2026-09-09 13:15 UTC
@benjamingeer@piaille.fr
Ah, my beloved 6502….😍
Handwritten programme is now a lost art, mate; permanently, irretrievably lost, I fear. The thing I miss most keenly of the old days is the “comprehensibility” of it all, both hardware and software. Even a kid, with an adequate amount of humility and a modicum of effort, could learn enough to become functional. And in the presence of clean designs, abundant documentation, and local gurus, anyone determined enough has multiple paths to success.
Today, complexity is revered, but comprehensibility derided. “Any child can understand that!” is now a common put-down in design reviews.
@dougmerritt@mathstodon.xyz @vnikolov@ieji.de @rk@mastodon.well.com @ed1conf@bsd.network @mike805@noc.social @thalia@discuss.systems
Replies (1)
-
@benjamingeer@piaille.fr 2026-09-09 13:42
@AmenZwa@mathstodon.xyz @dougmerritt@mathstodon.xyz @vnikolov@ieji.de @rk@mastodon.well.com @ed1conf@bsd.network @mike805@noc.social @thalia@discuss.systems Exactly! The Apple II was simple enough that even as a kid, I could understand a great deal of it. It didn’t feel overwhelming. Even extending it at the OS level wasn’t that hard. Now my 15-year-old kid is going to start learning Python at school, and OK, in many ways Python is much better than Basic, but even Python isn’t simple any more. I feel like there ought to be a way for kids to still have that experience of understanding a computer at different levels, without the overwhelming feeling that there are lots of huge areas of total mystery.