>
>Another old favourite that seems to have bit the dust was FORTH. Like
>Smalltalk (and unlike almost everything available today), it had a
>consistent, logical, easy-to-remember model, but you could easily
>implement “new” machine-code instructions. Compare that to the constant
>behind-the-scenes casting and forced type violations that happen with
>almost every Java statement.
>
>In the early 80s, when most of you were huddled in caves, banging rocks
>together, typing on bended knee at the almighty “C: “ prompt, I had a
>full-windowing system, consistently and logically controlled by Doug
>Englebart’s new-fangled “mouse” — all in ONE MEGABYTE of RAM!
>
Yes, and yes again! But how are you going to get newbie programmers to
embrace the idea of efficiency in a world where they have been taught that
speed and memory ar both infinite?
On the news yesterday it was revealed that here in the US 80% of kids
cannot tell time by looking at a clock. I'm the opposite: I look at the
numbers and imagine the face of a clock to know what the time is.
Chris Trask
N7ZWY / WDX3HLB
Senior Member IEEE
http://www.home.earthlink.net/~christrask/
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