Would one have to know the machine architecture to write code?

Question

Let's say I'm programming in Java or Python or C++ for a simple problem, could be to build an TCP/UDP echo server or computation of factorial. Do I've to bother about the architecture details, i.e., if it is 32 or 64-bit?

IMHO, unless I'm programming something to do with fairly low-level stuff then I don't have to bother if its 32 or 64 bit. Where am I going wrong? Or am I correct???

Answer 1

correct for most circumstances

The runtime/language/compiler will abstract those details unless you are dealing directly with word sizes or binary at a low level.

Even byteorder is abstracted by the NIC/Network stack in the kernel. It is translated for you. When programming sockets in C, you do sometimes have to deal with byte ordering for the network when sending data ... but that doesn't concern 32 or 64 bit differences.

When dealing with blobs of binary data, mapping them from one architecture to another (as an overlay to a C struct for example) can cause problems as others have mentioned, but this is why we develop architecture independent protocols based on characters and so on.

In-fact things like Java run in a virtual machine that abstracts the machine another step!

Knowing a bit about the instruction set of the architecture, and how the syntax is compiled to that can help you understand the platform and write cleaner, tighter code. I know I grimace at some old C code after studying compilers!

Answer 2

Knowing how things work, be it how the virtual machine works, and how it works on your platform, or how certain C++ constructs are transformed into assembly will always make you a better programmer, because you will understand why things should be done the way they are.

You need to understand things like memory to know what cache-misses are and why those might affect your program. You should know how certain things are implemented, even though you might only use an interface or high-level way to get to it, knowing how it works will make sure you're doing it in the best way.

For packet work, you need to understand how data is stored on platforms and how sending that across the network to a different platform might change how the data is read (endian-ness).

Your compiler will make best use of the platform you're compiling on, so as long as you stick to standards and code well, you can ignore most things and assume the compiler will whip out what's best.

So in short, no. You don't need to know the low level stuff, but it never hurts to know.