Re: Low-level vs. High-level programming (was My First Computer)

["Peter de Vroomen" <peterv@ditweghaluh.jaytown.com>]

> Java and .NET are great examples of providing the programmers slick ways
to
> leverage lots of existing libraries and tool chains to let them get
> something out the door in a hurry.  I doubt anyone would argue that XML is
> the best way to store data, but it sure makes it convenient for the
> programmer

XML is the best way to store data. Especially because nowadays it's not the
programmers who decide how data is to be stored, but some guy in a flashy
suit and a big car. Optimizing your software is liable to punishment these
days, allmost solely because these flashy people trust Microsoft more than
their own personel. They recon: when Microsoft says something, it makes
sense, when my own personel tells me something, I don't get it. So Microsoft
must be right.

> Sure, this sort of development model is rather wasteful of resources.  But
> the resources it wastes are, in fact, the cheap resources - the
transistors
> and magnetic oxide particles that just keep getting cheaper and cheaper
all
> the time.  The resources that it seeks to conserve are the expensive
> resource - human labor.

It all goes wrong when a development model is devised for *future* systems,
and the envisioned future takes longer to reach. I.e. XML would be perfect
over high bandwidth networks. And these days high bandwidth networks are
commonplace. But what was not envisioned was that about 60% of the network
capacity is now used by spam and self-mailing viruses. In that light, XML
has actually been a step backwards. Actual communicationspeed has not grown
as fast as is required for XML, so all those XML datapackets are hogging
bandwidth for allmost nothing. XML uses on average 7 times more bandwidth
than the data would have used when packed in binairy form. The net got maybe
twice as fast since last year, but if everyone would communicate in XML, the
net would have become 3 times as slow as last year.

Money is not sacred. Microsoft is not sacred.

> My advice: don't forget how to code in assembly and how to read core
dumps,
> but spend a few hours a month learning the new tools, too.

If Bush Jr. finally manages to break down society, assembly guys will be in
high demand.

PeterV