Building Machines In Code – Part 3

This entry is part 3 of 9 in the series Building Machines in Code

Creating the Tiny-P CPU In this post, we will finally write some code. I promise! We’ll be using Python here as one of the most popular languages these days according to the Tiobe index, narrowly beating out C. So, in the interest of reaching as many people as possible I settled on Python for this

Building Machines In Code

This entry is part 1 of 9 in the series Building Machines in Code

Regarding the difference between simulation and emulation:
Not limited to computers I use this distinction:
– A simulation mimics the outward appearance
– An emulation mimics the cause/process.

If you want to convince people that watching television gives you
stomach-aches, you can simulate this by holding your chest/abdomen and
moan.

Stepping Back in Time

Many of us have retired and are looking for something to do. Others have found themselves stuck at home and socializing much less due to the Covid outbreak. This has caused many of us to dig out our old dusty computer systems and begin re-living the magical adventures we had when the web was still the future, BBSs were the rage, real programmers used assembly, BASIC was for everyone, and nerds knew every detail of the hardware they used!

Extensible Dart Classes with Extension Methods

I was recently tasked with creating a general-purpose unit conversion class. The class needed to be easily extensible so new conversions could be easily added at any time. It also needed to throw an exception when an unsupported conversion was attempted. Furthermore, I was told that the conversion method needed to take in two string

Introduction to Algorithms with Dart

Once a novice developer learns the basic syntax of their programming language, and begins writing anything more than simple hello-world type apps, they start to encounter problems. At first, these problems seem daunting. To find answers, they usually start hitting the various software development forums and social sites where their kindred spirits tend to congregate

Dart: “static”, “const”, and “final”

With the droves of developers flocking to Dart/Flutter as a cross-platform development solution, I tend to see the same questions come up again and again on Slack, Stack Overflow, and Discord as well as many other forums. One such question is What is the difference between “static”, “const”, and “final”? For the uninitiated, they can

Multi-Group Checkboxes in Flutter

I spend a lot of time on the Flutter Slack channel (thanks Scott!), and I try and help as many people as possible during my breaks from my own work. Today I was asked how to implement multiple selectable groups of checkboxes in Flutter. I offered a solution which as is often the case, was