nice 'syntax highlighting' ;)
I was thinking the same thing. I, too, wrote many sheets of hand-coded 6502 assembly back then, but I didn't think to use a multi-colored pen.
How I coded in 1985
31–40 of 120 posts
Re: How I coded in 1985
#32That's really fantastic that he was able to save his work from 28 years ago. I really wish I had the foresight to do the same from only five years ago, though I expect the result would be less like unearthing buried treasure and more like finding what stinks in the fridge.
I saved a lot of stuff: http://blog.jgc.org/2009/08/in-which-i-switch-on-30-year-old...
I am just beginning to worry about this sort of thing (#)
but what age were you in 1979/82 with your sharp computer,
and I have assumed I will be trying to guide my son / daughter onto emulators (nand2tetris etc) rather than real physical machines - or are there real physical machines which are simple enough and have root on to be early hacking machines?
(#)https://github.com/lifeisstillgood/importantexperiments4kids
Re: How I coded in 1985
#33That's late for hand coding assembler (and very late for a KIM 1). Last time I did any hand assembly was 81/82 for a ZX81. Graduated to an Apple //e where I wrote my own assembler using the mini-assembler in the integer basic ROM and Apple Writer I as a text editor. By 1984 I had gotten my hands on the Apple ProDOS assembler so my bodged mini-assembler got put out to pasture.
Mind you I've just got an Atari 65XE from ebay today which I will now have to explain to my wife (I always thought the Atari graphics was neat and wanted to play with the display list stuff but never did so at the time)
Re: How I coded in 1985
#34one of the good things about a formal CS education (well, mine anyhow) is that they force you to do things like write in assembly. obviously there's far less immediate practical application these days, but the exercise is definitely valuable, and probably not something I would have done voluntarily. Actually, it feels like something I would have thought sounded cool, tried, and then given up on when it got annoying.
We had to make adders, flip-flops, etc (on paper, not physically) and those were used to build an ALU and (I think) a memory-switch bank.
It was very cool to know that when the world ends I can build a new computer, from scratch.
Re: How I coded in 1985
#35nice 'syntax highlighting' ;)
Yea!, I used to steal "NCR programing paper sheets" from my older bro (he worked for NCR) to write most of my assembly code.. (For a Zinclair Z80) ahh the memories of peek & poke :)
Re: How I coded in 1985
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not writing the same stuff. I've written over a thousand different custom applications using the same technology . That was my point. This environment is so tried and true and so effective, it still kicks ass after 28 years. Pretty amazing when you think about how much has changed. shouldn't there be a work order processing standard solution for aerospace by now? I'm sure there is. Just like there are blog, websi…
+1 for Pick. I've met several people who were/are Pick devotees. Also heard stories about how Dick Pick was kind of crazy.
My mentor knew Dick, and I also heard stories!
Re: How I coded in 1985
#37That headline got me to thinking... Date: Monday, April 29, 1985 Age: 29 Location: Santa Ana, California. Company: electronics manufacturer setup: dumb black & green 24x80 14" CRT terminal Hardware: Honeywell mini OS: Honeywell proprietary DBMS: Pick (Ultimate Flavor) Language: BASIC App: Work Order Processing (I wrote from scratch.) Date: Monday, April 29, 2013 Age: 57 Location: Miami, Florida Company: aerospace man…
I wonder how many other programmers could make the same claim.
Probably a lot more than you think.
I've seen estimates of 1-2 million COBOL developers worldwide.
Re: How I coded in 1985
#38It's kind of useful to write out code by hand, or at least pseudo-code...I'm not a neuroscientist but I wouldn't be surprised if it turns on a different part of the brain. Last week I was sitting in the park with nothing to do and I reflexively pulled out my iPod to play Sudoku on it. Since it was one of our first nice days I felt bad about that so I just wrote out the Sudoku grid on a pad of paper and solved it from…
I agree with you. I think the physical motion of writing is involved in the process, activating neurons that just flicking fingers doesn't.
Would be fascinating to see it in an fMRI.
Re: How I coded in 1985
#39I remember playing around with machine instructions on the 6502. I wouldn't call it hand assembly; it was more like copying and groping around. I probably wrote less than 200 lines in my life.
But what a neat feeling! There's something about putting in these numerical codes and seeing a graphical result that I haven't experienced since then. Yes, higher-level languages rock, but dang, this is coding next to the metal.
After learning a bit about logic gates and playing around with the theory, there was an incredible feeling of discovery. Somehow I had deciphered the code of computers, and was finally speaking their native language. This brought back great memories. Thank you.
Re: How I coded in 1985
#40Brain debugger. I honed mine early enough that the most I need from a program is a few Sprintf statements just to give the brain debugger some context when the application is dealing with external data or data transformation. I personally find it hard to turn off the brain debugger and rely on software. Originally this was because you'd very much be used to the debugger being wrong. As in, "Ah, but in this case the d…
I can often do that on code I've written or am intimately familiar with, but tons of the code I work on is code that someone else wrote and that I rarely interact with. As a result, I love my debugger.