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High Level Assembly

Posted by Hemos on from the for-the-insane-or-hardcore dept.

dunric writes "Randall Hyde has developed a programming language called High Level Assembly (HLA). It is a great way for new programmers to develop applications for both Windows and Linux. It works with a variety of assemblers, including Gas, Fasm, Masm and others. The website for Randy's HLA is located at: http://webster.cs.ucr.edu/"

4 of 53 comments (clear)

  1. Re:FAQ by LordNimon · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Portability in assembly language? Huh?

    --
    And the men who hold high places must be the ones who start
    To mold a new reality... closer to the heart
  2. Teaching? Yes. Applications? Er.. why? by EnglishTim · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I'm sure it's a great teaching tool for learning assembler, and if you need to do a bit of assembler for some reason, cool.

    However, using it to teach new programmers how to program applications? Why?

    It's

    a) Harder to learn than a High Level Language.
    b) Takes a lot more work to get anything done when compared to High Level Languages.
    c) Is much less use in a working envronment than knowledge of a High Level language is.

    1. Re:Teaching? Yes. Applications? Er.. why? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I'm sure it's a great teaching tool for learning assembler, and if you need to do a bit of assembler for some reason, cool.

      However, using it to teach new programmers how to program applications? Why?

      For the same reason it's valuable for programmers to know any language other than the one their company uses. Because teaching someone to write applications isn't the same as teaching them to program.

      This language is basically like C but more so: nobody in their right minds would consider using it for a major project, but it's very useful to have some idea of how this stuff really works.

      I assure you, the moment I discovered what a 'for' loop compiled to, that was like a lightbulb going on in my head: suddenly programming made sense instead of just being about typing mystical formulae. Since then, sure, I've never touched ASM again, and these days I work almost entirely in functional languages that end up being a million miles away from the hardware, but I don't think I wasted my time when I did learn ASM.

  3. Re:High Level Assembly (HLA) by Tobias+Luetke · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I think this should be modded as Insightful not Funny....

    With modern C compiles in place its all but impossible to write an entire project with faster code then the same program in C.
    ASM is good to optimize some sections, but even that is questionable nowadays because its probably less expensive to get a faster computer then having a coder with great insight into ASM optimize a section of the code for a week.

    Also C code can run on a cluster or super computer if required.