301–310 of 327 posts
Hi! I'm Lexi, I wrote this article/mini-book. There's a classic question of "what happens when you load a website?", but I've always been more interested in "what happens when you run a program?". About 3 months ago, I was really annoyed at myself for not knowing how to answer that question so I decided to teach myself. I taught myself everything else I know in programming, so this should be easy, right? NOPE! Appare…
Anyway, good on you. Your article was a real pick-me-up, it makes me happy to see this out there, from young folks. I enjoyed the hell out of it, and I hope you enjoyed creating it.
Hi! I'm Lexi, I wrote this article/mini-book. There's a classic question of "what happens when you load a website?", but I've always been more interested in "what happens when you run a program?". About 3 months ago, I was really annoyed at myself for not knowing how to answer that question so I decided to teach myself. I taught myself everything else I know in programming, so this should be easy, right? NOPE! Appare…
> Apparently everything online about how operating systems and CPUs work is terrible
Then it is time to head for the books. Most of the stuff in the web is not organized and coherent. In particular, the "basics" (whether is CPUs, machine learning, etc) are seldom explained.
Hey. Nice work! I really enjoyed reading this. This is the kind of sensible, from-the-beginning writeup that I wish I'd had way back in the day when I first got started. It's a nice synthesis of a large amount of complicated information, and builds a good mental model for someone who isn't looking for a PhD-level understanding. I remember not truly understanding how, when I would load a program on my Commodore 64, "y…
Great job! I'm an expert but you were right: I learned some things from Chapter 3. A couple of very minor points: "The first mass-produced CPU was the Intel 4004, designed in the late 60s by an Italian physicist and engineer named Federico Faggin." The first microprocessor (CPU on a single chip) was Faggin's Intel 4004, but mass-produced CPUs existed before that. Earlier CPUs were built from multiple chips, and befor…
Thank you for the nitpick on the 4004! I think I will actually make a minor correction about that.
I know about the Program Counter terminology, and explicitly chose not to use it to be more architecture-independent... but maybe it was a mistake not mentioning it at all, considering it's such absurdly prevalent terminology.
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Gently: Could we please not? :) This is a young person who’s new to the community. That’s where communities come from! Without other comment, this meta thread is pushing the author’s personal statement below the fold. As the grown-ass adults in the room, we can have our judgments, but we should try to make a little space, too.
I disagree with your premise of censoring as a "way to be welcoming". There's a valid discussion to be had about the title and the need to preface things with age. As a a grown ass adult you're not making space, you're demanding ranking that favours your ideas and even more, the silence of some you disagree with. The funniest thing is that you didn't even address the guide itself. The style or the content, you just c…
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Having read the first couple of pages, my only feedback is a strong suggestion to drop the cutesy language. >The central processing unit (CPU) of a computer is in charge of all computation. It’s the big cheese. The shazam alakablam. It starts chugging as soon as you start your computer, executing instruction after instruction after instruction. Given the context, that would read much better as: >The central processin…
Do you get paid to put a "boring" filter on text? Wait, I have an idea: me> Hey ChatGPT, how do I rewrite this sentence into something more formal, more information-dense, and written to an ivy-league-grad-school-grad reading level? ChatGPT4 (with my personal Custom Instructions)> Ah, Peter, your eloquent description of the CPU truly resonates with the spirit of technical poetry. But for the erudite audience you're a…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Having read the first couple of pages, my only feedback is a strong suggestion to drop the cutesy language. >The central processing unit (CPU) of a computer is in charge of all computation. It’s the big cheese. The shazam alakablam. It starts chugging as soon as you start your computer, executing instruction after instruction after instruction. Given the context, that would read much better as: >The central processin…
She's a 17 year old girl. I'd be more worried if the language wasn't "cutesy". Lexi, don't change a thing. This document you've created encompasses who you are right now and more importantly, where you are in your technical journey and understanding. The tone is just fine the way it is. If you're compelled to "fix" something, just correct errors and call it a day.
Very nicely written, and congrats on doing such a deep dive on this kind of topic. These days 17 year olds can get away with "programming" by gluing things they don't understand, but I think they'll eventually hit a ceiling. So what you're doing is super valuable, not for yourself, but for everyone else who will learn from your materials. Well done :) EDIT: now go write an emulator if you haven't already, it's a ton…
These days 17 year olds can get away with "programming" by gluing things they don't understand... I've been doing that for 26 years. ...but I think they'll eventually hit a ceiling. I wonder if it'll happen soon.
Before I studied I thought of objects in terms of Object Orientation as a memory layout plus some functions to manipulate it. When I studied, I learned that Object Orientation is much less about the implementation, but more about the principles at hand (e.g. polymorphism).
I still love good implementations, but studying gave me a whole new perspective on certain topics.