Early,Nixdorf personal computer

From: Tony Duell <ard_at_p850ug1.demon.co.uk>
Date: Fri Jul 11 13:07:00 2003

> Also, dont underestimate current IT colleges. I am feeling more and
> more apalled at what they get taught there. JAVA is Programming,

Oh, don't get me started....

What worries me are the large number of modern books on such subjects
that are woefully incomplete. Things like books on hardware (and
particularly CPU design) that don't contain a single schematics (let
alone a schematic of a complete CPU [1], however simple). Books on
operating system internals without a single complete routine (if there's
any source code at all).

[1] I estimate you could draw out a 4 bit CPU at gate level in under 10
pages...

Many years ago, I wanted to understand how a telephone exchange worked
(no, not for phreaking, OK). I read many books that claimed to explain
it, and came away none the wiser. Nothing seemed to make sesne. It
appeared that at last there was an electrical device that I couldn't
understand.

Then I found a copy of Atkinson's 'Telephony' in a secondhand bookshop.
This excellent pair of books gives full circuit diagrams for actual
telephone exchanges (well, OK, if a circuit exists <n> times, one for
each line, you only get it drawn once). At last everythinh made sense. I
could understand what was going on.

And I realised then what the problem was. The other books were too
simplified. THey missed out important details, and my brain couldn't fill
them in. I couldn't make sense of the partial facts in said books...

-tony
Received on Fri Jul 11 2003 - 13:07:00 BST