Is Assembler Still Relevant?

quarnap asks: "I'm a system administrator running mostly NT boxes. I got into a discussion with a unix admin over whether a knowledge of assembler was of any use in either of our jobs. He insists it is since it provides a fundamental level of understanding of how computers work. I disagree; I say it isn't needed for ANY system administration work since that level of understanding is way below the level at which system administration operates. What do you think?" We've discussed this issue in a general sense in a previous Ask Slashdot, yet when it comes to System Administration it's a toss up. I can see situations where Assembler experience might be a boon to a sysadmin, but not a requirement for the job. What about you?

Comments

In general,no

[biglig2]

If you're a sys admin and need to learn a language, you're much better with Perl or Python or similar, since they are more useful for actual systems administration work.

I cna see though if you were the kind of heavy sysadmin who gets into the bowels of the system and also works on bug fixing in-house software, assembler might help, although I tink you'd want to get very up on C first.