> For most programmers, it is foolish currently develop in > machine code, hexadecimal and assembly?
you forgot octal. i think this is more a function of the (a) problem, (b) machine than something one can make sweeping generalizations about. but in general, yes, programming in machine code (octal or hex or whatever) doesn't make much sense, but i have done it rather than writing an assembler for a small project. it turns out that this is easier with some machines than others. and that currently popular machines tend to be on the difficult side. programming in assembly makes a lot of sense if the problem cannot be expressed in another language, such as accessing MSRs. bootstrapping code is frequently in assembly. - erik
