I agree with the importance of learning assembler; however, I think the real point is
many of today's programmers have grown up with fast CPUs, whose speed has made up for poor coding habits and, as such, many of these programmers have never had to learn how to write fast code.

I have had the 'pleasure' of seeing a piece of '51 code written by 'programmers' that were hired for cost reasons rather than with a "fluency in '51 requirement". Of course, the first action was to implement a RTOS for an application that should have fit in 8k. I now believe I can get it into a LPC932 with 4k, time will show (it is an assignment on the basis of "my friend, I have parts for a year of the current model, take your time to do it right").

I really think that comaratively, the guys Michael describe were doing a good job. Of course, they made a mess, but, at least, they made a recoverable mess.

Erik