This session was presented by David Intersimone as part of Embarcadero’s CodeRage 2018 virtual developers conference. The conversation took place live online on December 4, 2018.
Bjarne Stroustrup (designer and original implementer of C++, Managing Director in the technology division of Morgan Stanley in New York City and a Visiting Professor in Computer Science at Columbia University) participated in a C++ conversation with David Intersimone “David I” (Embarcadero MVP). Bjarne recently attended the ISO C++ committee meeting in San Diego where committee members continued work on the next International Standard (IS), C++20.
This CodeRage conversation covered some of the recent language proposals as well as other important C++ features that will be included in the future. Specific C++ areas David asked about included the future of generic programming (Concepts), how to better organize C++ code (Modules), and how to ensure stability in the language while also allowing the language to evolve.
The first personal computer I owned was an IMSAI 8080 kit computer that I bought and put together in December 1975.
Putting the IMSAI kit together involved a lot of soldering:
Soldered all twenty-two slot S-100 bus connectors onto the non-solder-masked motherboard
Soldered the front panel circuit board, Intel 8080 processor board and two 4K static RAM boards (lots of chips, connectors, resistors, capacitors, etc.)
Soldered the power supply with its large capacitors
Visually inspected all of the boards, motherboard, checked things with a voltmeter.
Assembled the Front Panel involved snapping on the cool looking blue and red paddle switches and the power switch, inserting the boards into the S-100 connectors.
It was time to plug in the power cord and turn the computer on for the first time (while crossing my fingers, toes, legs and eyes). When I turned it on, the front panel LEDs did light up, but pressing the stop and reset panel switches did nothing. There was no smoke or smell (always a good sign). I looked again at the boards. I pulled out and plugged back in the boards and tried again. No Joy!
I was a member of the Southern California Computer Society (SCCS) which met monthly at the TRW Space Park campus in Redondo Beach California (Note: at the time I was a real time Data General Nova assembly language programmer for a division of TRW – TRW Data Systems in El Segundo California). The monthly meeting was a place to talk about computers, buy kits, trade parts and keep up to date on what was happening in computing outside of work.
At the next monthly SCCS meeting at TRW Space Park (Redondo Beach), I left the computer with one of the vendors at the Saturday meeting, “The Computer Doctor”, who said he would find any soldering or component problems, get it running and give me a call. A week later, I got the call and the computer doctor said he had found some bad soldering, some solder that had spilled across some of the motherboard and computer board traces. I drove to his house and picked up my IMSAI. The doctor also suggested that I buy a bus terminator board from Godbout Electronics to “quiet” the non-solder-masked motherboard.
I brought my IMSAI back to my apartment, plugged it in, pressed the stop and reset paddle switches and my personal computer was ready for me to put some Intel 8080 instructions into memory and press the Run button. The IMSAI manual had a simple starting machine code program to display the LEDs on the front panel. It also had a “game” example where you had to try and turn the LEDs all off our on as they were changing.
The fun fact is that “The Computer Doctor’s” actual name was George Tate. Some of you remember George Tate as the co-founder of Ashton Tate Software and dBase fame.
I still have that original IMSAI 8080 computer and the last time I took it our and turned it on (a couple of years ago), it still worked.
This week in technology news contains links to articles of interest to software developers, UI/UX designers, hardware developers, devops team members, product owners, project leaders, engineering managers, software architects, QA engineers, business managers, business analysts, company executives and anyone interested in technology and programming.
IDEs/Editors
Java on Visual Studio Code Update – February 2022 Read the Article
Exploring the Salesforce Mobile SDK Using Android Studio Read the Article
Paul Buck: Coder on Why They Chose the Open VSX Registry Read the Article
A deep dive into Android 13’s new features and changes, including a photo picker, per-app language preferences, Quick Settings tiles, a Hub mode, and UI changes Read the Article
Android is finally gonna ask you about notifs before bugging you with them Read the Article
A Linux expert tells why she thinks the kernel is so important Read the Article
Web3 and Decentralization: What it Means for Data Storage Read the Article
Social Platforms
To rival TikTok and Instagram, YouTube plans to double down on more creator tools, including NFTs, live shopping, and more video effects Read the Article
Workers are actually far more obsessed with Slack than Microsoft Teams Read the Article
What is Social CRM, and why should it be on your radar? Read the Article
Twitter complaint-tracking bot reveals most griped about tech products Read the Article
Business
Microsoft vows app store fairness with Activision merger Read the Article
What does the new era of location intelligence hold for businesses? Read the Article
How a Diverse Culture Drives Employee Engagement and Business Growth Read the Article
How to build and maintain a high-performing team Read the Article
Eight years into his tenure, Satya Nadella looks to diversify Read the Article
Learn the marketing skills to back up your products Read the Article
