I'm 17 and wrote this guide on how CPUs run programs • Hacker News Board

Re: I'm 17 and wrote this guide on how CPUs run programs

#41

Post by bdcravens » Wed, Aug 09, 2023, 2:15 PM UTC

bobboies wrote: post #15

The only thing is I hate titles like this—the title is bragging a bit too much. Maybe a title more like: “How I’m helping my high school peers learn about CPUs”. That way it implies you’re young, smart, and care about others—all of which I imagine are true :)

Except the title wouldn't be entirely accurate - there's plenty of "Senior Engineers" who are really just framework assembly liners who could learn something from this writing :-)

Re: I'm 17 and wrote this guide on how CPUs run programs

#42

Post by makeworld » Wed, Aug 09, 2023, 2:15 PM UTC

skizm wrote: post #18

Meta point: I'm curious of people's thoughts when OPs in general post "I'm N years old..." or "I'm a blind programmer who..." before posting something unrelated to their life situation. Personally I think this falls into the "girls do not exist on the internet" rule of thumb. No reason to state that you're a girl (or 12 years old or whatever) other than to prime people to look upon your writing with lower standards.…

What do you mean "rule of thumb"? That's just an old meme making fun of how most Internet users were male. It's not about how you shouldn't mention gender.

If gender is never mentioned, maleness is assumed all the time, and then male users will not realize the abilities of their female peers.

Re: I'm 17 and wrote this guide on how CPUs run programs

#43

Post by archmaster » Wed, Aug 09, 2023, 2:16 PM UTC

js2 wrote: post #23

Congrats on completing this guide. > There aren't many comprehensive systems resources if you aren't going to college, so I had to sift through tons of different sources of varying quality and sometimes conflicting information. The absolutely best resource you will find is Charles Petzold's Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software . The 2nd edition was just released. https://codehiddenlanguage.com/

Thank you! Looks hardware-y and very interesting, I may well read through it at some point.

Re: I'm 17 and wrote this guide on how CPUs run programs

#44

Post by e9 » Wed, Aug 09, 2023, 2:16 PM UTC

skizm wrote: post #18

Meta point: I'm curious of people's thoughts when OPs in general post "I'm N years old..." or "I'm a blind programmer who..." before posting something unrelated to their life situation. Personally I think this falls into the "girls do not exist on the internet" rule of thumb. No reason to state that you're a girl (or 12 years old or whatever) other than to prime people to look upon your writing with lower standards.…

On the other hand it is very positive because it inspires others in whatever “I am X” situation to get involved. It’s not uncommon for other fields like sports etc to have similar influence: “someone else like me is doing this so I can do it too!”

Re: I'm 17 and wrote this guide on how CPUs run programs

#45

Post by d_tr » Wed, Aug 09, 2023, 2:16 PM UTC

skizm wrote: post #18

Meta point: I'm curious of people's thoughts when OPs in general post "I'm N years old..." or "I'm a blind programmer who..." before posting something unrelated to their life situation. Personally I think this falls into the "girls do not exist on the internet" rule of thumb. No reason to state that you're a girl (or 12 years old or whatever) other than to prime people to look upon your writing with lower standards.…

I don't mind. I will form some opinion after I see the work, and yes, my standards will be different depending on the life circumstances of the OP, especially when it comes to some disability which makes the work more difficult, like being blind. In such a case, mentioning it could be encouraging to other people facing similar hurdles.

Re: I'm 17 and wrote this guide on how CPUs run programs

#46

Post by morjom » Wed, Aug 09, 2023, 2:17 PM UTC

I wish I was taught these things in my basic degree. Thank you for the writeup

Re: I'm 17 and wrote this guide on how CPUs run programs

#47

Post by lfkdev » Wed, Aug 09, 2023, 2:18 PM UTC

Wow, so because you're 17 we should click on this article? I was 17 also some time ago

Re: I'm 17 and wrote this guide on how CPUs run programs

#48

Post by wkjagt » Wed, Aug 09, 2023, 2:18 PM UTC

The best resource I've found so far that helped me understand how computers / CPUs work, is Ben Eater's work. Both his 6502 computer, and 8-bit CPU series are amazing.

Looking forward to reading your guide. Thanks for sharing!

Re: I'm 17 and wrote this guide on how CPUs run programs

#49

Post by doublepg23 » Wed, Aug 09, 2023, 2:19 PM UTC

ggambetta wrote: post #4

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…

I’m certainly wondering when this fad of high-level languages like C goes away.

Re: I'm 17 and wrote this guide on how CPUs run programs

#50

Post by WC3w6pXxgGd » Wed, Aug 09, 2023, 2:19 PM UTC

This is fantastic. Great job! I like the easier to comprehend language than what you typically find when reading information about this stuff (wikipedia is one of the worst...).

You'd probably like Nand2Tetris. To be frank, I never finished it (it's so long!), but building a CPU from scratch was insightful (at the time - I don't remember much now, sadly).