Subject: Re: DEC Hardware info page started (Was: What monitors work on a 5000/200)
To: Chris Tribo <talon16m@hotmail.com>
From: Lord Isildur <isildur@guild.net>
List: port-pmax
Date: 01/04/2000 20:54:50
use awk! (no im not starting a flamewar! haha) 

seriously, that would be cool, to have a lynx-friendly version. thank you!

>     I'll probably end up making two versions of the page then, or better
> yet, learn Perl, write a Perl script to convert a tabulated DEC information
> table into a tabled version and a listed version. That would require the
> least maintenance provided I could make it work. After I learn Perl, maybe
> I'll sit down and learn C/C++ and assembly language :)

#opinion
assembly is easy, its straightforward and you say exactly what you mean
and mean exactly what you say. C is beautiful, compact, and gives you vast
power- the old joke says that C combines all the power of assembly and
all the flexibility of assembly- but C does leave you alone. My personal
advice (again im not interested in flamewars!) is that C++ is an ugly
kludge of a beast and is est left to be forgotten. i'll write C++ if
someone pays me enough but i'll hate every minute of it :) I'd say learn C
first. As for assembly, i think the best are the VAX, the Zilog Z80, and
the PDP8. All three are designed with different goals, but are all very
elegant in how they go about doing it. 
MIPS assembly is pretty simple too, and since youve obviously got numerous
PMAXen around, youll have a real machine to play around with. 
#endopinion

happy hacking,
isildur