Re: Languages of multiple abstaction

It is interisting to see that I got rather differet answers than what i
expected, which is good, because it enriches the mind.


Anyways, here is a followup question:
Why do "real" programmers still bother with low level languages when
they need speed, if HLL will allow in some cases faster code, since the
data structures are static.


It seems to me that if we are to consider 3 levels of abstraction:
1) Assembly language
2) Low level of abstraction, C.
3) High level of abstraction, something like MatLab


Now if due to its static nature languages of level 3 can match
languages of level 2 in runtime, then how come C is still the language
of choice for 99% of serious programmers? Obiously portability, but
for specialized tasks such as scientific computing, it is unlikely
that the program will ever be used after its done its job, like
protein folding and other highly specialized apps.


Also, most pepole would admit that Java is slower than C, so since its
slower than C, yet there is no fundamental restriction of speed based
on the level of abstaraction, how come it has not beeen re-optimized
to match C? Sun definitely got the resources for it.

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