Sometimes the occasion arises where it's useful to look at the assembly language... | Hacker News

Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit

		mikeash on June 3, 2014 \| parent \| context \| favorite \| on: Chris Lattner on Swift Sometimes the occasion arises where it's useful to look at the assembly language being generated by your compiler. The vast majority of developers I know completely freak out at the idea. I might as well suggest that they deadlift a car. A few take it calmly, but don't really grasp what the stuff does or what it means. I can probably count on one hand (maybe two?) the number of developers I know who can actually do something useful in that situation. And that's just assembly language. Not even machine code, let alone actual hardware. Most developers don't understand what goes on below wherever they work, and that's how it's been for a very long time.

JoeAltmaier on June 3, 2014 [–]

Agreed. I spend half my debugging time with the disassembly turned on - removes ALL the ambiguity. It's like pulling teeth to get other developers to try it. Once you do, you kind of get addicted to it.

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact