Today I got “Fascicle 1” of Don Knuth’s 1999 reworking of his classic 1960s work The Art of Computer Programming. Great book. No fuss, just stuff. I might write more about that here, if I keep reading it. It’s one of those books that are an experience to go through. Like GEB.
Knuth explains how a “mythical computer”, the MMIX works. The first sections go through its op-code list, and explain how it works on a quite basic level. It’s mental rye-bread, and you acquire a taste for it.
Reading it sent me back to my teens, back when my friend and self-taught programming genius Johan had typed little 68000 assembly-language lessons, and printed them on tractor-fed paper, and provdided me with development tools for the Amiga computer I had. Thanks Johan, and thanks Don, for showing me the machines.
You rock.