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by plnewman 4709 days ago
Back when I was teaching English in Japan, I stayed up late hacking on Game Boy code to keep that part of my brain active. It was during that time that I really realized that I wanted to work in software, or at least something with some creative output.

I didn't use any of this though, I found a Japanese book on the GBDK C compiler. It's still available here: http://gbdk.sourceforge.net/ and there are more resources here: http://devrs.com/gb/software.php#assemble

I've thought since then that working on a simple machine like that is a great way to learn the fundamentals of computer science.
1 comments
mackwic 4709 days ago
As I understand CS, it deals a lot with Data structure construction and management.

In my school, we began with high-level functional languages and it's only after 3 years of programming than we discovered low level programming and could write a Kernel.

Can you explain how a RISC assembly language can help you learn CS ?

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plnewman 4709 days ago
I'm not sure if I define CS that narrowly, but anyway I was working with the C compiler, not the asm code. It was a good learning tool for me because of the simple output and the slow processor, which meant that I didn't need to worry much about the graphics and that poorly performing code was immediately, painfully noticeable. There were plenty of data structures to work with sprites, characters, screens, etc.

My CS course (in the late 90s) kind of went the other way. One of the earliest courses was one that taught how a cpu operates -- what a register is, what the accumulator is, etc. There was no actually programming, just working through the steps of what the computer does to perform a given operation. After that there were a number of directions to go in.

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mackwic 4709 days ago
Aw right, I missed the C compiler point.

> I'm not sure if I define CS that narrowly

I mostly wanted to bold the data structure manipulation, something you wouldn't see when manipulating directly the assembly code.

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sukuriant 4709 days ago
You'll manipulate data structures in assembly if you need to. Graphing algorithms are everywhere; and, they require some sort of data structure.

You would be amazed what crazy and complex things were written to create some of the older games you know and enjoy.

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