Ed Jaffe's post initiating this thread was persuasive and full of relevant circumstantial detail. That said, I am not sure it or any other such effort will reach those who need to be persuaded. I fear that we are preaching to the choir. There is nothing 'obscure' about the macro language. It is a statement-level procedural language embedded in an assembler, and its syntax is very like that of other SLPLs. It is every bit as easy to learn and use as C or Java. It is traditional to note that assembly language is long-winded, detail-ridden, and error-prone. Macro languages address and mitigate these three deficiencies, making the continuing use of assembly language feasible in situations in which it would otherwise not be. Its use also increases the productivity of good people, who are and will continue to be in very short supply. Why then is it so little used? I have some notions about whom it would be appropriate to blame for this state of affairs if blaming anyone were useful. It is not. It is important to get this message out; but I have no good ideas about how to do that, not least because it is an élitist message, not in some silly socio-economic sense but because it is moot for any but able people. John Gilmore Ashland, MA 01721-1817 USA
