From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=0.6 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_05,INVALID_DATE autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,88cbc05b492dd012 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 1994-09-23 21:40:41 PST Path: bga.com!news.sprintlink.net!howland.reston.ans.net!spool.mu.edu!sgiblab!sti.com!barrnet.net!rational.com!rlk From: rlk@rational.com (Bob Kitzberger) Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Student views on Ada Date: 24 Sep 1994 00:52:57 GMT Organization: Rational Software Corp Message-ID: <35vt99$hqq@rational.rational.com> References: NNTP-Posting-Host: bonnie.rational.com X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2] Date: 1994-09-24T00:52:57+00:00 List-Id: CONDIC@PSAVAX.PWFL.COM wrote: : In *their* time, they had : to program machines with plug-in breadboards and jumper-wires. : (and they were damned glad to have 'em, too! ;-) They could even : identify programs by how they *sounded* when the relays were : clicking. Hmmm... I'm just a spring chicken, but doesn't everyone debug via sound? A coupla three years ago, I was optimizing an Ada tasking runtime for the Hartstone tasking benchmark. On Motorola 680x0 VME boards, you could tell the progress of the test, and whether or not the test had stopped, by the barely discernible frequency emitted (as a side effect) from some circuitry on the board. As the Hartstone test progressed through increasing stress test levels (faster task switches) the frequency got higher and higher... until deadlines were finally missed and the test stopped, at which time silence reined. The higher the frequency, the better the Hartstone performance. As a side note, our testing tool, TestMate, has an (optional) predefined "epilog" routine... if everything went fine with your test, your Sparc'll say "PASS", otherwise it gives a more detailed verbal status, like "fail", "exception", etc. It is customizable, so that you can replace any of the audio messages with something more nastalgic, like clicking relays... (if that doesn't make you rush out and buy ten copies, what will?) .B. -- Bob Kitzberger +1 (916) 274-3075 rlk@rational.com Rational Software Corp., 10565 Brunswick Rd. #11, Grass Valley, CA 95945