The code technique of 1985 which handwritten the code to the note and debugged in the intracerebral debugger

John Graham-Cumming says that the target hardware had only a keypad like a 24-key calculator, but had to write the code on the note unavoidably though it had to program. Because the debugging function was not enough, he seems to have a habit of running the code in the "brain debugger".

How I coded in 1985 | John Graham-Cumming
http://blog.jgc.org/2013/04/how-i-coded-in-1985.html


Graham-Cumming, who was studying electronic engineering at a technical vocational school at the time at the time, was in charge of electromechanical control which carries out "work sticking labels accurately to bottles with precision of millimeter" . At that time in the school,KIM-1He said he was making computer controlled prototypes.


The other students set the bundle of labels on the conveyor machine,Stepping motorMr. Graham - Cumming was responsible for the task of making the software part, the part which controls the infrared sensor which detects the label and the bottle.

But unfortunately there was no assembler, because KIM - 1 only had a 24 - key keypad with seven function keys with numbers 0 - 9, A - F, and 7 - function keys and a small display, I decided to write by hand.


The code of the problem is here, first writing the code (the blue part of the middle), and converting it for the machine (red part on the left). Explanation of how the green letter part on the right is moving. First of all, autocalibration is performed to measure how many labels are in the bundle.


At this time, Graham = Cumming's hand had no calculator to calculate the relative path etc, so I built it almost in the head. From this experience, it seems that they started to do two things: "to write the correct code at the first point" and "to run the code in the head".

The full text of the program is here.

Labelling machine.pdf
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BwUohGCPTAlALUpDY1JGUTFxYUU/edit

"Running the code in your head" is still an important element of Mr. Graham Cumming, so I've tried to run the code I wrote in my head first, and at the time of debuggingGdb (debugger)First of all, I will use the intracerebral debugger before using.

Graham = Cumming pointed out that KIM - 1 was already far from state - of - the - art technology as of 1985, there was a point that it should have had more precise computers, Mr. Graham - Cumming said " Yes, I was also programming with BASIC and the Z80 assembler / ZASM ", and there is a computer with the right input / output for the embedded controller called KIM - 1 at school I explained that there was only use of it.

Even though the programming language and equipment used have changed, few people say that they like "intracerebral debugger" like Graham = Cumming ... ....