obsolete technology, while tractor feed pretty clearly is.