ASCII: Fun & Informative or Our of Fashion?
What do you think about ASCII diagrams?
They are old-school and not readable, or would they make things easier to understand?
I can not judge as the ASCII is the natural environment for me. I have played the Dwarf Fortress and Cataclysm DDA without tilesets for way too long 😉
1 Reply
Yo, @LMtx I just got this response from Bill Mensch, who's one of the granddaddies of ASCII – https://www.linkedin.com/in/bill-mensch-7761b320/:
"It might be that “modern code development” with GPUs really is moving information around that is quite a bit more complex than what ASCII code was created for in text based communications. I guess the concept that “a picture is worth a thousand words” might apply for a lot going on in our GPU based ChatGPT world"
To both of your points, I wonder if there's an opportunity to take a look at GPU programming through the lens of ASCII, or in training materials for neural net development. Of course there's always the diversion of Dwarf Fortress...
I'll twist Bill's arm and see if I can get him into the server.
More from Mr. Mensch...
"Actually, when I first started working at Motorola using the IBM 370 I was simulating a triple diffused (collector-base-emitter) emitter couple logic (ECL) bipolar semiconductor manufacturing process I had designed in three months as a trainee. I was simulating this new MECL-N (https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/21541/what-is-mecl-10h-or-100-k-ecl-logic-levels-and-how-do-i-use-them) process using FORTRAN. I used FROTRAN at The University of Arizona (U of A) for my undergraduate fusion nuclear research simulation project taking over a PhD dissertation. I worked on this in 1970-71 on U of A’s CDC6600 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CDC_6600) Super computer. I used ASCII code to indicate the depths of the diffused junctions. I kind a have a sense of what someone might do with ASCII code for some things as I did.
The 6502 AR-ISA (https://www.team6502.org/#:~:text=As%20one%20of%20the%20most,billion%20units%20so%20far%20produced.) deals with ASCII code rather effectively as we do with 7-segment displays that tell the status of billions of embedded intelligence technology (EIT) we control billions of things with application-specific technology solutions.
Moving away from ASCII seems a little counterproductive. That said, moving away from the truth with alternate viewpoints also seems counterproductive – for some. 🙂
The Theory of Embedded Intelligence (TEI; https://themenschfoundation.org/theory-of-embedded-intelligence/) based on Embedded Intelligence Technology (EIT; https://themenschfoundation.org/wdcs-embedded-intelligence-technology/) as a Theory of Everything (TOE; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_everything) requires ASCII code and every other form of communications. 🙂
Some points for the discussion."