|
Usborne's 1983 classic Introduction to Machine Code for Beginners is an astounding book, written, designed and illustrated by Naomi Reed, Graham Round and Lynne Norman. It uses beautiful infographics and clear writing to provide an introduction to 6502 and Z80 assembler, and it's no wonder that used copies go for as much as $600. How did you learn machine code?
|
|
|
|
|
I had almost forgotten that book but not quite. One of the few useful computing books I ever got out of a public library, a true classic.
"The secret of happiness is freedom, and the secret of freedom, courage."
Thucydides (B.C. 460-400)
|
|
|
|
|
Terrence Dorsey wrote: How did you learn machine code?
[ranty...]
I remember my math teacher in 10th grade programming hex codes into a 4K machine. I actually learned BASIC first on a PDP/11, and HP calculators were a bit like machine code, by the time I finished high school I was writing assembly language in 6502 with opcodes, not machine codes, though I could tell you what most opcodes were in hex. Wrote a bunch of image processing algorithms in 8086 and 80286, but then finally compilers got good enough that I could write performance code in C and coerce the compiler to produce what I wanted with various "hints." Lots of fun - I must say, nowadays I'm actually feeling rather dulled to the whole programming environment, OOP has lost its allure, functional programming is cute but ultimately a niche and can be done well enough in OO languages, and things like Ruby and Ruby on Rails feel like klunky hacks - when it works it's cool, when it doesn't it's hours googling for someone on stackoverflow that spent even more time figuring out the solution and was kind enough to post it. Not to mention how klunky the supporting technologies like javascript, jQuery, css, html feel. It's rather depressing how pathetic the web development environment and technology stack kludge actually is, and more depressing is that we all seem to just accept it. How did we get into this situation? Machine code was elegant, capable, and processors and hardware was well spec'd. Nowadays I read about how pathetic or non-existent the documentation for technology "X" is (like ajax support in Rails) but nobody seems to give a damn. We've come a long way, but have we really?
And don't forget - all those fancy layers of DI, IoC, OOP, reflection, dynamic, LINQ, etc.......it all compiles down to machine code. 
Marc
|
|
|
|
|
People are always looking for the easy way to to hard things. Some tools do make the job easier others just make it easier to do badly or easier to do only if you're doing it exactly as the tool designer envisaged which you almost never are if you're doing something new.
Z80 machine code I could handle, it was human scale and the addressing modes were simple. Intel's mess on the other hand I'm still struggling with. Overall I always found really low level programming too slow, like a really stiff typewriter it could never keep up with my thought processes or I couldn't slow them down that much and remain creative. I too started with BASIC and that was cool until you ran out of RAM or you ran out of variable names you could remember to keep unique.
I moved directly to C++ without going via C really in order to get scoped variables. OO was just introduced another kind of scope which was great and namespaces gave me yet another scope dimension. I never really needed or wanted anything more than that.
I remain determined that the next time I return to Web development on my own account there will be C++ and the Web Server de jour and nothing else on the server side. Pure HTML from templates on the client side and anything and everything else will be autogenerated. I'm stubborn like that 
"The secret of happiness is freedom, and the secret of freedom, courage."
Thucydides (B.C. 460-400)
|
|
|
|
|
Matthew Faithfull wrote: Pure HTML from templates on the client side and anything and everything else will be autogenerated.
Hmmm...you've just given me an idea for how to crawl out of the primordial ooze of web development.
Matthew Faithfull wrote: <layer>I'm stubborn like that
Me too!
Marc
|
|
|
|
|
Marc Clifton wrote: Not to mention how klunky the supporting technologies like javascript, jQuery, css, html feel. It's rather depressing how pathetic the web development environment and technology stack kludge actually is, and more depressing is that we all seem to just accept it.
I feel that way about all this CRAP!!! we're expected to accept as 'standards' (HTML/DOM). 
Committees for standards make unbearably slow progress. 
This is equally disadvantageous because of a larger user base which just grows from their ponderous time scales to appease interested parties (usually corporate bodies). This just adds more resistance to change and feeds back into the process.
|
|
|
|
|
dusty_dex wrote: we're expected to accept as 'standards' (HTML/DOM).
