Software bloat (Larkin was right)
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From: Didi on 21 May 2010 15:18 On May 19, 11:44 pm, "Joel Koltner" <zapwireDASHgro...(a)yahoo.com> wrote: > "D Yuniskis" <not.going.to...(a)seen.com> wrote in message > > news:ht1fnr$u03$4(a)speranza.aioe.org... > > > Um, "Don". Didi is someone else! ;-) (Hi Dimiter! :>) > > Oops, sorry. :-) Didi, as I recall, wrote his own GUI from scratch -- I bet > his code is pretty tiny. (In communist Bulgaria, GUI writes you?) Noticed this just now. Bulgaria claims to be non-communist last two decades. But almost every country claims that nowadays just as almost every country fails the real test on it so it is nothing worth the attention :-). I did start TGI back in the officially communistic days, though. In an attic - with a 6809 system I had managed to design & put together... Could not exist officially back then, of course. But some of the code I wrote for that 6809 system still lives - had to emulate it in a DPS window, had many boards designed with the graphics editor I had written back in those unofficial days. And the editor - running tens of times faster - is still good enough for pretty complex boards, me being used to it makes it pointless to spend on some change which can only reduce my efficiency (e.g. http://tgi-sci.com/misc/PICT5935.JPG , designed 4-5 years ago ). BTW, as hard to believe as it may be, with this graphics editor I wrote for my attic-designed 6809 machine I had a usable schematics & PCB tool years before the PC world got one (they had some which were prohibitively clunky and slow back in 85-86 or so). Dimiter ------------------------------------------------------ Dimiter Popoff Transgalactic Instruments http://www.tgi-sci.com ------------------------------------------------------ http://www.flickr.com/photos/didi_tgi/sets/72157600228621276/
From: D Yuniskis on 21 May 2010 15:32 Hi Phil, Phil Hobbs wrote: > On 5/21/2010 12:40 PM, D Yuniskis wrote: >> Computers are good for two things: doing lots of things fast >> and remembering stuff. They've got me beat on both counts >> and I'd be foolish to try to compete with them :> > > We're all dead in the long run. ;) > > I do some work for a small company that uses the sequential system. The > problem I run into is in trying to change anything--you have to dig > through all sorts of irrelevant things to find the next resistor value up. If you have good search capabilities, then its simple. Search for all "resistors" of the desired type (package, power handling, tolerance, composition, etc.) then sort by value. The trick is getting all the right *information* into a "description". By contrast, if there is a part number assigned ("reserved"!) for every value, then you can come up with a part number only to discover they've never *purchased* any of that value before (but diligently set aside a "hole" in the part numbering sequence "just in case it is ever needed"). What, I assume, you *really* want is to know which parts the company is already using so you can leverage that -- instead of arbitrarily picking a value (since often many values "will work") and designing that in. You can *sometimes* get this information by looking at quantity on hand *and* last buy/used date. I.e., just because there are 300 of them in stock doesn't mean anything else in the company uses that component *now* (granted, resistors are cheap. but, not all components are! if you were picking memory devices, you'd surely want to pick something that *helps* their quantities rather than dilutes them)
From: Joerg on 21 May 2010 16:02 Didi wrote: > On May 19, 11:44 pm, "Joel Koltner" <zapwireDASHgro...(a)yahoo.com> > wrote: >> "D Yuniskis" <not.going.to...(a)seen.com> wrote in message >> >> news:ht1fnr$u03$4(a)speranza.aioe.org... >> >>> Um, "Don". Didi is someone else! ;-) (Hi Dimiter! :>) >> Oops, sorry. :-) Didi, as I recall, wrote his own GUI from scratch -- I bet >> his code is pretty tiny. (In communist Bulgaria, GUI writes you?) > > Noticed this just now. Bulgaria claims to be non-communist last > two decades. But almost every country claims that nowadays just as > almost every country fails the real test on it so it > is nothing worth the attention :-). > > I did start TGI back in the officially communistic days, though. In > an attic - with a 6809 system I had managed to design & put > together... Transgalactic would have raised some eyebrows among the comrades in Moscow. What does he do? Let's canvas all the galaxies whether he's got anything hidden out there. Got to know, got to know. > Could not exist officially back then, of course. Oooh, what if an old guy from Sigurnost reads that and still has his government issue pistol? > But some of the code I wrote for that 6809 system still lives - had > to emulate it in a DPS window, had many boards designed with the > graphics editor I had written back in those unofficial days. And > the editor - running tens of times faster - is still good > enough for pretty complex boards, me being used to it makes it > pointless to spend on some change which can only reduce my efficiency > (e.g. http://tgi-sci.com/misc/PICT5935.JPG , designed 4-5 years ago ). > Nice. But your desk needs a new veneer :-) > BTW, as hard to believe as it may be, with this graphics editor I > wrote for my attic-designed 6809 machine I had a usable schematics & > PCB tool years before the PC world got one (they had some which were > prohibitively clunky and slow back in 85-86 or so). > Writing your own EDA tools is a great achievement. Having known many people from Poland gave me an appreciation of the resourcefulness that was needed before the communist systems had finally collapsed. If you wanted something fancy you either had to make it or your simply couldn't have it (unless you somehow got a hold of lots of Dollars or Deutschmarks from an uncle in the west). However, in the west we did have PC-based EDA systems back then that were very efficient. In 1986 I used Futurenet-Dash, fast, efficient, never crashed. And I did a big fat ultrasound front-end board on it, others did huge digital boards (we had three licenses). When I started self-employed in 1989 I bought OrCad though, but mostly because it was cheaper, cost around $500. [...] -- Regards, Joerg http://www.analogconsultants.com/ "gmail" domain blocked because of excessive spam. Use another domain or send PM.
