CompuServe Thread

C or C++ is quite suitable for the navigation application you are thinking of. Either compiles into relatively efficient code. Assembly Language (you wouldn't really code machine language on the Amiga or PC) can always squeeze an extra level of efficiency out of the code, but I doubt it's worth the extra effort in this case, and would have far less compatibility across the Amiga and PC platforms. The calculations are quite portable across the range of machines you have in mind. You would likely need to do a significant recut going from the Amiga to one of the variety of PC platforms, if there was a graphics content. Amiga has a fairly standard graphics interface across all models: PCs do not. PC (or MS-DOS) is a somewhat general term; in writing a program for this broad range of machines, you'd need to make some target decisions. If graphics is an important part of the human interface you envision, you'll need to know a good deal about the target computer. Under MS-DOS, you could meet machines fitted with a wide variety of graphics interfaces, and your program should either (a) choose one and run only on that style of display, or (b), test to see what graphics is present and switch into whatever handler will be suitable for that resolution/colour/system. Beyond this, there are also intefaces to Windows and/or OS/2 facilities. But I sense that you are talking about a beginning project, and wouldn't want to get into that kind of thing yet. Remember that compilers (such as C and C++) can give you quite a bit of help in exploiting the resources of whatever system you are targeting. But they can't make an Amiga into a PC, or (thank heavens) vice versa. –Jim

Very few applications are written in assembler these days. Assembler is mainly used when you have to get every last bit of speed, like in state of the art game. A good C/C++ compiler should give you all the performance you need and the code will be more portable, assembler on the Amiga is totally incompatible with the PC because they use different processors. The code that does the actual calculations should be virtually the same on the Amiga and the PC. The thing that will be different is the user interface. If you are using a graphical user interface you will be using C or C++ to control Intuition on the Amiga or Windows on the PC. Intuition and Windows are very different. Concerning prospects, C and C++ skills are currently in demand. In the long term, who knows? C may well become another Cobol, everyone thinks it is out of date but there is still demand for Cobol programmers. Assembler is really only of use if you are working in specialised areas. Peter Wade Autopiloting from London, England