It's mostly a problem if there isn't documentation at the place where
the machine is. I've never run into a machine that is really beyond my
experience (my experience so far is PCs and BASIC-based home micros),
but if I ever had to deal with a PDP, I'd have to spend a lot of time
asking questions here and otherwise. Not that I foresee it. PDP will
eventually vanish from industrial applications, just because they will
all eventually be damaged by floods, fires, etc. And companies go
bankrupt, too. I doubt that by the time I am 50 I will run a reasonable
risk of seeing a PDP. Also, I don't know how to _program_ a PC. I know a
bit of BASIC (who doesn't?), enough to write a simple text editor or
something. I'm learning C but am stuck with pointers. I'm going to take
C++ at school starting in the fall. I've tried assembly, and do notice
that it's more straightforward than higher-level languages (I.E. there
are no ambiguous concepts like in C, it's all called what it really is),
but am not much good with
things mathematical. Maybe I'll learn.
>How is this a problem? You learned how to run a PC, programming a
>PDP-8 is at least an order of magnitude simpler.
How many instructions? I believe the Pentium has on the order of 80, not
sure.
>Seriously, the instruction set and archetecture is so simple it's
>downright inviting.
They weren't networked at all? I mean, there weren't instances of
connecting two machines with cables?
>The old machines didn't have to be huge, complex or networked.
>Allison
______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at
http://www.hotmail.com
Received on Sat Jul 25 1998 - 08:59:46 BST