Domain: almy.us
Stories and comments across the archive that link to almy.us.
Comments · 11
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Re:Man up and learn emacs?
Newbie. Man up and learn TECO.
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Re:Comment your code
Took me a bit of headscratching before I realised what was going on. Ouch.
That's one reason why I have a tendency to be suspicious of editors that offer a WYSIWYG interface. I much prefer YAFIYGI (You Asked For It, You Got it) editors like (of course) TECO or more recently, EMACS or (if you insist) VI. -
Re:They Just Don't Get It...
Apparently Google is still my friend...
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Re:Pong
Hey that was my first computer game too! Star Trek or Super Star Trek. It was on my friend's DEC PDP-11. His father worked for 'Digital' so he had one of those slick puppies at home. Check this out. I also played the original Adventure (Colossal Cave?) on that PDP-11 but that's all I can remember. I was about 9 I think. I really loved that machine. To this day I wonder what happened to it. Probably got thrown away. Everything is so much more intense when you are a child, and it was so exciting because computer gaming was not something that anyone really did. Of course later on my friends and I would pay visits to the one kid on the block with a brand new Atari 2600 and play that tank game (great fun), and the 2600 Adventure game with that chalice.
Not too long after this my friend managed to score a starter kit for Advanced Dungeons and Dragons (in addition to Gamma World and Top Secret). He even found out about some lecture at MIT on AD&D which we attended. Haha. Unfortunately he was never as enthusiastic about actually playing it, and I didn't really have any friends who were. I mostly ended up playing it with my sister, who hated it and was mostly humoring me. Shows the importance of having sufficiently geeky friends. I used to map and write out my own modules but I had no one to play them with. As much as I loved computers, there was nothing on the computer that could even remotely compare to PnP D&D. I really feel that I missed out on something important by not having the right friends at the time. I knew of other people in my school who seemed to play it in groups but I was too shy to try to really make friends with them. And they didn't really appeal to me as friends except for their shared interest in D&D.
I didn't get my own game machine until I could afford to buy one (~$300?). An Atari 400 with that huge and loud external disk drive (although not as big as the 8" one on the DEC). By that time my friend also had an Atari 400, but with the cassette tape reader instead of a disk drive. Damn that thing was SLOW. My favorite games on that were Archon, Choplifter, Castle Wolfenstein, Crush Crumble and Chomp, Lode Runner, and Pole Position. I especially played Archon and Castle Wolfenstein endlessly. I bought Zork as soon as it was released after reading Isaac Asimov's review of it in Creative Computing, but I never liked it all that much. Adventure games at that time could be so frustrating. Those stupid dam controls. Argh. The only thing more annoying were the very first graphical adventure games like Wizard and the Princess. I used to call the help line when I got stuck on that one. I don't know why I put myself through that torture.
It is a little hard for me to describe the intense feelings of fascination and longing I had when looking at the more expensive machines of that era like the Apple IIe. So beautiful. Still love that logo. Or the TRS-80. There was a certain amount of rivalry between those who owned Apples and those (poorer folks) who only had Atari 400/800, but really everyone wanted the Apples. They were just so cool. And there was at least one game on the Apple (Cranston Manor) and one on the TRS-80 (can't remember the name but it sort of reminds me of Rikki Tikki Tavi for some reason) that I really wanted but was never able to play on my lowly Atari.
I went away to boarding (high) school and didn't touch a computer until college when I bought a 486-33DX for like $3000 from Tri-Star, a company I found in Computer Shopper of course. In high school I remember seeing those magazine ads in Omni or Discover for the Amiga. I wanted one of those so badly but I didn't have the money. Actually those ads were pure marketing genius. They seemed (at least to my teenage brain) to offer a glimpse into a whole world of uber-cool tech that would be mine if I could just come up with the cash. Although by that time I was more interested in programming than gaming.
