2:1 - are you sure??

The criticism that 'C' compiler output is "inefficient" is usually illustrated by taking a microscopic look at some fragment - representing 1 or 2 lines of 'C' - and showing how hand-written assembler could have saved a couple of bytes.

There are situations where it is appropriate scrutinise a critical piece of code in the minutest details to wring every last drop of performance from it.

However, to apply the same level of scrutiny to an entire project would make the C/Assembler development time ratio more like 20:1 than 2:1.

This is why it's usually best to write most of the code in 'C' and reserve the assembler for those areas where it's really critical.