Replying to a message of Ross Cassell to Dan Ceppa:

 RC> I look forward to the day when AMD, INTEL and other chip makers remove
 RC> the instruction sets from their processors that allow 8/16 bit code
 RC> to execute, at that point people like you will still blame Microsoft
 RC> for that.

I won't.  When AMD and Intel remove instruction sets from their processors,
those processors won't do anything, whether it's written in 8, 16, 32, 64 or
128 bit code.

Those 'instruction sets' you refer to are merely human readable assembler
mnemonics.  When computers were first invented they were programmed in
binary (not octal or hex).  Assemblers are one (small) step above that and make
programming a LOT easier.  FYI most language compilers merely translate the
source code from whatever language the programmer used into that machine's
(processor's) assembler code and then assemble that into a binary (machine
readable) version and link that to the OS, resulting in an executable program.

--- FleetStreet 1.19+