While the very early pre-assembly, "enter the boot code sizeof(WORD) bit toggle switches at ta time on the front panel[1]" days were very difficult, working wit

While the very early pre-assembly, "enter the boot code sizeof(WORD) bit toggle switches at ta time on the front panel[1]" days were very difficult, working with bare metal hardware could be tedious, but usually no more difficult than today's similarly-sized projects. Debugging was sometimes easier with a logic analyzer watching values move across the CPU's data pins; it became a lot harder when you also have to worry about cache coherency, > We don't need to know mnemonics. Every specialized discipline has jargon and technical terms. Today everyone memorizes Javascript frameworks instead. > We have also these crazy tools now. Yes, but we also have crazy tools that rapidly create complexity. The popularity of using tools we don't understand, didn't (directly) write, that we cannot meaningfully inspect/audit (e.g. modern machine learning) is rapidly adding unknown, interdependent complexity. This complexity is already[2] spinning out of control. The only reason it seems easier today due to most of the problem being ignored. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Front_panel#Booting https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Front_panel#Booting [2] http://geer.tinho.net/geer.source.27iv17.txt http://geer.tinho.net/geer.source.27iv17.txt