info-mac@utcsrgv.UUCP (info-mac) (05/08/84)
Date: 5 May 1984 01:20-EDT From: Tim McNerney <uw-beaver!TIM@MIT-MC> Subject: Teaching assembly language programming, Mac style To: FISCHER@RUTGERS Cc: TIM@MIT-MC, info-mac@SUMEX-AIM In-Reply-To: Msg of 3 May 84 16:41:36 EDT from Ron <FISCHER at RUTGERS.ARPA> While the two Mac arrangement will be indispensible to DEVELOPERS who want full control of the screen for their software products, for TEACHING purposes, the MacAssembler is probably not the right thing. When programming in assembly language it is so easy to screw oneself that for students first learning about how machines work inside, a constrained environment like MacPascal is much preferable. It looks like there is a need for a EDUCATIONAL PRODUCT here folks! How about a 68000 assembler and a very "careful" stepper/debugger that provides extensive error checking and displays the state of the registers and relevant segments of memory while the program is running? How about providing a "dial" that you can turn to slow your program down to a comfortable crawl if things are happening too quickly? Remember the days when computers had blinking lights, and you could tell what your program was doing just by gazing at the dancing patterns, or by sticking an FM radio next to the processor and listening to the buzzing and humming? Well, times haven't changed that much, we just have "bitmapped displays" instead of "front panels" and "sound generator chips" instead of transistor radios, that's all... Tim McNerney <TIM at MIT-MC.ARPA>
info-mac@utcsrgv.UUCP (info-mac) (05/09/84)
Date: Tue, 8 May 84 12:04:36 edt From: uw-beaver!mark@harvard (Mark Lentczner) To: FISCHER@RUTGERS, TIM@MIT-MC Subject: Re: Teaching assembly language programming, Mac style Cc: info-mac@SUMEX-AIM Grrrrrrrreat Idea! I really like the idea of using the sound capabilities to work the way FM radio near the processor does! I have written several compositions that involve FM radio & CPU. I'm going to look back to that stuff and see how I worked it... Who knows... Sound Debugging (all puns intended) I Like That! -mark electronic music studio music department harvard university cambridge, ma 02138 decvax!genrad!wjh12!harvard!mark