Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!rutgers!ames!ucbcad!ucbvax!decvax!tektronix!tekcrl!terryl
From: terryl@tekcrl.TEK.COM
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions,comp.edu,comp.lang.misc
Subject: Re: Student friendly assemblers
Message-ID: <1670@tekcrl.TEK.COM>
Date: Thu, 21-May-87 16:34:17 EDT
Article-I.D.: tekcrl.1670
Posted: Thu May 21 16:34:17 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 23-May-87 14:12:04 EDT
References: <1407@ihdev.ATT.COM> <167@elan.UUCP>
Reply-To: terryl@tekcrl.tek.com
Organization: Tektronix, Inc., Beaverton, OR.
Lines: 39
Xref: mnetor comp.unix.questions:2472 comp.edu:403 comp.lang.misc:412

In article <167@elan.UUCP> tekcrl!tektronix!cae780!amdcad!ames!elan!jlo jlo@elan.UUCP (Jeff Lo) writes:
+in article <1407@ihdev.ATT.COM>, pdg@ihdev.ATT.COM (Joe Isuzu) says:
+> Xref: elan comp.unix.questions:1931 comp.edu:261 comp.lang.misc:372
+> 
+> Here is the solution to your assembler user-friendlyness woes.
+> 
+> Get hold of a PDP/11 - a model with the toggle switches in front.
+> Make the students do their first few programmes in machine language by
+> entering them with the toggle swithes, one instruction at a time (of
+> course there is no `editing' of the code, just replacement).
+> 
+> Then let them loose on an assembler, *any* assembler.  They'll be so
+> happy to use it, they'll even settle for editing with 'ed'.
+> 
+> Okay, half a :-).
+
+You may give it half a :-), but that is *EXACTLY* what was done in the
+assembler class I took at UC Berkeley ~5 years ago. I think they were
+still teaching it that way about 3 years ago. After doing two assignments
+by flipping switches on a PDP 11/10 after standing in line for a while
+to get a chance to use one of the four (usually only two were working)
+machines, only to find out that the computer had died (literally, they
+were old machines, no OS to reboot, just bad hardware) we were ecstatic
+to get to use an assembler on a reliable machine.


     Wow!!! It sure is nice that my good ol` alma mater is really keeping
up with state-of-the-art equiptment for the undergrad classes!!! 10 years
ago, at good ol` UC Berkeley, I was toggling in code to a PDP 11/05. Sure
is nice to know that at least they upgraded to an 11/10 in ~ 5 years (10-5).
And they have more than two, now??? We only had two machines *total* 10
years ago!!! Sounds like Berkeley is springing for the big bucks to finally
get a reasonable level of equiptment to support the class loads!!!!
But, then again, when I left 7 years ago, all of the undergrads were still
using PDP 11/70's (there were a couple of VAXes around, but they were only
for the grads).

     (In case you haven't figured it out yet, insert MANY (-: here, but all
numbers quoted in this article are correct!!!).