What are you reading?

[beagle]

But being that oldfashioned I simply did not get the hang of this 'object-oriented programming' and stopped trying after awhile.

Fortran.

[Griffin NoName]

Fortran is my first language, although I quickly learnt to think and dream in hex machine code.

<quote>
Unfortunately, no Real Programmer would ever use a computer whose operating system is called SmallTalk, and would certainly not talk to the computer with a mouse.
<endquote>

I have to agree. It was all downhill once the mouse was invented.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Still attempting to read The Symbol. @ Dan Brown

It is still truly dreadful and has not improved.

[Swatopluk]

I may not go that far (that would still be my father's job) but to a degree I can find myself in that (including large lineprinter images).
Even at my time not all computers could do graphics and using ASCII characters was the way of the world. I still remember that the white block (screens being default black at the time) was Alt+219.
There was indeed a lot in Pascal that I would not use and also a lot that could not be done (like using integers beyond +/-23767 and PukeBASIC retained that feature in an even more annoying way*).
I was also used to use certain 'tricks' to get either RAM** use or processing time to a minimum: Thou shall not use 'if', if an arithmetic/logic operation can do!
My masterpiece was a runtime reduction from (estimated) 8 hours to less than 2 minutes (under the assumption that 6 decimals was a sufficient approximation for the nonlinear progression problem in case).
And I never even was a Real Programmer. But compared to the informatics analphabeths I was surrounded by ("Programming? I use Superdupermegatool 4008. Who needs programming?") most of the time I almost was. But now I have forgotten most of the old ways and never learned the new ones and simply don't know why I can't play Blu-Rays on my computer (although it tells me it can and has no explanation for its 'unexpected error' messages) and why since the last update I get the "Subspooler sytem disabled for unknown reason. We'll call you back once we have found out" message several times a day. Or why the antivirus sends files into quarantine but then can find no traces of viruses in them***.

*Like certain commands could be used only on some data types, the ones the command was rarely needed for e.g. only on short integer/real not long
**PukeBASIC  further restricted use by allowing stacks of max 219 (iirc) while Pascal would recurse till memory overflow.
***I have the suspicion that this could be the reason for the BluRay problem.

[Sibling DavidH]

I quickly learnt to think and dream in hex machine code.

I loved 6502 assembler!  The old BBC Master had an assembler built into the Basic and to me it soon became second nature.  I made quite a bit of pocket money selling listings to the magazines, and in Beebug   Magazine I long had my own monthly column called 'Mr Toad's Machine Code Corner'.  I even had a (very small) fan club who used to send in questions and I'd answer them in the mag.
That language has only ever been rivalled in my affections by Classical Old English.

[Swatopluk]

I better abstain form any comment that could imply that I have any idea of what I am talking about with all of you around.
Would violate the first rule: Only play an expert in front of people who have no idea (i.e. talk to chemists about history, to historians about chemistry etc.)

[Sibling DavidH]

Don't call me an expert.  I can barely remember any of it now, 20 years on, and if I did it would be totally useless.  But in those days home computers were very simple, and if you knew your assembler and the addresses of a few useful OS routines, system variables and vectors you could do anything.

[Griffin NoName]

But when you see a %20 in an http address you know it is a space right?

[pieces o nine]

But when you see a %20 in an http address you know it is a space right?

I used to troubleshoot digital printing files, and that ^ was a quick flag that some Mac-to-PC shenanigans had taken place with the file. It necessitated a quick find/check/change to get any others in the file corrected before plating.

[Sibling DavidH]

But when you see a %20 in an http address you know it is a space right?

Indeed, and if I I see %2A I know it's the answer to life, the universe and everything.  Except in the BBC assembler the prefix for hex was &, not %.  And if you meant a number and not the contents of an address you had to prefix with #.  So to print a space it was LDA #&20 and JSR &FFEE (OS print routine).  (LDA &20 just loaded the accumulator with whatever number was held in address &20.)
The one part I do remember and can still use easily is hex.

[beagle]

I (along with about ten million other people) invented the 6502 code to copy BBC ROM packs (Pascal etc) to RAM for "backing up" purposes.  It was shortly after that when ROM programs started trying to write to themselves  to defeat this "legitimate backing up", and shortly after that when the switch to convert RAM to read-only after program load was invented.
Eventually I sold my BBC B to someone at the NPL, and got an Amstrad 1512. That's still in the loft and there's a MicroVAX II still in my living room, though it hasn't been booted in 15 years.

[Griffin NoName]

Strange things in my living room thread?

Still reading the wretched Dan Brown.

[Swatopluk]

Close to the finish of Persian Fire

[Sibling DavidH]

Dawkins, The Greatest Show On Earth
Should be subtitled Kill A Creationist A Day, from what I've read so far.

[Swatopluk]

Finished Persian Fire and ordered more books by the same author.

[Aggie]

Found Karen Armstrong's The Case For God on sale for $20 in hardcover this weekend, which I had started and greatly enjoyed but failed to finish before it was due back at the library.  I bought three copies.