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Even Older Man Yells At Whippersnappers

Rhodri James rhodri at kynesim.co.uk
Tue Sep 19 12:12:40 EDT 2017 
On 19/09/17 16:59, Grant Edwards wrote:
> On 2017-09-19, Rhodri James <rhodri at kynesim.co.uk> wrote:
>> On 19/09/17 16:00, Stefan Ram wrote:
>>> D'Arcy Cain <darcy at VybeNetworks.com> writes:
>>>> of course, I use calculators and computers but I still understand the
>>>> theory behind what I am doing.
>>>
>>>     I started out programming in BASIC. Today, I use Python,
>>>     the BASIC of the 21st century. Python has no GOTO, but when
>>>     it is executed, its for loop eventually is implemented using
>>>     a GOTO-like jump instruction. Thanks to my learning of BASIC,
>>>     /I/ can have this insight. Younger people, who never learned
>>>     GOTO, may still be able to use Python, but they will not
>>>     understand what is going on behind the curtains. Therefore, for
>>>     a profound understanding of Python, everyone should learn BASIC
>>>     first, just like I did!
>>
>> Tsk.  You should have learned (a fake simplified) assembler first, then
>> you'd have an appreciation of what your processor actually did.
>>
>> :-)
> 
> Tsk, Tsk.  Before learning assembly, you should design an instruction
> set and implement it in hardare.  Or at least run in in a VHDL
> simulator.  [Actually, back in my undergrad days we used AHPL and
> implemented something like a simplified PDP-11 ISA.]

<yorkshireman>
Eh, my school never 'ad an electronics class, nor a computer neither. 
Made programming a bit tricky; we 'ad to write programs on a form and 
send 'em off to next county.  None of this new-fangled VHDL neither, we 
'ad to do our simulations with paper and pencil.
</yorkshireman>

(All true, as it happens.  My school acquired a computer (just the one: 
a NorthStar Horizon) in my O-Level year, but before that we really did 
have to send programs off to Worcester where someone would laboriously 
type them in for you.  A week later you got a print out of the results 
and a roll of paper tape with your program on it.)

-- 
Rhodri James *-* Kynesim Ltd
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