Ah, the nostalgia. I envy kids these days with their high powered graph -
Re:Fix: Uninstall Legacy, install Bridge CommanderBlah, forget that, install a true Star Trek classic:
For the true classic, you have to go back farther than that:
Although it was reportedly inspired by an earlier version, it will always be the "classic version" for me, as it's one of the first computer games I ever played (the other was Colossal Cave Adventure).
Download and compile it, and experience the awe-inspiring sight of motion rendered on an 80x25 green-screen CRT!
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You are right. TECO rulez.
Who needs anything besides TECO.
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Re:Linux or BSD? I don't care...
All these newfangled editors, I just can't keep up. I started with TECO (http://almy.us/teco.html), and I'm gonna stick with it!
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Re:Oooo, religious wars!!
Psssh 'ed'? Real men use TECO
;-)
More info on TECO for those who care.
http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?TecoEditor
http://almy.us/teco.html -
Re:Can't believe no one's thought of this
everyone keeps hinting at a full teco editor for windows, but is there one?
Not sure if this is "full teco", but it claims to be teco: TECO for DOS.
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HC11/HC12, from Motorola (AKA Freescale)
I think anyone who is anyone who knows anything about 16bit MCUs knows about the Motorola HC12 family and it's 8bit predecessor the HC11. The HC11/HC12 is well supported by GCC, binutils and friends (also check out http://www.gnu.org/software/m68hc11/) which is also nicely packaged under Debian/GNU unstable and testing.
HC12/HCS12 devices are extremely easy to debug and develop software for. There is a fantastic Java-based simulator here. If you don't have dev tools that natively understand Motorola's BDM (Background Debugging Module) protocol, you can use a second HC12 configured as a "pod" device interfaced via BDM pins to the target, which will get you a very powerful interactive debugging console via DBug12 (example session here).
I've been doing a lot of work with the 9S12DP256 device. It has 256KiB FLASH, 12KiB SRAM, 4KiB EEPROM, 112QFP, 16 10bit A/D channels, CAN, 2xSCI, 3xSPI, etc etc. and clocks up to 25MHz.
Although HC11s are cheap and easy to come by in 1off quantitites from various retailers, the only HC12s most have available (such as Farnell) are the newer HC9S12 devices such as the one I've just mentioned.
What's the problem with this? Well on paper, nothing. These are extremely powerful devices. I'm going to use the MC9S12A64 in production; these are just $9.80 USD from Arrow.
The problem is that what with the HCS12 core and the family's peripherals being relatively new, Motorola Semiconductor is restructuring (renaming to Freescale Semiconductor), there are a godawful huge number of bugs. The most crippling being so far, SCI interrupts being basically useless (can only rely on having one INTR configured), not to mention PLL config deficiencies, BDM defects, etc.
It isn't too bad if you read the erratta sheet FIRST before chasing your tail and banging your head off the desk.
From the HC11/HC12 GCC port pages, here's a list of tested evaluation boards. Of these I've worked with the Technological Arts Adapt912, which, whilst a fine board, is quite expensive.
For a HCS12-based device (actually uses the same IC I've discussed), check out the Adapt9S12, but again at $159 USD it isn't cheap. The best bargain I've found is the MiniDragon+ which actually has more packed on the PCB than the Adpat9S12 and is $89 USD for students/schools/hobbyists. And at still less than the Adapat9S12 price is the super-deluxe-mercedes decadance model the full Dragon12 evaluation board, with on-board LCD, 2xRS485 sockets, 2xRS232 sockets, 7segment displays, speaker, IR, etc.
I can highly recommend the evbplus.com (aka Wytec) boards, but in doing so I must disclose that I have recieved the MiniDRAGON+/Dragon12 (fr -
Re:Holy crap that thing's ugly
In most states, you do have to pay sales tax for business. Dell doesn't charge state sales tax if you are in a state that does not have sales tax - like Oregon, or if you buy from the home division directly on the Internet. If you call your order in, and live in a state with sales tax, then they will charge it whether for home or business.
This site has the details between home and business.