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Thursday, September 14, 2006 12:00 AM

Why Johnny can't code

BASIC used to be on every computer a child touched -- but today there's no easy way for kids to get hooked on programming.
By David Brin

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  • Thursday, September 14, 2006 07:36 AM

    Suggestion for assembly programming . . .

    If you want to play around with assembly programming, I'd suggest tracking down an embedded processor demo board. I've got an HC11 based board that I picked up a long time ago (I used one when I was in college). http://elmicro.com/en/kit12.php seems to have something appropriate (the HC12 is a newer version of the HC11). Advantages to something like this:

    • No OS to get in the way (there is a monitor program, but it's pretty lightweight).
    • It doesn't come with a compiler (only an assembler), so you'll have to start out with assembly!
    • It has an 8 channel A/D converter as well as tons of 5V I/O pins, so you can actually hook it to things in the real world and make it do things. If you buy a breadboard and some 5V logic chips, you can do things like create a traffic light controller that responds to signals, a volt meter, etc.
    • You can talk to it over a serial port, so it's fairly easy to get off the ground.

    Some company in the UK has it listed for 68 pounds at http://www.equinox-tech.com/products/details.asp?ID=84 .

    --Toby Ovod-Everett

    —Toby Ovod-Everett Read Toby Ovod-Everett's other letters

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