Hexadecimal

[snazzzybird]

--- "Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)" <catlady at w...> wrote:


> I *am* a COBOL pgmmer and kept myself supplied with pocket calculators
> that had that feature, from the first one I got for $80 in 1979 to one
> I got for $15 (and it had statistical, trig, and other functions that
> I've never even *heard* of) around 1995. 

snazzzybird sez --

I'm a programmer too, primarily COBOL and Assembler.  When I was in
school I used to be a whiz at adding and subtracting in hex -- a
talent honed by reading many, many Assembler dumps, finding the
instruction that caused the blowout and the variables involved.  When
I started my first programming job, I found among my office supplies a
hex calculator.  "What luxury," I thought.

Twenty-one years later I'm still using hex, but the technology has
made it more of a rare occasion.  I read dumps online using software
that will take you to the failing instruction, variables, where the
regs are pointing, and anything else you can think of.  When I do need
a hex calculator, I just use the one in "Accessories" on the computer.
 Everything's removed, everything's onscreen.  I look back to my days
working in pencil on the green-and-white striped pages of the dump,
and it seems so primitive -- and yet I kind of miss it.

I don't miss the punched cards, though!

--snazzzybird