🚀 go-pugleaf

Scott <nob...@example.org> wrote:
> On Tue, 26 Jun 2018 21:08:31 +0100, Gareth's Downstairs Computer
> <headstone255.but.n...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> 
>> controlled by in-line groups of pixels. Did a bit of machine code
>> programming (NOT assembler  :-(  ) which meant every so often inserting
>> a sequence of 3 NOPs in case of having to patch in a jump to sort
>> a problem.
> 
> I did that once or twice, though mainly as an exercise. If the 6809
> had microcode it was on a level I didn't understand, so in my case it
> was more like manual assembly than actual machine coding.
> 
>> Early in my career, all systems came with a complete hardware manual
>> including all the registers in I/O, so these days feel a little bit lost
>> / swimming out of my depth / fighting blind when so  little info is
>> around today.
>> 
>> The Small Computer Handbook for the PDP8/E wsa a good example of an
>> informatie manual!
> 
> In a sense I think tech's complexity has outpaced my ability to keep
> up with it. The 6809 assembly handbook was about this >-< thick,
> something you could leaf through in a few hours and get the gist of
> it, if not all the details. The 8086 book was maybe twice as thick, or
> a bit less. Then the 286, 386, 486, 32 then 64 bits, on and on until I
> though I was back in the AS/400 lab with its entire wall covered in
> books. It gets to the point that sane people back away and adapt to
> using prefab tools that digest all this arcana and present it in neat,
> usable, pre-digested libraries.
> 
> I used to write libraries, back when I was crazy enough to get away
> with it. Now I just use others' libraries, which must mean I've gone
> sane. How boring is that?
> 

I enjoyed (enjoy) writing the runtime library for Iron Spring PL/I. So far
I haven't tried to do particularly fancy coding, I'm more concerned with
getting things right, with the optimizations later. Lately I've been
working on the preprocessor, which has its own set of challenges.

-- 
Pete