At Silicon Valley Linux Users Group tonite, Randall Hyde talked a bout a more modern implementation of assembly language, HLA – the High Level Assembler.
He talked about his career as a programmer, college lecturer at UC Riverside, computer book author and developer of nuclear reactor control software.
It was interesting to hear first-hand that CS students during the dot com boom actually did enroll “just for the money”, regardless of interest in science or ability.
Originally his book on HAL was a download-only book, but No Starch Press was looking for content and actually contacted him for permission to publish it. It proved to be a popular book and another version is planned.
He said it takes about 2 years to learn the domain-specific knowledge about nuclear reactors, plus whatever time it takes to learn the programming languages or tools used for the project.
Using a debugger on nuclear reactor control software results in a scram, so planning ahead is a good idea.
Thanks again to Symantec for hosting the meeting.
