Date   : Thu, 05 Jan 2012 13:13:55 +0000
From   : jgh@... (J.G.Harston)
Subject: About ARM PC

Rick Murray wrote:
> F. Haroon wrote:
>> it's about time that programming was re-introduced into society
> But will it be as effective as it once was?

Hear hear. Partly so much usability of current systems is so locked
up behind locked doors, and so much computing technology is just
sold more-or-less as a toy with lots of bells and whistles. The
entry barrier to just being able to do something other than "Word"
or "Explorer" is so great to most people.

Until I got hold of BBC BASIC 86 (and then later BBC BASIC for Windows)
a PC was just a useless lump of plastic to me. Once I could actually
*DO* something with it, it became a useful tool.

Also, compared with 30 years ago there is a much greater spread of
people owning/using computers. If, say, 10% of the population have
the aptitude to "do" programming, in the '80s maybe 10% of the
population had computers, it's likely those two groups overlapped
significantly. If 80% of the population have computers, even if
every single one of the 10% of the population with the aptitude
to be programmers have a computer, that's still only 12% of the
population of computer-owners.

> <x> to run on Linux. Anything that needs something a little bit 
> special
> (it is *fun* to attempt to write your own *basic* OS

I've done so a few times, mostly Tube clients and CP/M BIOSs, and then
have gone further and first ported BBC BASIC to the ZX Spectrum, then
writing a PDP-11 version from scratch! http://mdfs.net/pdp11/BBCBasic
There's nothing to give you a detailed understanding of the insides
of computer systems like actually writing the insides of computer
systems.

For some of the PDP-11 BASIC I've have to trawl through the Lion's Unix
source files to understand exactly what is going on.

> We make wonderful technology so we can watch in REAL TIME with mouths
> open as parts of north-east Honshu island are wiped from the map

And yet never see any coverage of Nagoya under water for weeks after
typhoon floods September...

> And probably fire off a quick reply. Standing in the middle of the
> goddamned supermarket. Say WHAT? Seriously? For real?!

Ahk! I used to get *really* frustrated in my last-but-one job
where everybody expected that because I had a Blackberry, that
meant that I would drop all my shopping and respond to work
requests on their say-so.

> Like "watch within seven days".

"It's like a VCR... that self-destructs in seven days!"

-- 
J.G.Harston - jgh@...      - mdfs.net/jgh