Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!jarthur!bgribble
From: bgribble@jarthur.Claremont.EDU (Bill Gribble)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.handhelds
Subject: Re: HP-MAIL-SERVER
Message-ID: <9910@jarthur.Claremont.EDU>
Date: 2 Dec 90 21:20:12 GMT
References: <F6BFBEB483FF00034D@yubgef51>
Organization: Harvey Mudd College, Claremont, CA 91711
Lines: 57

In article <F6BFBEB483FF00034D@yubgef51> EBERBERS%yubgef51@pucc.PRINCETON.EDU writes:

[lots of interesting, but highly inflammatory, comments about Alonzo 
  Gariepy's Saturn mnemonics]

>    I would realy like to know what is Mr. Grevelle's previous programming
>experience? Did he even tried to find IDS or have just enered first shop,
>bought first HP-28 "MC-programming" book and expected to become a
>programming gury? I do not intend to acuse anybody for not being
>programmer but it is annoying to read how somebody declares one set of
>mnemonics "superior" to the other just because he was unable to uderstand
>one.

Are you new to this newsgroup or do you just not pay attention to what's
  posted?  Rick Grevelle is one of the most frequent posters of new infor-
  mation about HP handhelds on this group.  He can speak for himself, but
  I want to say that most of the readers of this group *do* consider him a 
  'guru.'  And insinuating that he's not a programmer is just ignorant.
  You have every right to post your opinions here, but please try to
  make them informed.

>    HP made jus one, BIG mistake - didn't provide either assembly
>development package or documentation for HP-48. If they did we wouldn't
>have this mess today with do it yourself assemblers and 90% of time spent
>on hacking, dissasembling ant trying to squeeze a bit of information from
>our HP-48 machines.

Rick Grevelle himself had some interesting thoughts on this subject.  I'll
  have to paraphrase, but I think it went something like this:  programming
  on an HP handheld, specifically in machine language, is a sort of game.
  You start with the clues that the HP engineers left - the SYSEVAL command
  on the 28, the too-useful-to-be-a-coincidence memory scanner on the 48.
  Getting together with other people of the same interests, you pool research
  and information.  You get that warm tingly feeling of discovery every now
  and then.  It seems to me that this game of HP programming is a learning 
  experience.  

If you're a *serious* programmer and don't have time for these silly games, 
  why are you whining?  There are enough low-level tools available to complete
  any projects you might have in mind.  The 'do-it-yourself' assemblers work
  very nicely, thank you, and if they`re not good enough, write your own.
  If you're so much more serious a programmer, you shouldn't have any trouble
  writing one that will blow the socks off anything available, and you
  can keep it to yourself so that you can crank out code like a foundry
  puts out iron.  And you'll make a bathtub full of money.

I'm having fun and learning a lot by programming the 48 in machine language; 
  it sounds like you're having a hernia.  Who's better off? 

><<<<<<<<-----------------<<>>------------------------->>>>>>>>
><<<<--  Zarko Berberski <---->  ERBERS@YUBGEF51.bitnet  -->>>>
><<<<<<<<-----------------<<>>------------------------->>>>>>>>

*****************************************************************************
**   Bill Gribble                     Harvey Mudd College, Claremont, CA   **
**   bgribble@jarthur.claremont.edu   Never heard of it?  You're stupid.   **
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