Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!VAX1.CC.UAKRON.EDU!r3jjs
From: r3jjs@VAX1.CC.UAKRON.EDU (Jeremy J Starcher)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: MEL - A *Real* Programmer
Keywords: Real Programmer, Hacker
Message-ID: <784@VAX1.CC.UAKRON.EDU>
Date: 2 Nov 90 04:13:46 GMT
References: <7380.271c3129@ccvax.ucd.ie> <1990Oct23.235720.16178@nas.nasa.gov> <6089@nisca.ircc.ohio-state.edu> <1990Nov1.175742.5383@tc.fluke.COM>
Reply-To: r3jjs@VAX1.CC.UAKRON.EDU (Jeremy J Starcher)
Organization: U of Akron Computer Center, Ohio
Lines: 40

In article <1990Nov1.175742.5383@tc.fluke.COM> kurt@tc.fluke.COM (Kurt Guntheroth) writes:
>
  [Stuff Deleted]

:So we're all very impressed with how well you can parrot what you've heard
:about structured programming.  But lay off Mel.  He was an artist of a kind
:that is becomming rare these days; someone who knew the difference between
:what he was taught and what was necessary; someone who appreciated the beauty
:in attempting to obtain adequate performance against impossible constraints.

: When someone learns to do the same job efficiently, however, your product
: will be dog meat.

Hear Hear!!!!

I first starting programming on a system that was so tight for memory
that the video colour page was fare game for short term storage.  If you
played it really dangerous, the last 15 or so bytes of the stack could
hold your interrupt routine (You just never filled you stack all the way
up, thats all).

I know [of] people who have written thier own version of languages that take
less than 3K.  (I have the PILOT source around here that takes just about
1K.  The only other langaguage that was avalible on the machine was
6502 machine language.  Not assembler.  Hexadecimal words entered one
at a time.)

And no, those days are not over.  Writing programs for a controller card
is tight.  On an IBM, dissemble your BIOS (try INT 10) and look at that code.
Try re-writing it so it takes less memory.

[climing off my soapbox]

Sorry about the tirade... I just understand the need for writing little
TINY programs that do the job well...
-- 
--------------------------+---------------------------------------------------
Jeremy J Starcher         !  No programmer programs in LOGO after reaching
r3jjs@vax1.cc.uakron.edu  !  age 14...
r3jjs@akronvm.bitnet      !