21 Mar
2007
21 Mar
'07
12:03 p.m.
Dave McGuire wrote:
Well, there were no such things as EPROMs (or chips
at all, for that
matter) on the earliest lights-and-switches machines. I think
single-stepping and debugging of very low-level stuff is much easier
with a lights-and-switches front panel. Numeric displays are nice, but
I find many keypad interfaces to be very cumbersome. The H-8 keypad is
probably one of the nicest I've seen (it seems to make the most sense
anyway) but even it isn't as clear and unambiguous as "set the switches
to the address you want, and press 'load address'".
For today, though...blinking lights are Just Plain Cool.
There have been times, though, when I've had a recent RS/6000 not
booting successfully, when I would have loved to have a panel. The
RS/6000 diagnostic numbers are much better than most methods, but
there's nothing better than being able to examine the registers themselves.
Peace... Sridhar