From: D Yuniskis on 21 May 2010 16:27 Hi Joerg, Joerg wrote: > Didi wrote: >> On May 19, 11:44 pm, "Joel Koltner" <zapwireDASHgro...(a)yahoo.com> >> wrote: >>> "D Yuniskis" <not.going.to...(a)seen.com> wrote in message >>> >>>> Um, "Don". Didi is someone else! ;-) (Hi Dimiter! :>) >>> Oops, sorry. :-) Didi, as I recall, wrote his own GUI from scratch >>> -- I bet >>> his code is pretty tiny. (In communist Bulgaria, GUI writes you?) >> >> Noticed this just now. Bulgaria claims to be non-communist last >> two decades. But almost every country claims that nowadays just as >> almost every country fails the real test on it so it >> is nothing worth the attention :-). >> >> I did start TGI back in the officially communistic days, though. In >> an attic - with a 6809 system I had managed to design & put >> together... > > Transgalactic would have raised some eyebrows among the comrades in > Moscow. What does he do? Let's canvas all the galaxies whether he's got > anything hidden out there. Got to know, got to know. > >> Could not exist officially back then, of course. > > Oooh, what if an old guy from Sigurnost reads that and still has his > government issue pistol? > >> But some of the code I wrote for that 6809 system still lives - had >> to emulate it in a DPS window, had many boards designed with the >> graphics editor I had written back in those unofficial days. And >> the editor - running tens of times faster - is still good >> enough for pretty complex boards, me being used to it makes it >> pointless to spend on some change which can only reduce my efficiency >> (e.g. http://tgi-sci.com/misc/PICT5935.JPG , designed 4-5 years ago ). >> > > Nice. But your desk needs a new veneer :-) > > >> BTW, as hard to believe as it may be, with this graphics editor I >> wrote for my attic-designed 6809 machine I had a usable schematics & >> PCB tool years before the PC world got one (they had some which were >> prohibitively clunky and slow back in 85-86 or so). >> > > Writing your own EDA tools is a great achievement. Having known many > people from Poland gave me an appreciation of the resourcefulness that > was needed before the communist systems had finally collapsed. If you > wanted something fancy you either had to make it or your simply couldn't > have it (unless you somehow got a hold of lots of Dollars or > Deutschmarks from an uncle in the west). > > However, in the west we did have PC-based EDA systems back then that > were very efficient. In 1986 I used Futurenet-Dash, fast, efficient, DASH/STRIDES was, by far, much slicker than the stuff you have nowadays (had it not fallen off the face of the earth). Symbol editor sucked big time. But, for hacking together a schematic quickly, it was excellent! And, used a *real* (three button) mouse instead of the silly two button mice that were (are) common. I've still got a valid DASH-PCB (!) license (though *that* really was showing it's age even "back then"! :< ) These folks were paranoid about hardware protection for their IP. Futurenet (and many of the other DASH products -- ABEL, etc.) used a small ISA "mouse board" (nothing more than a spare UART) with sockets for eight (?) PALs (later, they moved to a parallel port dongle). I wrote a little routine that would exhaustively examine the PALs (they were just little state machines) to figure out what was inside. Then, feed this information into *their* tools to synthesize a new PAL from the "state transition table" I had dynamically built. Felt like I was doing a classroom homework assignment :-/ > never crashed. And I did a big fat ultrasound front-end board on it, > others did huge digital boards (we had three licenses). When I started > self-employed in 1989 I bought OrCad though, but mostly because it was > cheaper, cost around $500.
From: Joel Koltner on 21 May 2010 16:23
"Didi" <dp(a)tgi-sci.com> wrote in message news:2167cdf2-6c00-40d0-a324-b43ddde07edc(a)l6g2000vbo.googlegroups.com... >Noticed this just now. Bulgaria claims to be non-communist last >two decades. But almost every country claims that nowadays just as >almost every country fails the real test on it so it >is nothing worth the attention :-). I expect that, e.g., in China they have the filters sets so that Googling "communist China" returns zero results. :-) Thanks for the response, Didi -- I'm impressed with how much you were able to accomplish with so little. ---Joel |