Why use Assembler ?
I have always found Object Pascal to produce fast and efficient code,
add to this the Rapid Development Environment of Delphi,
and the need to use assembler becomes questionable.
In all of my work with Delphi, I have come across just two situations
where I have felt one should consider the use
of low level code.
(1) Processing large quantities of data.
Nb. I exclude from this any situation where a data
query language is employed.
For reasons of compatibility one should not tinker.
(2) High speed display routines.
Nb. I refer here to quick easy routines that sit well with
pascal,
not the esoteric C++ headers, external function libraries
and hardware demands of DirectX.
I hope to introduce an example or two by the end of this article
which meet the above criteria,
and in doing so demonstrate not only how and when
to use assembler, but also the seamless
manner in which Delphi incorporates this code.