Why C++ compiles slowly

[Walter Bright]

dsimcha wrote:
> I think you overestimate the amount of programmers that can read assembler
> nowadays.

The thing is, you *don't* need to be able to read assembler in order to make 
sense of the assembler output! For example, if:

      f();

is in the source code, you don't need to know much assembler to see if it's 
generating one instruction or a hundred.


> FWIW I only learned when I posted a bunch of stuff here about various
> performance issues and you kept asking me to read the disassembly.  In hindsight
> it was well worth it, though.  I think reading assembly language and understanding
> the gist of how things work at that level is still an important skill for modern
> programmers.  While writing assembly is notoriously hard (I've never even tried
> for anything non-trivial), reading it is a heck of a lot easier to pick up.  I
> went from zero to basically literate in a few evenings.

Right, assembler isn't hard to read after you spend a few moments with it. After 
all,

	MOV EAX,3

is hardly rocket science!