06 Feb 2004
Learning Computer Science via Assembly Language

It's how I learned ... I had originally purchased a Commodore 64 in order to write the Great American Novel. Then I discovered video games. I also discovered that a particular video game was virtually unbeatable - Baghdad, it was called, and I couldn't whack the dreaded purple genie on level 5 to move on.

So I taught myself 6502 assembler in order to patch the game with extra lives and kill the purple genie.

High-level languages are great, but learning them will never teach you about computers. Perhaps it's time that computer science curriculums start teaching assembly language first.

(link) [Slashdot]

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