I don’t deny there will be assembler code running. It’s just that you won’t need assembler programmers. It’s been shrinking for decades as a needed skillset. Explains why hardly anyone teaches it and why assembler coding jobs are few. Also explains why the Assembler listserv is almost dead. Ray Mullins, many of whom would consider an expert agrees with me. Called it a niche skill.
To deny the fact that companies are spending large amounts of time and money on AI is certainly a fools proposition. Literally, every IT company on the planet is falling over themselves to get a piece of that pie. Those who aren’t are going to have a hard time surviving. Even non IT companies can see a huge benefit and payoff from it. This will be the most important IT venture to date. People who want it to solve complex problems while AI is in its infancy, aren’t thinking straight. AI is going to change everything in the next decade or so. Anyone who is wondering what skills will be highly paid in the next 20 years, I’ll guarantee AI will be near the top. Plus, I’ve coded in numerous languages since 1980. Done just about everything in IT. Was right about the mainframe being around for decades to come circa 1995 as many here kept saying the mainframe was dead. Dave Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPhone On Thursday, February 22, 2024, 11:54 AM, Tom Harper <000005bfa0e23abd-dmarc-requ...@listserv.ua.edu> wrote: Dave, I was told the same thing 54 years ago when I starting working at CalTrans. Managers would just be able to code in COBOL PROFITS = SALES - EXPENSES and we would all be out of a job. Of course, there are more programmers now than at any time in history. The question of assembler comes up from time to time, and the question has more nuances than you might think. As it turns out, there are lines of code and lines of executed code. What that means is that lines of code that are executed frequently are seldom written in a compiled language but are instead written in assembler. A good example is sort. In the 1970s sort typically used about a third of all processor and channel resources on a mainframe. Today that number is far lower, in the mid-teens despite the fact that much more data is being sorted. The reason for this is that some very brilliant assembler programmers at SyncSort and the IBM Dfsort team wrote code to highly optimize sorting and related functions. I’m counting PL/S as essentially assembler in this instance. The same is true at BMC Software and my own company Phoenix Software International: highly optimized assembler code greatly improved performance. Even though there are almost uncountable lines of COBOL code, it makes for a tiny fraction of executed code. Most compiled languages execute a few instructions and then invoke a CICS, IMS, or DB2 function. Starting in the 1980s, corporations the world over began to understand that it was much more cost-effective to buy or lease software from a vendor than develop it in house. These developers left the end-user companies and went to software houses where they primarily write in assembler. Now ever piece of software usually has parts that are not performance-sensitive, so they might get written in C++ or Rex or some other compiled language. I’ve grown up with software, having written my first program in 1960. Assembler won’t be gone in five years or anytime can the foreseeable future. So I would revisit your thoughts. Tom Harper Phoenix Software International Sent from my iPhone > On Feb 22, 2024, at 11:07 AM, Dave Beagle > <00000525eaef6620-dmarc-requ...@listserv.ua.edu> wrote: > > Assembler programming will be almost nonexistent in 5 years. > > > Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPhone > > > On Thursday, February 22, 2024, 10:32 AM, Robert Prins > <000005be6ef5bfea-dmarc-requ...@listserv.ua.edu> wrote: > > AI? > > More AS! > > This is on LinkedIn, it's AI generated and you can probably sue them for > jaw-dislocation due to excessive laughter: > > < > https://www.linkedin.com/advice/0/how-can-developers-take-ownership-bugs-skills-system-development-x9cve >> > >> On Wed, 21 Feb 2024 at 23:37, Dave Beagle < >> 00000525eaef6620-dmarc-requ...@listserv.ua.edu> wrote: >> >> Well, today was NVIDIA earnings day. They are the bellwether for AI. >> Theirs is the premier AI chip commanding top dollar. And they didn’t >> disappoint. Their revenues are up 400% in the last year. To 22 billion in >> the latest quarter. They’ve got another chip on tap this year which should >> continue the incredible growth. If you had invested $10,000 five years ago, >> you’d have earned 2000%, and would have $200,000. If you had >> invested $10,000 ten years ago, you’d have earned over 16,465%. And have >> 1.65 million. AI is only in its infancy. It will be bigger than the >> internet. Microsoft, META, Google, and nearly every IT company is >> betting big on AI. That spending will continue. NVIDIA’s market cap is >> approaching 2 trillion. It’s now the 3rd largest company in -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This e-mail message, including any attachments, appended messages and the information contained therein, is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s). 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