Any real programmers here ?

[c64rulez]

http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/mel.html

check it out only if "A9 00 AE FF" means anything to you...

[AtomSmasher]

Good read.  Interesting to see what programmers thought back then, especially about the guy not liking compilers

[Samstag]

I work on computers that are booted by manually keying in machine code (in hex) to clear memory, and load a bootstrap routine before they can be IPLed from newfangled hard disk drives.  Encore/Gould 32/77 MultiSels.

[ChadTower]

Wow.  That's futuristic.  I have to communicate with mine by arranging vacuum tubes in a 2 dimensional matrix upstairs.  Someday I hope to upgrade to a 3d matrix, and I hear rumors about this thing called a transistor.

[JeepMonkey]

I program HMIs, PLCs, RTUs, etc.  Some use a communication protocol called Modbus.  Information is packed in a similar fashion, but not quite as old as machine language.

[ChadTower]

He communicates with a leaf switch that he built into a telegraph.

[Samstag]

Wow.  That's futuristic.  I have to communicate with mine by arranging vacuum tubes in a 2 dimensional matrix upstairs.  Someday I hope to upgrade to a 3d matrix, and I hear rumors about this thing called a transistor.

Transistors are a fad.  If you ask me they'll never replace bubble memory.

EDIT: Reminds me of my favorite Dilbert cartoon:

"When I started programming, we didn't have any of these sissy 'icons'and 'Windows.'All we had were zeros and ones -- and sometimes we didn't even have ones. I wrote an entire database program using only zeros."

"You had zeros? We had to use the letter "O"." (Scott Adams)

[ChadTower]

What is bubble memory?  We use steppers.

[c64rulez]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bubble_memory

[Samstag]

The basics of bubble memory

"The bubble technology was 'preliminary' in 1981 but became obsolete within five years, when battery backup-ed CMOS-RAM became affordable."

Which is funny, because 13 of our systems were built in this window and used bubble memory.  We replaced the bubble cards with huge CMOS cards soon after.

Nowadays the hardware we buy becomes obsolete much faster.

[ChadTower]

My question was a joke.

[RayB]

Self modifying code. I used to do that.
I didn't write direct machine language because I was a "real programmer". I wrote it because I didn't have a compiler. Didn't know where to get one. And couldn't afford it if I did!
 

[farmecologist]

I'm not sure if 'programmer' is the correct term.  Most days it seems like the job title should read: 'navigator of the corporate bureaucracy'.

 

[USSEnterprise]

I know HTML and BASIC

[shmokes]

My question was a joke.

That's funny.  It was just about the only post in this thread that I actually "got".