About programing, a general question

[les]

On Thu, 2010-12-23 at 13:13 +1030, Tim wrote:
> On Wed, 2010-12-22 at 15:54 -0500, Matthew Saltzman wrote:
> > Bah.  Real Programmers don't use FORTRAN, either!
> >  
> > http://johnreece.com/wordpress/2006/07/10/real-programmers-dont-use-fortran-either/
> 
> And I still have my book for the SDK-85 to prove it...  And my pocket
> fold-out cheat-sheet for the CPU OP codes   ;-)
> 
> Breadboarding our own CPU, RAM, I/O, etc.  
> 
> Mind you, when it comes to compiling OP codes in your head, then
> punching hex into a bouncy keypad, I really wouldn't want to have to
> program anything more than the codes required to operate a washing
> machine or microwave oven.
> 
> Before that, I had toyed with BASIC.  But it was so useless (at least
> the simpler implementations you found on personal computers, back then),
> that you soon give up on trying to do anything good with it.
> 
But think of all the good stuff you learned from that bouncy keypad, the
hex codes and the relative timing for all the breadboarding.  An of
course the 70K byte hardsectored 5 1/4" floppies and the ageless load of
300 baud magnetic tape (I cheated and created my own resynchronizing
recording format that worked at 8Kbit on audio tape in 1977 or there
abouts.)

Regards,
Les H