lyonMar 7
Alice Averlong🏳️‍⚧️
what are we even doing here man
Mar 7 at 7:01amWeb
Show threadAlice Averlong🏳️‍⚧️Mar 7
if someone doesn't have experience with arrays, then they don't have enough experience with programming to hire them to program for you. they are still on page 9 of the programming book
Show threadAlice Averlong🏳️‍⚧️Mar 7
Specifically, this one.
The Usborne guide to Better BASIC: a beginners guide to writing programs (1983)
Show threadAlice Averlong🏳️‍⚧️Mar 7
See? Page 9. Arrays.
Show threadAlice Averlong🏳️‍⚧️Mar 7

Usborne released a bunch of their old 80s programming books for free a while back, and they're all just a gem:

https://usborne.com/us/books/computer-and-coding-books

Show threadDaniel DurransMar 7
@foone I learnt everything I know from Computer Fun… I still have the book.
Show threadIan K TindaleMar 7
@dan @foone I learned everything I now don’t know anymore from this book (which I had)

archive.org/details/starting-forth-leo-brodie/mode/2up
Starting FORTH : Leo Brodie : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

Starting FORTHby  Leo Brodie, FORTH Inc.An Introduction to the FORTH Language and Operating System for Beginners and ProfessionalsWith a foreword by Charles...

Internet Archive
Show threadTrammell HudsonMar 7
@foone I've posted this page from Usborne's guide to jargon before and commented that I'd be happy if all programmers were as computer literate as grade school students in the 80s.
Show threadAlice Averlong🏳️‍⚧️Mar 7
@th god that'd be nice
Show threadnLupo  Mar 7
@th @foone That looks like 6502, because it has an accumulator.
Show threadFaraiweMar 7
@th @foone for comparison, the other day I had to explain to some 20-whatevs-year-old dumbass vibe coder what a "register" is, in a CPU
Show threadPhil Thane ✅Mar 7
@th @foone Back then UK schools used to teach 'computing'. Then some education minister invented Information & Communication Technology (ICT) which in practice meant learning MS Office so you can work in a call centre.
Show threadtrusty falxter 🧠Mar 7

@foone For non-us users: the site is guessing your country and redirects to 404 page, if guess != "us" 🙄 But it's not geo fencing. You need to pick en-us at the home page and then request the above URL again. 😬

Edit: works also for en-gb

Show threadRoger SenMar 7
@flxtr @foone thx!
Show threadJSMuellerRoemerMar 7
@foone I get redirected to the German site with no option to switch pack (the 404 references a non-existent dropdown menu…)
Show threadStephan DruskatMar 7
@JSMuellerRoemer @foone See above https://social.tchncs.de/@flxtr/116186768953309522, worked for me, need to switch via the currency selector.
trusty falxter 🧠:natenomblack: (@[email protected])

@[email protected] For non-us users: the site is guessing your country and redirects to 404 page, if guess != "us" 🙄 But it's not geo fencing. You need to pick en-us at the home page and then request the above URL again. 😬

Mastodon
Show threadsolo “claire” esta bienMar 7
@foone wow even has representation for Leo the Late Bloomer right on the cover
Show threadweirdocollectorMar 7
@foone Unfortunately links goes to 404 😔
Show threadStephan DruskatMar 7
@weirdocollector @foone See above https://social.tchncs.de/@flxtr/116186768953309522, worked for me, need to switch via the currency selector.
trusty falxter 🧠:natenomblack: (@[email protected])

@[email protected] For non-us users: the site is guessing your country and redirects to 404 page, if guess != "us" 🙄 But it's not geo fencing. You need to pick en-us at the home page and then request the above URL again. 😬

Mastodon
Show threadMarc B. ReynoldsMar 7
@weirdocollector @foone I got the same because it was xforming the URL to fr instead of us. Going to the homepage and setting up language to English corrected.
Show threadKirtai 🏳️‍⚧️Mar 7
@foone
Ooh, they have the text adventure ones 
Show threadҐрeйсі Джейн 🏳️‍⚧️ (Quuxum)Mar 7
@foone The GOSUB robot from "Computer Programming in BASIC" has lived rent-free in my head for 40 years
Show threadFuture SprogMar 7

I remember typing out some of these programs as a youngster! I even ported one from BBC/ZX Basic to Q Basic to run on the incredibly powerful IBM PS/2 my cousin had!

