h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I feel this entry is a good definition and deserves its own conversation.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A533530
What do you think?

Hmmm... as is, it seems to be written just like a handbook. Not that is necessarily a bad thing, but as written, it only seems like it would be useful to the types of folks who already have books on this stuff or who know this stuff anyway. Maybe if you started out with a paragraph on programming loops, and why assembly language is important for programming loops?

Just my two cents
Mikey

I take your point, I have an introduction to programming loops that is so bogged down in debate it is unbelievable.
The way you phrased it "why assembly language is important in programming loops" is a bit odd. Assembly language is a low level form of computer code, one up from binary, and really is only to be attempted by experienced programmers, like people who know what a loop is.
But if you can suggest a way that is useful to introduce loops in assembly, I will gladly take it on board. As, like I said, I have attempted to create an simple intro to programming loops and have had enough after 7 or 8 re-writes.

Researcher PSG

I'd don't know if you'd be interested, but this might be a good topic for the h2g2 university. If you're not familiar with it, here's how it works -- you write several topics related to a common theme (here, programming loops), a sub edits them, the italics look them over, and they get approved. No peer review -- you have a lot more control over what and how you write, but you also have to make a committment to writing several entries (although you can also recruit people to help you write them, I did!).


Mikey

Thanks Mikey!
I have found the university, and have proposed an introduction to programming broken down into several entries on basic aspects of programming. As a set of introductions linking to language specific entries in the future.
I'll see how that goes.

Researcher PSG

p.s. I'm nothing if not ambitious.

Great -- glad to be of service!


Mikey

Hi PSG. I have an idea on how you can show the importance of assembly. I think you can do it by explaining the difference between a CPU (for example, Intel 80x86) and a microcontroller (like Motorola's 68000), and how much more efficient it is to program such a microcontroller with assembly than with other known languages (such as C, Pascal and the like). This, due to the simplicity of these microcontrollers and their enviorment, which doesn't include such sophisticated Operating Systems, Graphics and Sound, etc.
I hope I got my point through, it was a bit hard putting my thoughts on this into English.

Is this entry going to be part of the "Programming" project (http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A537635) ?

Can't find it in the list

Bossel (Scout)

Yes it is, to get the ball rolling on language specific entries.

To be honest, I have to update that list, alot of things have changed since I wrote it, I was kind of waiting to have all the changes in first, but hey ho, I'll change it now.

By the way, what do you think of the entry?

Researcher PSG

** I didn't read through the other Project entries and jumped right in there, so I don't know what knowledges one can already expect the reader to have**

You might want to run it through a spell checker, there are some typos: amateur - Theses values - mathmatics - explanaition - Dependant - compaired ... OK, the SubEd will cath them.

Internet language("There are 2.."): U R 2 good 2 b 4 gotten --- better not . Same with 1st... oops, first person writing style.


'The addresses are the address of a line of program code.'
-> The addresses are the memory locations of the next operations to be executed.

Other than that the entry is , and I've got only one point to add: IMHO there's a logical jump between the first and second para. My suggestion:

High level languages feature dedicated mnemonics for loops, eg: DO..WHILE, FOR..NEXT, REPEAT..UNTIL etc. These mnemonics make it instantly clear that a loop is intended. In general, this is not the case for loops written in assembly language. In assembly, loops are based on condition checking operations and jump (or 'branch') instructions. A notable exception is the LOOP mnemonic of the Intel 80x86/Pentium family {unsure if that's the only one}. From the first glance at an Assembly listing, you cannot decide whether you've got a loop or a one-time decision at hand.

Condition checking means that the decision (to jump or not) is based on one or more bit values found within the 'Flags' register of the processor. The arithmetic flag bits (or 'flags' in short) are set automatically after execution of an instruction and indicate whether the result was 0 (zero), below or above 0, or encountered an error like division by zero. However, the Flags register of a modern processor contain lots more flags (like 'Interrupt Enable') which don't affect the execution of programming loops.
... (on with 'What is a Branch instruction)


Good work!

Bossel

Thanks Bossel.
Complements and constructive criticism gratefully recieved.

I'll get on to fixing them today.

Researcher PSG

Is there anyone out there who feels qualified to comment on this one? I don't really want to say anything, as I feel it's all just a tad over my head (i.e., I know enough to understand what s/he's getting at, but wouldn't know enough to realize if important bits were being left out or misconstrued).

Thanks!

Mikey

Hello
Just pointing out this is part of my University of Life project on programming so scouts please keep clear.

Researcher PSG

Oh -- PSG, if this is part of a University of Life project, then it needs to be removed from Peer Review altogether. I thought maybe it was, but I couldn't find a link to the project on your personal space so assumed that maybe I was just hallucinating. 8) I'll have this thread removed from PR, ok?


Mikey

Thanks Mikey
I obviously forgot to get this removed from peer review when I did the rest.

Researcher PSG

Editorial Note: This conversation has been moved from 'Peer Review' to 'Programming Loops in Assembly Language'.

This thread has now been moved from PR to the entry itself as the entry is part of the author's University Project!