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David Ahl's Basic Computer Games Ported to C

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Re: David Ahl's Basic Computer Games Ported to C

#11

Post by CrociDB »

> "These haven't been tested, validated, debugged, or verified!"

I really don't understand what the point of it is, then. It's not anymore "I put a lot of effort into something because I have the knowledge, experience and time to do so, hope you enjoy", it's like "I paid AI tokens to to that. Everyone could've done, but I paid with my own pocket. And it's untested.". That's it?

> "Yes, I used Google Anti-Gravity to convert the programs from GW-BASIC to 'C', but what a better learning tool than to debug a program?"

Debugging a program is an excellent learning tool. It's just not better than another learning tool: coding the program yourself. :)

Re: David Ahl's Basic Computer Games Ported to C

#14

Post by dlenski »

What is the point of this?

I had this book when I was ten years old.

I learned a lot from typing and trying to modify the BASIC games in it. I went on to learn C and many other programming languages, and to use them professionally and otherwise for decades.

How would I learn anything at all from untested, machine-generated C translations of them?

This is practically the definition of AI slop, to me.

Re: David Ahl's Basic Computer Games Ported to C

#15

Post by dlenski »

sbuttgereit wrote: post #4
PaulHoule wrote: post #2

The version of that book I remember came out long before there was GW-BASIC, in fact, it came out just before there were microcomputers and you might type them into a PDP-8/10/11. I bought a copy at the DEC store in the Mall of New Hampshire circa 1980. Some of the games used features that were not supported on most microcomputer BASICs but you could type most of them into a TRS-80 or Apple ][ without changes and you…

Yep. Ahl's book was first released in 1973... about 10 years before GW-BASIC.

My copy is at my parents’ house so I can't check the exact date now, but it's from the mid-to-late '80s and targets 8-bit home computer BASIC (e.g. Commodore 64) and IBM/Microsoft BASIC.

So I presume there were several revisions or additions.

Re: David Ahl's Basic Computer Games Ported to C

#19

Post by tuveson »

jhack wrote: post #10
ThrowawayR2 wrote: post #8

> " These haven't been tested, validated, debugged, or verified! ... I used Google Anti-Gravity to convert the programs from GW-BASIC to 'C' " Doesn't seem like there's anything of interest here. It's just tossing existing code into a LLM.

Which then gets tossed into a compiler and who knows what kind of code that thing spits out. That's why I only support projects written in assembly by real programmers.

If we accept the “LLM == compiler” cliche (which I don’t, but whatever), then isn’t posting a repo of LLM-produced code equivalent to posting a repo of compiler-produced assembly? Why not just post the prompts and leave it at that? I have about as much interest in reviewing the output of someone’s compiled program as I do looking at the results of their prompt.
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