AVR-Chat

At 03:34 PM 3/16/2004 -0700, Cobb, Quentin wrote:

>I think we're stretching the analogy a bit far here!  Programming is all
>about generating reusable code, reliably and quickly.  To achieve this one
>is always working at some level of abstraction, for some applications you
>need to work at a lower level, for others you can work at a higher.  Doing
>this allows one to focus on the application rather than the mechanics.
>Modern compilers are pretty darn good at optimising so you can leave the job
>to them, maybe not as good as a hand built custom bit of code, but plenty
>good enough. 
>
>To use the car analogy: Early cars had manual chokes, you advanced or
>retarded the ignition manually and needed to tweak the carburettor settings
>frequently.  Now it's controlled by an onboard MCU that does that for you so
>you can concentrate on driving - it's better at it too. Someone has to know
>about how the fuel and air mix and how to optimize it, but the driver need
>not.  Knowing how it works can help you diagnose problems and is good for
>your soul, but unnecessary for general driving. 

This would be a good analogy, if car computers came shrink-wrapped off the shelf, and had three settings, "Little car", "medum car", and "big car".

The assembler guys would be the ones making a computer that's tuned to a specific engine, in a specific car.