> The current vogue among computer users is to get > as far from the real hardware as possible. > ... > Assembly is the epitome of using the features of > a g

> The current vogue among computer users is to get > as far from the real hardware as possible. > ... > Assembly is the epitome of using the features of > a given machine. But what about the features of a particular language? Mucking in assembly is great if you're trying to squeeze out every ounce of power, but it's much too verbose for building complex systems. If you're trying to build user-facing features, layers and layers of language abstraction is great. See http://www.paulgraham.com/hundred.html http://www.paulgraham.com/hundred.html If you're building a prime-number generator, go ahead and write in assembly. But if you're writing an application, like most of us on here (I assume?), use a high-level language. "[Taking] advantage of every idiosyncrasy of [the] instruction set" is a waste of time.