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=-1.3 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,INVALID_MSGID autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: fc89c,97188312486d4578 X-Google-Attributes: gidfc89c,public X-Google-Thread: 109fba,baaf5f793d03d420 X-Google-Attributes: gid109fba,public X-Google-Thread: 103376,97188312486d4578 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-Thread: 1014db,6154de2e240de72a X-Google-Attributes: gid1014db,public From: peake@dstos3.dsto.gov.au (Alan Peake) Subject: Re: What's the best language to start with? [was: Re: Should I learn C or Pascal?] Date: 1996/07/30 Message-ID: #1/1 X-Deja-AN: 171380365 references: <01bb73e3.1c6a0060$6bf467ce@dave.iceslimited.com> <1996Jul20.124025.122789@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu> <01bb7b06$311fabc0$87ee6fce@timpent.airshields.com> >it would be as if EE students were taught IC design in the first >course, and were only given resisters, capacitors, ohm's law, >etc. in their senior year, almost as an afterthought! Well, it may be going that way. Most of the logic design in my department is now done in a Hardware Description Language; no-one needs to know about gates and counters anymore. All they need to know about capacitors is what types to use for bypassing the gate array chips. This level of hardware abstraction is a bit like OO in programming. The class libraries will contain most functions that the programmer is likely to need in much the same way as the HDL elements are the building blocks for the array chip. Sure, there is a need for a few people to understand the nuts and bolts, but these few will be writing the libraries and designing the silicon i.e., making the tools. As long as the rest of us can use the tools, what does it matter how they work? Alan