<kpneal@pobox.com> (Kevin P. Neal) writes:

> I thought that people routinely wrote assembly that was better than
> a compiler's code on old processors like the VAX, but that a compiler
> is better on a RISC (or similarly complex) architecture?

That's a pretty fair generalization. The inability of compilers to
make effective use of the full range of instructions on CISC
architectures such as the VAX was a lot of the inspiration behind
modern RISC ("modern" as opposed to the very similar load/store
architectures designed by Cray for the CDC 6600 and friends, back in
the 1960's).

        - Nathan