Advice from coders?

[Robert]

Sounds interesting. What do you have at your disposal in terms of development tools? Are you using your own system or the schools? Is it Windows, Mac or unix based? And do you have access to a MC6800 device for reference? And what will your emulator emulate? Some pre-built MC6800 embedded OS? Just curious.

Details are scant at present but I can use my own systems, the school's or a combination. Minimum requirement is to run on various flavours of Windows. I don't have access to any, real MC6800 system, although there is an emulator already out there:
http://www.hvrsoftware.com/6800emu.htm
Apparantly it has a couple of minor issues / bugs.

I think the idea is to create something along those lines which can be used as a teaching tool.

 

[FluffyMcDeath]

I immediately objected and have now been allocated the MC6800 emulator so, come May/June you may find me pestering you for help.

Great. Since this is one of the more straightforward seeming projects (MC6800 emulator) you'll be expected to get it right - and not to plagiarize existing implementations. Cryptic crossword solver sounds interesting though and wouldn't actually be expected to work that well, I imagine - funny answers might be better than right answers sometimes.

Anyway, not copying an existing implementation will be difficult since the number of right ways to do this seem small - and the person who set this probably has a test set of code ready to go that explicitly relies on undocumented features and bugs in the various versions of silicon (or that's what I would do).

 

[Speelgoedmannetje]

@Karlos:

Something went awry with the University's selection algorithm and I was this lunchtime allocated a project involving creating software for solving cryptic crossword puzzles . Something which was not even on my list of possibilities.

I immediately objected and have now been allocated the MC6800 emulator so, come May/June you may find me pestering you for help.

Pity, a cryptic crossword puzzle solving algorithm would be a nice case study. One would think of creating a relational mapping system of a dictionary or something along those lines (an actual language-dictionary I mean )

 

[Karlos]

@Karlos:

Something went awry with the University's selection algorithm and I was this lunchtime allocated a project involving creating software for solving cryptic crossword puzzles . Something which was not even on my list of possibilities.

I immediately objected and have now been allocated the MC6800 emulator so, come May/June you may find me pestering you for help.

I'll be listening...

 

[Robert]

Cryptic crossword solver sounds interesting though and wouldn't actually be expected to work that well, I imagine - funny answers might be better than right answers sometimes.

Of the sixty or so options it would probably have been oone of the least interesting to me.
I'm have little interest in crosswords and really didn't fancy spending my entire summer thinking about them.

As for not being expected to work that well, that doesn't inspire me at all either.

 

[Robert]

Pity, a cryptic crossword puzzle solving algorithm would be a nice case study. One would think of creating a relational mapping system of a dictionary or something along those lines (an actual language-dictionary I mean )

Possibly but it's not of interest to me right now so I'm glad I don't have to spend all summer with it.

 

[Karlos]

Possibly but it's not of interest to me right now so I'm glad I don't have to spend all summer with it.

The way to approach problems like that is to think of them in the abstract. However, you got the 6800 emulator so that's a nice concrete example to work on. There are only a limited number of sensible ways of implementing such an emulation. As an example of one that isn't, you could write a gate-level hardware emulation. You would need the actual schematic of the chip itself for that, though.

 

[Glaucus]

This is after all a school assignment, so at the end of the day all that matters is the final mark. Having a concrete objective that you can easily test against is fairly desirable I'd say. Keep the "interesting" stuff for your side projects - where YOU decide what's right and what's not.

 

[Robert]

This is after all a school assignment, so at the end of the day all that matters is the final mark. Having a concrete objective that you can easily test against is fairly desirable I'd say. Keep the "interesting" stuff for your side projects - where YOU decide what's right and what's not.

Yes and no. I'm doing this course out of interest, much the same as I did a sound engineering course last year.

Of course, getting a decent mark is desirable but it's not my main motivation. I got as good a mark as you can get for the sound engineering course anyway but the motivation was to compliment my hobbies. The same applies to this, albeit this course is a couple of notches up the qualification scale so an order of magnitude more difficult.

 

[Robert]

Met the project supervisor briefly today and he said it might be more interesting to make a 6809 emulator, rather than a 6800.

Any thoughts?

 

[FluffyMcDeath]

Met the project supervisor briefly today and he said it might be more interesting to make a 6809 emulator, rather than a 6800.

Any thoughts?

It might be more interesting to build a time machine. You gonna switch to that because it "might be more interesting"?

The 6800 is interesting enough and the 6809 is just the same thing but with more work added so I'm not sure what he means by "interesting". Perhaps he means "less easy".

 

[the_leander]

Met the project supervisor briefly today and he said it might be more interesting to make a 6809 emulator, rather than a 6800.

Any thoughts?

There are a couple of very cool OS's that run on that processor, such as os-9 and UniFLEX. Not sure how much it would differ in terms of complexity however.

The welsh made Dragon 32/64 used that processor.

 

[Glaucus]

You do raise a good point leander, but I would imagine that to actually emulate os-9 or UniFLEX you'd need to emulate more than just a CPU, but an entire platform. Now THAT is more interesting, but also more complex. I'm sure that would get you some extra points, but is it worth the effort?

 

[Robert]

It might be more interesting to build a time machine. You gonna switch to that because it "might be more interesting"?

The 6800 is interesting enough and the 6809 is just the same thing but with more work added so I'm not sure what he means by "interesting". Perhaps he means "less easy".

I had a feeling that might be the case.

 

[Robert]

Thought I'd drag this old thread up again as I have a new dilemma.

Until Friday I was programming iPad apps, working for a small company about 25 miles from where I live.
The job was interesting but often involved extra hours for no extra pay and the salary was just enough to get by on.

On Monday I started work with reasonably large travel agent, helping maintain their internal CRM (currently classic ASP, moving to .Net), company websites and supposedly helping them develop a couple of mobile apps later in the year. It's a better wage and is located right in the city centre, 15 minutes walk from my house.

Today I received another job offer, same wage as the one I started on Monday and with an established software company (Kana) who develop CRM software. I think the bulk of the work here is Java based. It involves a bit of travel too, being about 15 miles away.

The post is really aimed at those of you who have experienced both working for an established software organisation and a company with a coding department whose core business is something else.

I'm swithering towards saying no thanks to the Kana job but was wondering if you folks have any insights or advice?

 

[FluffyMcDeath]

@Robert

Not that I know anything (not being modest) but the 15 minute walk is nice. ASP and .NET are not my bag - but I'm not a fan of Java either.
On the other hand, you're more likely to find yourself being a big fish if the pond is smaller. In a big code shop you are more likely to be just another disposable monkey.
On the other hand, how ambitious are you? There is more room to move up in a code company. Does management sound attractive?

 

[Robert]

@Robert

Not that I know anything (not being modest) but the 15 minute walk is nice.

Yes, as things stand that's what's swinging it.

On the other hand, how ambitious are you?

Not very.

There is more room to move up in a code company. Does management sound attractive?

Not especially. At the present time I'm happy enough just programming.

 

[Glaucus]

Around here .Net is more marketable than Java, but in Europe it may be the opposite.

I tend to prefer companies that treat software development as their primary business.

 

[Speelgoedmannetje]

Around here .Net is more marketable than Java, but in Europe it may be the opposite.

I tend to prefer companies that treat software development as their primary business.

I think it's 50/50. Internet wise, Java is still preferable imho as GWT supports it.

 

[Robert]

Update:
Kana just offered me an extra £1,000 per year.
It's really a trivial difference (especially after tax) but nonetheless it was enough to sway me.
Looks like I'll only be working in my current place for a grand total of five weeks.