What's particularly annoying is that the so-called standards are only implemented partially, or with deviation. I just today did an "inspect source" on a web page and grimaced in disgust as I saw 3 if-else blocks to handle differences in IE 7, 7, and 8, and this occurred in numerous places throughout the HTML.
Marc
|
|
|
|
|
6502 opcodes which had to be converted into string format so that it could be called from ATARI BASIC.
A nightmare. BBC Basic had a built-in assembler which was far more friendly. I can be thankful for not having to enter code via hex keypad (KIM-1) or horror of horrors; toggle switches of the MITS Altair. 
|
|
|
|
|
dusty_dex wrote: or horror of horrors; toggle switches of the MITS Altair.
That stuff was cool! I remember in 8th grade being taught by the chemistry teacher how to enter the bootstrap code into the PDP/11 with toggle switches. Unfortunately, he didn't teach me what exactly I was doing and why. It was only later that I realized I was entering opcodes and toggling the "increment memory" for each binary code.
But yeah, I'm glad we don't have to do that anymore.
Marc
|
|
|
|
|
Marc Clifton wrote: I remember in 8th grade being taught by the chemistry teacher how to enter the bootstrap code into the PDP/11 with toggle switches.
Did he deliberately not have a serial line to a terminal?
What a bastard. 
|
|
|
|
|
dusty_dex wrote: Did he deliberately not have a serial line to a terminal?
The machine was hooked up to a teletype with a good old punch tape for saving programs. Which wouldn't work until you booted the computer. 
Marc
|
|
|
|
|
Terrence Dorsey wrote: How did you learn machine code?
"Z80 machine code (or assembly language) for the absolute beginner" and Devpac[^] for ZX Sinclair Spectrum
|
|
|
|
|
|
City & Guilds Assembler - a training language implemented via an interpreter on a Mainframe at Manchester University. It was only for learning the concepts and not used for "real" programming. We had to write the code out on coding sheets and then transcribe it onto a paper tape punch (using "run-out", and post processing using a hand punch, scissors and sticky tape for error correction) then connect the Teletype via an acoustic coupler (after school at 6 PM when the telephone rates were cheaper) and send the code through. The teacher did all the logging on and setting up for our code, we then each got to run our little length of tape through, one at a time - and got the results back within seconds (occasionally minutes) - amazing!
- I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.
|
|
|
|
|
C++11 feels like a new language. I write code differently now than I did in C++98. The C++11 code is shorter, simpler, and usually more efficient than what I used to write. This poses challenges: How do you present C++? What techniques do you recommend? What language features and libraries do you emphasize? Presenting C++11 as a layer on top of C++98 would be as bad as representing C++98 as a layer on top of C. C++ must be presented as a whole, as the powerful tool for design and implementation that it is, rather than a set of independent features. The Fourth Edition of The C++ Programming Language attempts that and should become available in a few months. Bjarne Stroustrup's personal tour of C++11 and a preview of his book's 4th edition.
|
|
|
|
|
Most people understand that Windows is used by a variety of people who have a variety of needs, ranging from corporate server to workstation to POS terminals to home PC and beyond. Most people accept that whenever Microsoft updates Windows, it has to balance the competing requirements to find some kind of workable compromise. There is however another set of competing requirements that many do not really register, even those that call themselves power users or are IT admins. It is a conflict between developers/programmers and Microsoft itself. Developers are ultimately the ones who write applications used by users whereas Microsoft develops the OS these applications run on. A common shared goal between the two is the desire that applications previously written continue to work. Is Modern API the clean break Microsoft needed from Win32 (and Silverlight and WPF and...)?
|
|
|
|
|
The "modern" API doesn't seem to be a "clean break" since it doesn't replace anything -- it provides no solution for desktop applications. Its something new which is currently limited to only windows store apps. Am I missing something here? Maybe I just don't understand the "modern" API well enough?
