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"Code simplicity" is indeed too abstract. "Cognitive load", however, is more tangible thing to grasp. https://github.com/zakirullin/cognitive-load https://gith
by zakirullin 3y ago
"Code simplicity" is indeed too abstract. "Cognitive load", however, is more tangible thing to grasp.
https://github.com/zakirullin/cognitive-load https://github.com/zakirullin/cognitive-load
- lmm 3y agoThat has pretty much the same problem. Assembly programs have low "cognitive load" by that definition, but few would say that assembly programs are simpler.
- zakirullin 3y agoI wouldn't say so. When you're on assembly programs, you hold things like "register values" in your head as well as other low-level things. It's not only about abstractions and language features.
- YetAnotherNick 3y agoThere are much lower number of register values compared to number of variables any half complicated code has.
- whstl 3y agoAssembly uses more than registers. And unlike registers and memory addresses, you don't really have to juggle regular variables in your head unless the program has a lot of unnecessary mutability, or really bad variable names.
- ZoomZoomZoom 3y agox64 has 16 general-purpose registers. "Much lower" starts somewhere around a half. I say, touching 32 variables in a given scope is not "half complicated", it's sabotage.
- zakirullin 3y ago> number of variables any half complicated code has. It is not about sheer number of variables some code has. It's about how many variables we have to fit in our head in order to understand some flow or calculation.
- whstl 3y agoNot really, assembly has much more cognitive load. Try reading more than a trivial chunk of assembly and you'll see you can get overwhelmed pretty quickly by the amount of information you have to remember. You have to memorize code paths, which register or address has what, offsets of structures, juggle registers.