Re: The integral type 'byte' (was Re: Suggested method for returning a string from a C program?)

On 26/03/2025 19:09, Janis Papanagnou wrote:

On 26.03.2025 17:50, David Brown wrote:

On 26/03/2025 15:08, Janis Papanagnou wrote:

On 26.03.2025 11:29, David Brown wrote:

>
In the UK at least, home computers were wildly popular from the start of
the 1980's, when they became much cheaper, had usable BASIC languages,
and a wide supply of games.  DOS and CP/M systems were pretty much
business only - home computers hugely outnumbered such systems.
Virtually all home computers were 8-bit - though most users would have
little knowledge of that.

>
I basically agree. Only that those geeks and nerds who privately
bought such computer systems here were mostly informed about the
technical details.

>
That would, I think, apply to the technically-minded adults who bought
early computers themselves - rather than the kids whose parents bought
them.

 Actually, as to my observations, the "parents" were a negligible
community regarding use of computers, it were mostly folks of
ages 16-30 (back these days and in our country). Nerds or geeks,
as to a characterization. The social situation is very different
nowadays.
 

Parents were rarely /users/ of computers - they just paid for them :-)
(My father was a mathematician, so he was a bit different in that regard.)

>

>
(Ah, now I remember the system name I forgot in a previous post;
it was a "Schneider" PC with CPM. And some toy called Sinclair ZX
or so.)

>
The Sinclair computers (ZX81, ZX Spectrum) launched a generation of
programmers and technically-minded kids in the UK - it was much more
than a toy.  I learned machine code programming on a Spectrum (along
with a BBC Micro), as well as some Forth, C, Pascal and Logo, in
addition to the built-in BASIC.

 Oh, please, don't get me wrong. Of course you could do a lot of
geeky stuff with those devices and learn a lot about that (then
"new") technology. The "toy" character as I named it I perceived
from the lousy hardware (membrane keyboard, TV as display, etc. -
unless I am confusing things) and also what seems to have been
mostly done with those devices.
 

That makes more sense.  Yes, the chewing-gum keyboard of the ZX Spectrum was famous.  I had a mongrel system I made with the keyboard of a broken TI 99/4A rewired and attached to a Spectrum.
For my machine code programming, I would write the assembly code on paper, hand-assembly it to hex, type in a BASIC program for a hex loader, fill in the hex code, and debug based on the different buzzing sounds from the Spectrum's power supply.  If the code hung, the only option was to power-cycle the machine and hope that the unreliable tape recorder had worked this time.  It taught me the value of writing code accurately from the start!

On the minus side, if you wanted to learn about IT or CS - we've
got a lot of bad paragons from many of these primitive systems;
OSes like DOS, languages like BASIC, primitive CPU architectures,
and whatnot. (YMMV)
 

I learned a lot of good stuff with these systems.  The bad reputation of BASIC is poorly deserved, IMHO.