I used to program Intel 8031 (the ROMless version of the original MCS-51) in assembly language. Really low level, like the exact right number of NOP instructions to get a loop to run at 38KHz to generate a (modulated!) infrared carrier in software. And I got more functionality out of that primitive part than most modern Arduino programs get out of a microcontroller that's about 10x better.
And I don't care! A few years ago I got an Arduino starter kit at a garage sale. I have kids now and not much geek time. I finally plugged the thing in, and literally 5 minutes later I was running code on it. Who cares that it's inefficient. It makes the difference between a project built and one not built. I already posted my most recent one the other day, but why not again...
The code is right there. It's simple, it's readable, anyone could understand it in half an hour and change it. Not as heroic as my biggest MCS-51 assembly language project, whose source code is here:
And I don't care! A few years ago I got an Arduino starter kit at a garage sale. I have kids now and not much geek time. I finally plugged the thing in, and literally 5 minutes later I was running code on it. Who cares that it's inefficient. It makes the difference between a project built and one not built. I already posted my most recent one the other day, but why not again...
https://github.com/MarkusWandel/battery-tester
The code is right there. It's simple, it's readable, anyone could understand it in half an hour and change it. Not as heroic as my biggest MCS-51 assembly language project, whose source code is here:
http://wandel.ca/homepage/rom.asm.html
But tell me which of these is going to get someone over the "I can do this!" threshold?