[rescue] ASM programing and PDPs (was something about macs a LONG time ago)

[Brian Hechinger]

> >   You should study the pdp11 architecture and its assembly language,
> > Josh.  I think you'd really like it.
> 
> I'll have to do that some time.

i could probably scrape up an LSI-11/03 CPU and a 32K ram card for you, but
you'd need to dig up some of the other parts.  and you would have to be serious
about doing it.  or at least serious about getting it running and getting an
OS on it.

> I have to say that I really like RISC machines.  Yeah, I know that
> they made a lot of sacrifices, but I like that they have so few

i've always liked them, but the one big downfall with them is they require a
VERY large amount of memory compared to anything else.  but that's the price
you pay when you make some choices.

> instructions.  I mean, who is going to remeber how to use the Vaxes
> pointer advance instruction or the polynomial instructions without
> looking it up everytime?

by using it.  if you do it all the time you will remember.  if you don't do it
all the time you won't remember.  doesn't matter if there are 20 instructions
or 2000 instructions.  maybe, i could be completely full of shit.

> But then again, since ASM should only be used for optimization, maybe ASM
> shouldn't be easy to remeber.

it would require copious amounts of research to use, so you really think about
your problem.  hmmmm, that has merit.

-brian