6502, Z80, Forth, C and BASIC. They each have their merits. And problems. Each language can be “fast” but fast in a different way.

Assembly is fast to execute but slow to write. C and BASIC are fast to write, but can be slow or slower to execute.

Which is more valuable? CPU time or programmer time? You cannot optimise for both.

No matter how much faster our programming languages let us write software, whether it is twice as fast or ten times as fast, no one programming language could possibly let us develop software faster. There might be a small speed boost, but as the software tools you have available let you build more complex software, so the software you are building becomes more complex. Catch-22.

There are no silver bullets.

Subscribe to the RSS feed or follow me on Twitter to stay up to date!