Quoth Tobias Dammers
That doesn't mean, however, that this is the only possible trajectory - it's a thorough one, and a very suitable one for people like me who want to understand it all before moving to the next level of abstraction, but most people, I realize, aren't like me.
Indeed, I think most people would have different reasons for finding assembly language interesting. Believe me, we truly wanted to write programs in assembly language. If we're out walking in the woods, and I jump up on a fallen log, do you think I must have done this because I want to strengthen my thighs and buttocks? At some primal unconscious level, perhaps that really is part of the motivation for such behaviors, but if so, we can let nature take care of itself. Similarly, some people have a natural compulsion to grapple with bits that can be combined in certain ways to make something that spins around and makes noises. These people (maybe anyone, to some degree) can satisfy this urge with computer programming. I can't say for sure why assembly language would delight such a person, but just guessing, it's the complete transparency - you aren't making some deal with a compiler to translate your notional program into instructions, rather you see exactly what you're doing in the computer's own language. I think Haskell has a peculiar appeal of its own, at this level, but of course it's quite different, and shows up in compulsive refinement. Donn