As the saying goes, "We have to sell a lot of VCRs first".
Right on the head!
If ChuckR could afford the time, it would be nice to see how his perspective has developed.
Simple, I was there at the time, and I was 'interested' -- gobbled up everything in sight in those days,
"checking it out" the best I could, at the time.
Fortunately, there was no internet to contend with.
(And the "Paperless office" hadn't arrived, yet.)
Also fortunately, I got to work with some of the government's 'hottest-stuff'.
Also, "checked these out" the best I could.
Starting with the hardware and machine-code, the Assembler was a natural.
Had difficulty understanding 'compiler', but finally made the connection.
So now I could 'picture' what was going on in the box while reading higher-level code, depending upon the computer architecture.
Also helps to 'debug' some peoples' code... (And, write your own, if and when you have to!)
So now the national controversy is over the "GOTO" instruction (FTN), by the computer science gurus.
No hardware company ever removed the "Jump" or "Branch" (or whatever) instructions from their designs.
Guess they cared less about stupid arguments and knew that changing the conditional or absolute 'flow-of-control' in the cpu is what made it a cpu.
Some people didn't know that, but looked for "software elegance" by eliminating "GOTO"s from their "new" language.
Most of this is all bull**** because every 'computer' has a fixed "Repetoire of Instructions" (sp), its 'rep-card'.
No matter what HLL you use, the box is only gonna execute the 'ones and zeros' on the rep-card.
So, most HLLs are, in my opinion, just so much smoke and bull that people hide behind when they use the words "Programming" (They say: "Much too technical to discuss here"... Yeah.).
Microsoft has done an excellent job of isolating people from real computer knowledge with Windows and their "API"s, hiding everything from sight, and only allowing you to see what they allow you to see.
I think no-one really programs anymore, they just concatenate APIs.
And now, with Windows, 93.7% of the world's population are computer-experts (as long as the mouse functions).
Else, "The system is down", which we've been trained to accept.
Sometimes I'll ask what they did before the system came thru the door, but they don't do that anymore. So my payment will get a 'late-charge' added if the system comes up much later. All of which is legal because the time-stamp is much after my physical greenbacks transaction.
Computer architecture is interesting because you get to 'see how' the box executes those instructions.
And if you really care, you can look at the 'enable-gates', pulse-widths, frequencies, timing, and all that stuff, and follow any '1' or '0' anywhere you want... Not many people care about this anymore.
I am not 100% certain that he uses a GUI.
Of course I use a GUI - how else can I play Solitaire?
Plus,
I have to learn "Which box to double-click on", "which Radio-button to select", and "where to Right-click", in case I ever get a job in the new "real-world"...
For "real work", though, I use the "DOS-box" (I know, I know),
just like Microsoft does!
Funny that when it 'gets serious', you need the "Elevated Command Prompt". How does one associate "Elevated" on an Intel or AMD, using Vista? (This is a mute question, heh-heh)
Should have seen the 'scramble' after installing Vista RC on my spanking new GW Athlon64x2, when he wiped out the MBR and Boot-sectors and I couldn't get to Vista or back to XP Pro, which I knew nothing about...
No GUI there, back then.
(...not ethernet - a very new development from his perspective).
Did see original work being done for the military - ARPAnet, when I went to school for the 'sheepskin'.
And was very -into- RBBS with my modem(s).
In simple terms, Ethernet is just a bigger, faster, and more-costly version.
Too bad the Super-Marios have to prove something to themselves and their like-minded associates.
I imagine that he has used tin foil to complete a circuit a time or two.
Only in emergencies...
Used the foil from my (UGH!!! ""Don't you know that smoking is bad for your health?"") pack of cigarettes, proudly!!!
All properly repaired or replaced, when we could breathe again.
:shock:. The deck should go on eBay though.
to put a list of all pro's and con's but in the end it's good for what you want it to do.