|
|
|
|
|
As many programmers gain experience, they start to learn more and more about what happens behind the facade, about Garbage Collecting and overall memory management. Sadly, I see many programmers filled with half right knowledge and wrong conclusions especially in the field of Garbage Collection and Performance. I saw attempts to "optimize" C# code, which did, if anything, slow down the program. So let us take a closer look at the modern Garbage Collectors, how they work and what problems they want to solve. I am going to explain the specific Java implementation, but don't worry, most of them work fairly similar. If GC really worked, it would throw out most of my code.
|
|
|
|
|
Google allegedly assigns version numbers late in the process, but what is known is that this next release will implement upcoming API level 18. If you follow the progression there’s a likelihood this will be Jelly Bean MR2 (Management Release 2), where Android 4.2 was management release 1. Based on some other discussions and sources I also suspect this might be Jelly Bean MR2. All of that is really just semantics however, what really matters are what specific features are coming and which of those Google touched on during I/O. What new features do you want to see in Android?
|
|
|
|
|
Working features
Faster Facebook app
Updates that wont reset all you settings and Icons
Possibility to uninstall apps that you don't want (and haven't installed yourself)
That's all, then I'll be a happy trooper! 
Why can't I be applicable like John? - Me, April 2011
-----
Beidh ceol, caint agus craic againn - Seán Bán Breathnach
-----
Da mihi sis crustum Etruscum cum omnibus in eo!
-----
Just because a thing is new don’t mean that it’s better - Will Rogers, September 4, 1932
|
|
|
|
|
"Faster Facebook App" - go hassle FarceBook then, that's not an Android feature.
Personally, I'd never trust facebook with anything on my phone. Any company that thinks hosting videos of baby-battering is cool can go to hell:
http://www.channel4.com/news/facebook-news-provider-or-social-network[^]
I understand a snippet may be acceptable as "News", but leaving the whole 4 1/2 minutes up makes even the tabloids over here look responsible.
For the last one, you need to hassle your phone provider - they're usually responsible for this, or just go for a vanilla Android phone such as the Nexus.
"If you don't fail at least 90 percent of the time, you're not aiming high enough."
Alan Kay.
|
|
|
|
|
And if your lucky, you might get to be one of a few people to ever get the update!
.-.
|o,o|
,| _\=/_ .-""-.
||/_/_\_\ /[] _ _\
|_/|(_)|\\ _|_o_LII|_
\._. |\_/|"` |_| ==== |_|
|_|_| ||" || ||
|-|-| ||LI o ||
|_|_| ||'----'||
/_/ \_\ /__| |__\
|
|
|
|
|
Let’s try to find all possible ways to visualize a ludicrously small data set of two numbers. Afterwords, let’s try to pick the best visualization. With such a tiny dataset, you would think we would complete both exercises in less than 5 minutes. Yet, we spent more than two hours without having actually accomplished either of the two tasks. Not only was the number of possible ways to visualize two values far higher than expected, but also each single visualization method admitted multiple and interesting variations and opened new questions and discussions. The unit, meaning, interpretation and context of the values often determines the best visualization.
|
|
|
|
|
Three months ago, celebrated video game publisher Valve did something completely out of character: it fired up to 25 workers, in what one employee dubbed the "great cleansing." At the time, co-founder Gabe Newell quickly reassured gamers that the company wouldn't be canceling any projects, but it just so happens that one project managed to get away. Valve was secretly working on a pair of augmented reality glasses... and those glasses are still being built by two Valve employees who lost their jobs that day. Jeri Ellsworth and Rick Johnson created Technical Illusions to make illusions reality.
|
|
|
|
|
With WWDC just a few weeks away, I thought it’d be beneficial to the Internet at large to compile a working list of everything that is expected of Apple during their Keynote and subsequent “State of the Union” addresses in order to appease the Internet. Failure to introduce each and every one of these features and updates will result in another stock price plummet, calls for Tim Cook’s ouster and an infinite amount of comments on tech blogs decrying that Android is superior to Apple’s iOS. 50 serious suggestions for improving Mac/iOS development. What would you ask for?
|
|
|
|
General 
News 
Suggestion 
Question 
Bug 
Answer 
Joke 
Praise 
Rant 
Admin 
Submit an article or tip
