Even Older Man Yells At Whippersnappers

[MRAB]

On 2017-09-19 19:15, Christopher Reimer wrote:
>> On Sep 19, 2017, at 9:09 AM, justin walters <walters.justin01 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>> On Tue, Sep 19, 2017 at 8:59 AM, Grant Edwards <grant.b.edwards at gmail.com>
>> 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.]
>>> 
>>> Alternatively, you should design an instruction set and implement it
>>> using microcode and AM2900 bit-slice processors.
>>> 
>>> --
>>> Grant Edwards               grant.b.edwards        Yow! Could I have a drug
>>>                                  at               overdose?
>>>                              gmail.com
>>> 
>>> --
>>> https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
>>> 
>> 
>> Even Assembly is easy nowadays:
>> https://fresh.flatassembler.net/index.cgi?page=content/1_screenshots.txt
>> -- 
>> https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
> 
> Is assembly still a thing today?
> 
> I wanted to take assembly in college but I was the only student who showed up and the class got cancelled. I dabbled with 8-but assembly as a kid. I can't imagine what assembly is on a 64-bit processor.
> 
Assembler? I started out on a hex keypad. I still remember that hex C4 
was LDI.

Assembler on, say, a 6502 or ARM is pretty nice! :-)