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When I learnt programming, sugar was still made out of salt and hence not used in coffee.

Also, we didn't have source level debuggers, only the "print" method. However, compiling was also slow. It was faster and more convenient to go through the program and execute the statements in one's head. This helped understanding what code is doing just by reading it. It also kept people from trial and error programming, something that some people fall for when they resort to single step debugging in order to understand what their own code is even doing.

Compiling was slow because computers in general were slow, like single digit MHz. That enforced programming efficient code. It's also why we learnt about big Oh notation already at school. Starting with manual resource management helped to get a feeling for what's going on under the hood.

Comments
  • 13
    I firmly believe test code should run at 10% cpu speed , or less. That way compiling is fast but still encourages writing code that doesn’t suck at life. And doesn’t suck the life out of your users’ machines.
  • 11
    @Root Yeah, and online devs should test with slow internet connection at high latency.

    Also, code should be tested with way more data than the expected use case, at least by a factor of 1000.
  • 7
    @Root One should also look at scaling whether needed or not. For instance I am working on an OPCUAServer/OPCUAClient. I will probably only use maybe <100 tags per client. However, I know my client and server can handle >7500 tags per 100mS request without significant CPU load. I will never scale to that, but I have performance margins. This makes putting the code on an embedded device much less troublesome with lower cpu capability. I also found out that the server will just disconnect a client if it requests >8000 tags per 100mS. So I also know the server codes limitations. I didn't write the client/server libraries. Just using them.
  • 9
    @Fast-Nop So, did you have sand when you were a kid? Or were you breaking up the rocks to make the sand for later generations?

    That salt/sugar thing is gold btw.
  • 7
    Damn, how old are you? Single digit MHz computers sounds like something that's older than half of devRant's userbase.
  • 8
    @sudo-woodo old shaming is a thing...

    6502 computers (Apple 2) ran 1MHz.
  • 8
    @Demolishun Oh we had lots of sand, even sand delivery lorries. No shit, really! In winter, they delivered gravel against icy streets.

    However, these were not the modern kind with automatic delivery. They had open platforms loaded with gravel, and two men stood there who shovelled the gravel onto the streets. Rural Western Germany in the 1980s.

    "Twenty centimetres of fresh snow" was the code that I needed to get up half an hour earlier because I wouldn't be able to ride my bicycle to school and had to walk these 2km. Back then, parents didn't drive their kids to school, that was unheard of.
  • 7
    @Demolishun In spring, the streets were drowned in gravel, and there was no cleaning service. We had a spring neighbourhood festival where everyone took a broom, and even the elderly baked some cake for the working ones.

    We saved the sand and put it in bags which we used later for heavy rainfalls to protect houses with cellars against the water masses. Sometimes, it rained so much that the water pressed the manhole covers out of their sockets in the streets.
  • 6
    @sudo-woodo I'm in my forties and have been programming since before a lot of DR members were even the lustful glint in their parents' eyes. ^^
  • 4
    @Fast-Nop We walked to school too! In fact I had to walk up a foothill, walk a mile or 2, then back down the hill to the school. Then on the way back I walked back up the foothill, walk a mile or 2, then back down the hill to home. So I walked up hill both ways to school! This was the 80s as well.
  • 2
    @Demolishun Haha yeah! We even used to hang around outside tennis clubs, hoping to find a tennis ball that we could then use as football at school during the breaks. ^^
  • 5
    Btw, tech has become so advanced that for the first time ever, I opted out of a performance PC this year, and went with a "fuck it, that's good enough" lower mid-range build. That's a big change.
  • 3
    @Fast-Nop Mine is "does it run minecraft", I am good if it runs that. It is the new Doom for me.
  • 2
    @Demolishun Ohh also a Doom veteran, right? Ultra-violence with no cheats, only regular save/load.

    I basically quit gaming except for chess and backgammon. Oh and skat - a card game so German that nobody else will even understand the rules. ^^
  • 3
    @Fast-Nop I used to get the powerup during multiplayer and punch my enemies to death! Hellz Yah!
  • 3
    @Demolishun No shame intended! I asked because it's fascinating how much computing has changed so fast, from MHz to GHz is nothing short of a revolution, and from what you and @Fast-Nop said it took less than half a lifetime.
  • 2
    @Fast-Nop you're last couple of comments were so well written, reading them felt like stumbling on passages lifted straight from a novel set in someone's nostalgic youth. very relaxing read. thank you for that.
  • 2
    Did you also walk to school, up hill, both ways, in the snow? Dad, is that you?!
  • 2
    @bulletsponge Of course, and it was in fact uphill both ways - though in different sections of the way.

    Oh, and I can't see that clearly without glasses, but you aren't stepping on my lawn, are you?
  • 1
    @Fast-Nop I love it... Good chuckle.
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