Assembly is dead, etc.

I've lost the original thread on this, but ISTR that the subject thread wasn't terribly relevant. I was thinking about Fred's statement quoting the business about "nobody programs today, nor ever will program" in assembly again. To a certain extent, save for a few exceptions (embedded, low-cost devices, special purpose-built hardware, etc.) I think it's probably true. Consider: When was the last HP-16C calculator sold? Why did HP quit selling it, but still sells the HP-12C financial calculator to this day? It would seem that if there were really a market, the 12C chassis could be reprogrammed to continue the 16C line. But it's not- -because few need to sit over a dump and work out what went wrong. Because nobody works at that level any longer; it would not be a profitable product for HP. I can remember when our department at work got ONE TI SR-22 calculator and how much easier it made calculating those 48-bit addresses and converting between bit, byte, halfword and word addresses. As much as I hate to admit it, the quote from Fred is probably closer to the truth than I'd care to admit. FWIW, I use my 16C practically every day. But I'm old. --Chuck