AVR-Chat

On Wed, 21 Dec 2005, Don Ingram wrote:

> 
> Ted,
> 
> Can't help with Bascom but if you want to add a bit more to the challenge
> there
> is always C.  There is a good book doing the rounds of the tech colleges
> and
> uni's. "Embedded C Programming and the Atmel AVR" by Barnett, Cox,
> O'Cull. After
> assy C can't be that bad.
> 

I need to get a copy od Smiley's book.  I understand it is also quite 
good.

All of my programming has been in assembler for the respective 
microcontrollers.  But you're right; C can't be that bad!  :-)

> There is a good level of support from the WinAVR build of GCC for free
> and tons
> of people using it both privately and commercially.
> 
> I dislike C immensely but it pays the bills, having said this I disliked
> embedded basics even more so seeing as though there are few forth
> programmers
> left to be able to employ, C won as the best of the worst ;-)
> ( Potential candidate for "grumpy old men" )
> 
> Vague recollections of seeing my first calculator that didn't need a desk
> to
> hold it up and programming a 2650 via front panel toggle switches so we
> may not
> be that far apart.
> 

One of the first computers I used was a DEC PDP-11 which we had to 
initiate by loading a bootloader with the toggles on the front, which 
then read our programs punched on reels of paper tape. The program 
gathered data at a field station and punched it on paper tape, which was 
taken back to a lab to be stored on magnetic tape by a G-20 computer (ever 
hear of those?)

Ah, the good old days ...

Zack