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On Sat, Mar 08, 2008 at 06:50:54PM -0600, jim wrote:
> All,
> 
> I was looking for an assembly language routine on the web when I happened on to this.
> It is interesting reading, and it is a timely find in light of recent discussions on the PICLIST regarding asm vs HLL programming for the PIC.
> 
> http://www.pldesignline.com/201000025;jsessionid=TOF1E1DB324BCQSNDLQCKICCJUNN2JVN?printableArticle=true

Looks like the typical programming cost vs. hardware cost tradeoffs
really.

That said with the emphasis on assembler and C in microprocessor
development I kinda wonder how much does it change the developers
mindsets.  Programming efficiently, as opposed to programming for
efficiency, is a very different mindset and I think exposure to both
mentalities makes you a far better programmer than exposure to one.
Supposedly MIT makes their first year comp-sci undergrads learn
assembler first, and than lisp second, they can fill in everything in
between later.

The first poster mentioned Python... There's a great site, created with
a Python Foundation grant, that's aimed at the scientific computing
community to try to instill some of these higher level concepts:

http://www.swc.scipy.org/

Like microprocessor development, scientific computer used to be limited
by available processor power more than anything else. But increasingly
the limits are the programmers, and only better work practices are going
to help that.


Now I just gotta figure out how I'm going to unit test a pic chip...
Actually, I've got a lot of ideas on that one, ideas which would be a
lot easier if there were any open source ICDs.

- -- 
http://petertodd.org
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