Re: Paper tape readers for micros. (Re: I feel 31337!111!!)

[sacraver@use.my.princeton.address (Xcott Craver)]

<noone@nowhere.net> wrote:
>ROTFL...  Boy this brings back memories.  I remember when I too could
>look at 6502 hex machine code and automatically convert it to assembly
>in my head.  And yes, the common entry points would automatically
>translate as well.  

	Northern Illinois University had a very assembler-centric program, 
	using the IBM 360 mainframe architecture.  You could satisfy all the 
	coursework for a BS using only a tvi910+ terminal and VM/CMS.  
	This is, like, 1995.  And it's probably still they same today, tho
	they replaced all the tvi910s with PCs emulating tvi910s.

	Anyways, the final OS course required such insane familiarity with hex
	that my officemate, given a TA job for the intro assembler course, was
	worshipped and feared like a volcano god.  Students would come to him
 	with printouts of programs that were abending, and he'd flip past the
	assembler source to the hex dump.  This was *easier* for him, because
	you wouldn't be fooled by mistyped instructions like "LA R5,R1" 
	instead of "LR R5,R1." 
	
	Figuring out where and how you were ABENDing by looking at a page
	of hex was, to the uninitiated, like predicting the outcome of the
	next Superbowl by staring at static on your TV.  

>Ed
								-S
	[Hiding from the apostrophe police]