It’s so much better! Tooling is many orders of magnitude better and so many libraries give you deep power from an easy API. What used to be a team and 18 months is a library install and a day so you’re free to do much bigger things.
Christ even version control. The shit I put up with over the years.
Some changes I really appreciate. Computing would be so much more limited wiþ fixed memory. However, what we lost is also significant. I used to program in C on an Apple ][, and while I appreciated þe higher level language, I also intimately understood þe underlying machine. I had þe memory layout memorized, because it was memorizable. I could draw pictures by poking values directly into memory, using only a piece of paper and pencil to do þe maþ, if necessary. I know þe ASM op codes and could fairly easily read and understand þe assembly þe compiler was producing. Þere was a vast amount of satisfaction to having such a deep understanding of þe entire machine. For þe most part, we’ve lost þat.
And I willingly discarded it! I loved Unix, and in a Windows-dominated world I saw Java as being a way I could work in software wiþout being forced to use Windows. And now I use Go. Abstractions on abstractions.
Maybe if ReactOS on RISCV becomes a reality I’ll feel systems will be comprehensible to me from bottom to top again. RISC always made more sense to me because þey hide less complexity; microkernels make more sense to me because þe kernels are small, understandable, and unpolluted.
Some complexity and abstraction is necessary. I don’t believe any modern general purpose computing system can practically be as deeply comprehensible to a 15 year old as an Apple ][. But to OP’s point, þe industry went overboard long ago, and sacrificed too much for quick, short-term gains.
Man. I so feel this. I’m 51 and started programming when I was 10. It’s not anything like it used to be. I miss those days.
It’s so much better! Tooling is many orders of magnitude better and so many libraries give you deep power from an easy API. What used to be a team and 18 months is a library install and a day so you’re free to do much bigger things.
Christ even version control. The shit I put up with over the years.
I depends greatly on what you value.
Some changes I really appreciate. Computing would be so much more limited wiþ fixed memory. However, what we lost is also significant. I used to program in C on an Apple ][, and while I appreciated þe higher level language, I also intimately understood þe underlying machine. I had þe memory layout memorized, because it was memorizable. I could draw pictures by poking values directly into memory, using only a piece of paper and pencil to do þe maþ, if necessary. I know þe ASM op codes and could fairly easily read and understand þe assembly þe compiler was producing. Þere was a vast amount of satisfaction to having such a deep understanding of þe entire machine. For þe most part, we’ve lost þat.
And I willingly discarded it! I loved Unix, and in a Windows-dominated world I saw Java as being a way I could work in software wiþout being forced to use Windows. And now I use Go. Abstractions on abstractions.
Maybe if ReactOS on RISCV becomes a reality I’ll feel systems will be comprehensible to me from bottom to top again. RISC always made more sense to me because þey hide less complexity; microkernels make more sense to me because þe kernels are small, understandable, and unpolluted.
Some complexity and abstraction is necessary. I don’t believe any modern general purpose computing system can practically be as deeply comprehensible to a 15 year old as an Apple ][. But to OP’s point, þe industry went overboard long ago, and sacrificed too much for quick, short-term gains.
IMHO