@foone

Show threadLee Hauser5d ago
@foone @pronoiac Kids should be issued a Sinclair ZX81/Timex 1000 and a set of these books at birth, and not allowed to move up to a more capable machine until they have written their own original BASIC program.
Show threadTobias KlausmannMar 7
@foone What's weird is that I distincly remember page 9 (its illustrations, mostly), but I don't remember the book cover. I grew up in 80s West Germany, so maybe they were used in a different (or translated) book. Definitely a nostalgia hit :)
Show threadAlice Averlong🏳️‍⚧️Mar 7
@klausman yeah, different publishers often use different covers, so I imagine the west german publisher just made their own cover
Show threadJSMuellerRoemerMar 7
@foone I’m pretty sure I had that book
Show threadllogiqMar 7
@JSMuellerRoemer @foone same here.
Show threaddan 💾Mar 7
@foone 😍
Show threadsbszineMar 7
@foone I remember this page, it's burnt into my brain
Show threadChristian Kent   𝘊𝘒 :＼﹥Mar 7
@foone I literally learned from this page. I hated DIM but was a big MID$ stan.
Show threadlucaMar 7
@foone That is how we learnt programming, with BASIC. Early home computers usually had an accompanying manual with a BASIC guide, as they shipped with a BASIC interpreter, at turn on.
Show threadpingotuxMar 8
@foone feeling motherly towards the console explainer sprout creature
Show threadDread Pirate (Tom) RobertsMar 7
@foone I had this one.
Show threadMalcolm HerbertMar 7
@foone I had this book, unsure whether it had the same cover though ... also the 'build your own robot' one ...
Show threadMr. Bruno Mar 7

@foone Better Basic? Don't. Just don't.

I was using APL around 1979.

Show threadTim 🛥️🌈Mar 7
@foone
I went from Better Basic, to Pascal From Basic, to K&R.
Show threadKeeper of the orbMar 7
@foone oh cute look at the cute bugs!!!
Show threadBear That CodesMar 7
@foone @philpem still have my copy :)
Show threadlinear cannonMar 7
@foone i will take this opportunity to once again tell tale of the time i worked on an embedded device with a firmware written in C, roughly a 150,000-line codebase on a little STM32 chip

the original author of the code base did not, in fact, seem to understand what an array was.

the device communicated to another device bolted to the same machine, using MODBUS. with potentially up to 10,000 MODBUS registers storing data, but realistically only a few actually in use.

the file defining the structure where the data was stored for the registers simply made a struct, with elements starting at "reg0" and incrementing up to "reg10000". the implementation file was just as bad.

this is why the codebase was roughly 150,000 lines. it should have been perhaps 5000.


the code used a small function that did pointer math in order to actually access the register, usually, unless it was referenced directly in code, or sometimes used a macro instead.

none of this was even the worst offense within the codebase.
Show threadgloriouscowMar 7

@linear @foone

embedded undertale

Show threadPete Alex Harris🦡🕸️🌲/∞🪐∫Mar 7

@linear @foone
It's impressive to get as far as understanding pointer arithmetic in C but somehow not understanding arrays in C.

Maybe he was forced to write the code on a keyboard with broken [ ] keys.

Show threadfarhaven 🇪🇺Mar 7
@petealexharris @linear @foone Or had one of those insane managers who misread something somewhere once where some problem was caused by someone misuing an array, so they banned all array use in the whole company.
Show threadCyberFrogMar 7
@foone me when I forget my experience with arrays and am no longer experienced in arrays(data structure)
Show threadSnoopJMar 7
@foone synergizing
Show threadTom ForsythMar 7
@foone Reminds me of when a lawyer accused me of stealing someone else's graphics tech because we both used the same technology of "bilinear filtering." OK my friend you go ahead and bring that up in court be my guest.
Show threadgunstickMar 7
@TomF @foone IBM got a patent on some obscure graphics method I used many years before in demo programming around 1990.
I can't recall what it was. Maybe sprites masking with a CPU. Was something obvious
Show threadTom ForsythMar 7
@gunstick @foone I vaguely recall someone like Atari having a patent on a register that shifts the entire screen left. So someone else (Sega?) made a register that shifts it right instead. It's really annoying that it goes the wrong way, but it avoided the patent.
Show threadTom ForsythMar 7
@gunstick @foone (all these patents are way out of date of course DO NOT TALK ABOUT LIVE PATENTS)
Show threadgunstickMar 7
@TomF @foone
I came up with the code many years before IBM filed their patent
Show threadAaronMar 7
@foone [lists MS Word as a skill]
Show threadvMar 7
@foone i did do that before yea
Show threadbison ✅Mar 7
@foone having not enough experience in Arrays (data structure) i think
Show threadSome Kind Of GarfMar 7
@foone now the qualifications for this job are pretty stringent, we're gonna need you to have used a keyboard before.
Show threadRiley S. FaelanMar 7

@somekindofgarf

  • There’s a minimum crew requirement.
  • What’s that?
  • One, I suppose.

@foone

Show threadAlice Averlong🏳️‍⚧️Mar 7
@riley @somekindofgarf help the front fell off my keyboard
Show threadAdam KentMar 7
@foone I'm sure there's a null terminated string joke in here somewhere.
Show threadМя ��Mar 7

@akent keep looking forward, I hope you'll find it

@foone