The legacy definitions: - hardware ISA abstraction - some help to increase "productivity" Modern definitions: - planned obsolescence mechanism. - the more

The legacy definitions: - hardware ISA abstraction - some help to increase "productivity" Modern definitions: - planned obsolescence mechanism. - the more complex is the syntax, the more dev lock-in and dependency on ultra complex compiler you get. - still provide an increase in "productivity", but for trash-able software as we now know that for most software, development time does not matter compared to life cycle time. - development comfort.