HLL vs. "HLL-like" macro packages

[DAVID DYER-BENNET MRO1-2/L14 DTN 231-4076]

>Path: decwrl!decvax!genrad!panda!talcott!harvard!seismo!brl-tgr!tgr!cottrell at nbs-vms.ARPA
>
>> Furthermore, developing macros can make an assembler look more 
>> structured and introduce some higher-level concepts, but it normally
>> makes the code produced LESS good than hand coding.
>
>If that is true, how can a compiler produce better code than by hand?
>High level languages are in a sense complex macros. Anyway, your code
>is probably I/O bound. 

A compiler can produce better code than a set of HLL-like macros because
the (any decent) compiler contains an optimizer, which no assembler I'm
familiar with does.

		-- David Dyer-Bennet
		-- ...decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-mrvax!ddb