On 19/09/17 16:59, Grant Edwards wrote:
On 2017-09-19, Rhodri James <rho...@kynesim.co.uk> wrote:
On 19/09/17 16:00, Stefan Ram wrote:
D'Arcy Cain <da...@vybenetworks.com> writes:
of course, I use calculators and computers but I still understand the
theory behind what I am doing.
I started out programming in BASIC. Today, I use Python,
the BASIC of the 21st century. Python has no GOTO, but when
it is executed, its for loop eventually is implemented using
a GOTO-like jump instruction. Thanks to my learning of BASIC,
/I/ can have this insight. Younger people, who never learned
GOTO, may still be able to use Python, but they will not
understand what is going on behind the curtains. Therefore, for
a profound understanding of Python, everyone should learn BASIC
first, just like I did!
Tsk. You should have learned (a fake simplified) assembler first, then
you'd have an appreciation of what your processor actually did.
:-)
Tsk, Tsk. Before learning assembly, you should design an instruction
set and implement it in hardare. Or at least run in in a VHDL
simulator. [Actually, back in my undergrad days we used AHPL and
implemented something like a simplified PDP-11 ISA.]
<yorkshireman>
Eh, my school never 'ad an electronics class, nor a computer neither.
Made programming a bit tricky; we 'ad to write programs on a form and
send 'em off to next county. None of this new-fangled VHDL neither, we
'ad to do our simulations with paper and pencil.
</yorkshireman>
(All true, as it happens. My school acquired a computer (just the one:
a NorthStar Horizon) in my O-Level year, but before that we really did
have to send programs off to Worcester where someone would laboriously
type them in for you. A week later you got a print out of the results
and a roll of paper tape with your program on it.)
--
Rhodri James *-* Kynesim Ltd
--
https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
