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Main => Everything Else => Topic started by: c64rulez on March 02, 2006, 01:53:43 am

Title: Any real programmers here ?
Post by: c64rulez on March 02, 2006, 01:53:43 am
http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/mel.html (http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/mel.html)

check it out only if "A9 00 AE FF" means anything to you...
Title: Re: Any real programmers here ?
Post by: AtomSmasher on March 02, 2006, 02:51:48 am
Good read.  Interesting to see what programmers thought back then, especially about the guy not liking compilers :)
Title: Re: Any real programmers here ?
Post by: Samstag on March 02, 2006, 08:21:19 am
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.
Title: Re: Any real programmers here ?
Post by: ChadTower on March 02, 2006, 09:40:11 am

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.
Title: Re: Any real programmers here ?
Post by: JeepMonkey on March 02, 2006, 09:44:06 am
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.
Title: Re: Any real programmers here ?
Post by: ChadTower on March 02, 2006, 09:55:38 am

He communicates with a leaf switch that he built into a telegraph.
Title: Re: Any real programmers here ?
Post by: Samstag on March 02, 2006, 11:25:33 am

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)
Title: Re: Any real programmers here ?
Post by: ChadTower on March 02, 2006, 11:35:07 am

What is bubble memory?  We use steppers.
Title: Re: Any real programmers here ?
Post by: c64rulez on March 02, 2006, 01:16:42 pm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bubble_memory (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bubble_memory)

Title: Re: Any real programmers here ?
Post by: Samstag on March 02, 2006, 01:17:10 pm
The basics of bubble memory (http://www.xs4all.nl/~fjkraan/comp/pc5000/bubble.html)

"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.
Title: Re: Any real programmers here ?
Post by: ChadTower on March 02, 2006, 01:27:47 pm

My question was a joke.
Title: Re: Any real programmers here ?
Post by: RayB on March 02, 2006, 01:37:11 pm
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!
 ;D
Title: Re: Any real programmers here ?
Post by: farmecologist on March 06, 2006, 01:52:49 pm
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'.

 ;D
Title: Re: Any real programmers here ?
Post by: USSEnterprise on March 07, 2006, 01:20:19 am
I know HTML and BASIC ;D
Title: Re: Any real programmers here ?
Post by: shmokes on March 07, 2006, 04:14:03 am

My question was a joke.

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