Assembly programming and Windows

[PBrennick]

Neil,

I once used a 6809e to build a Programmable Controller that was used in a 40 station drop for casting environment. It had 16 forward increments and 16 backward increments with 16 stop positions (pouring head) and a rotary encoded pouring mechanism with 999 possible counts (*2 - for motion pouring and then the final pour). If I remember correctly, it worked out to 9.1 billion permutations  and it happen with no discernable hesitation. All that with apsuedo 16 bit processor!

After that, I moved on to the 8085 and worked out a ladder-logic programmer that converted electrical blueprints to workable code. Barbarr-Coleman bought that and PC controllers exploded on the market. Ladder-logic is a lot more sophisticated these days, but BOY was it ever FUN!

Paul

[mitchi]

Being 21, I missed this far-west era of computing. Too bad, it looked like a lot fun  :green

[UtillMasm]

being 20, i missed it too.
:'(

[dedndave]

being 20 would be nice   :red

[Neil]

Paul,

From your post it seems like it's your fault I finished up programming PLC's (Ladder Logic) :bg It was extremely boring & I'm glad I'm now retired & can get back to the fun stuff  :toothy

[dedndave]

lol
i agree Neil
PLC's / PLD's are no fun at all
they made it so a trained monkey could do it
takes all the challenge out of it - lol
i hated writing PLD code
i would much rather design and build a 8051 or 6805 based controller and write that code

[vanjast]

6502 was also nice... :bg

[cobold]

Being 21, I missed this far-west era of computing. Too bad, it looked like a lot fun  :green

Be happy  :U that you never experienced the "fun" to work with a line-based editor on source files having a few thousand lines,  :(
compiling such a beast took a few minutes up to half an hour :dazzled:

[dedndave]

i remember waiting in line for up to an hour just to put my stack of hollerith cards into the reader
you better hope you got it right and you better hope the reader doesn't decide to chew up a card

[PBrennick]

... or the D4 Motorola EPROM programmer burner (from Motorola). A keyboard was a hex pad and output was to LEDs. After a few months with that, I built an RF converter from Heathkit specs and was able to use a TV to see the output.

Gentlemen, I understand your disenchantment with Ladder Logic but it opened up a whole market. The idea WAS to make it idiot proof. It was desiigned to be used by non-programmers who could at least read a schematic. You will certainly have to admit that it did the job anf did it well. Timers and Counters took special considerations but I succeeded by adding a nop here and there.  :eek

That was because each command had to have the same size in bytes. Relay coils were the other special consideration. It was fun creating it ...

Paul

[dedndave]

lol - i wrote a lot of programs for the 4004/8008 using an eprom programmer
i did the coding on paper
heck, i liked the eprom programmer - it was better than the cards - lol
although, the first ones only allowed forward single-stepping
that means you had to run through the entire address range to get back to a specific address
if you accidently clicked past the address you wanted, you'd be pissed - lol
it didn't take long for them to add a "down" button

[vanjast]

Gentlemen, I understand your disenchantment with Ladder Logic but it opened up a whole market. The idea WAS to make it idiot proof.

Even that doesn't work.. I had a friend who worked for a PLC (Programmable Logic Array) company and I'd regularly attend their free courses, just to keep up to date. Idiots, or should I say 'non-compliant' attendees would still stuff up ladder logic.

On the last day, the instructor had an expensive bottle of whiskey as a prize for the first person to finish a working version of a ladder logic program, and gave us 30 minutes. I 'whacked it' in 5 minutes and it was the only working version after 30 minutes. That bottle of whiskey stood in my cupboard for 5 years ( I don't drink the stuff - only beer and wine), until we had a party attended by whiskey drinkers (or drunkards) who enjoyed it   :bg.

Some people are just not cut out for this stuff, and the funny thing is that they hold positions that they not qualified to hold - office politics  :tdown