🚀 go-pugleaf

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?