Re: Complete Basic?

[pausch@saaf.se (Paul Schlyter)]

In article <1189695437.293680.48560@r29g2000hsg.googlegroups.com>,
Eric  <englere_geo@yahoo.com> wrote:

> On Sep 13, 12:01 am, David Schmenk <dschm...@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> 
>> The II had a purpose and focus.  It was the computer Woz wanted for
>> himself to explore what it meant to be a microcomputer.  It came out of
>> the box ready to explore.
> 
> I wish there were something like this today. Today's young people are
> discouraged from getting under the hood to the low-level assembler.
> Many of them really don't understand what is going on. Their high
> level software APIs wrap all the cool stuff we really enjoyed :-(

And they're far from alone in not understanding what happens "under
the hood".  I remember reading a column by P.J. Plaugher (well-known C
and Unix veteran) some years ago in "C User's Journal", where he
described getting his first Windows NT machine up and running.  He
wrote that for the first time in his life, he didn't understand much
of what was happening in the computer he was about to use....  he too
was missing the computers of the past, which were simple enough to be
understandable.

> Eric
-- 
----------------------------------------------------------------
Paul Schlyter,  Grev Turegatan 40,  SE-114 38 Stockholm,  SWEDEN
e-mail:  pausch at stockholm dot bostream dot se
WWW:     http://stjarnhimlen.se/