As Per and Andy have noted, it is not difficult to write portable code. High level logic is generally independent of a compiler or platform.

The low-level differences can still be covered in C in most cases with some conditional code and use of a "compatibility.h" header.

This is not to say that there is no room for ASM, but the programmer who writes the portable code in the first place is a lot more desirable. He still has to know the specific operation of the target microcontroller.

But there is nothing to stop Richard writing non-portable code that requires his excellent skill to maintain. And if it is ever necessary to move to another architecture, his excellent skills at re-writing in a completely new non-portable way can be used again.

As any assembler programmer is well aware, 90% of the cpu time is taken up by 10% or less of the code. The application written in the HLL can often achieve very respectable efficiency with some minor tweaking in ASM.

David.