[ydl-gen] Linux yellow dog manual for dummies

[Derick Centeno]

On Sun, 27 Dec 2009 14:20:18 -0500
Rob Sanders <rarob at travelinglightfarm.net> wrote:

> It is an interesting article, and reminds me of some discussions
> I've had with 'younger'
> programmers at work.  One of my coworkers is an absolutely awesome  
> web developer, using
> the newer frameworks (Groovy on Grails) to develop from scratch a  
> replacement GUI for out
> linux security tools (commercial plug - www.trustedcs.com/ 
> securityblanket) in 8 months, having
> no previous experience with the product.  Seeing what he has been  
> able to do using the right
> tools has been amazing.  He enjoys the whole meta-programming way of  
> doing things.  But when
> I've discussed some of the things I've done (some cell code, device  
> driver work, cross-platform porting,
> C/C++/Fortran, bit level manipulation, etc) he honestly confesses  
> that he is baffled and lost trying to
> do those things.  They just aren't taught much it seems.
> 
> I've also been amused that several of the programming tricks  
> *required* in cell based work were things
> I did 'back in the day' trying to get every cycle I could beg,  
> borrow, or steal out of my old Apple II+.  When
> a no-op costs two clock cycles, you learn to count every one of  
> them.  Anyone else remember the extra
> 16 K of memory (or there abouts) you could get by bank-switching the  
> language card?  Or programming
> overlays?  Manually figuring out how to bit pack you data so you  
> would actually be able to fit everthing
> into your limited memory space?  Again, skills that (outside of the  
> embedded world perhaps) just aren't
> taught much anymore.  <sigh>  I'm not saying that everyone needs to  
> be able to demonstrate mastery
> of these skills, but I am a *firm* believer that the concepts should  
> be taught and coded at least once,
> if only so the developing code can understand what the wiz-bang  
> compiler is doing on their behalf.

I appreciate your experience.  My own is similar in that I also worked
on small systems where memory was extremely tight, next to nonexistent
by today's standards, and coding had to be done extremely well.   Where
you where working on an Apple II+; I couldn't afford one.  So having
had a few programming courses in Fortran, Basic and become familiar
with programming the HP 67 in the early 70's -- I decided to acquire a
Hewlett-Packard 41 which I could afford.  I was looking for a means to
demonstrate that I had solid technical skills, although I had very
little course work in Comp. Sci. and my BA was, of all things, in
Psychology.  The solution was provided by HP itself; it then offered
any interested persons who wrote programs judged as technically useful
the opportunity to be entered into their user's program catalog which
then was published worldwide.

The language then used was a proprietary language which implemented
Reverse Polish Notation as a form of hybrid Assembly language.  The HP
41 had the vast RAM capacity of 6.4KB.

Here are some links just as a matter of sharing a bit of my world back
then.  It may interest you to view something of the code language used
then which was also implemented into the HP 41:

An discussion regards the HP 67 with an example of coding:
http://www.rskey.org/detail.asp?manufacturer=Hewlett-Packard&model=HP-67

An discussion of HP41 with links to technical details:
http://www.hpcc.org/calculators/hp41.html

After that it is pretty straightforward how I could move into PowerPC
assembly language and so on.   

The value of exposure to and experience with technical foundations
cannot be overstated. 

The fact that unless one knows what is entailed to resolve a
difficulty without resort to an application it will be terribly
difficult to understand not only why and how it functions, but more
importantly when that tool cannot be used for a task.  Then such 
understanding can help move one forward towards a task or
strategy which does work.


> Ok, I will now step down from one of my many soapboxes.....
> 
> -Rob  


Hey Rob, don't consider it odd that I'll cheer for you to get back onto
any one of the soapboxes anytime.  



=========

Refranes/Popular sayings:
The Taino say:No hay mal que por bien no venga.
There is no evil out of which good cannot blossom.
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