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Herself used to build the prototypes and hand soldered SMD stuff, including 0.5mm leg spaced 304 pin QFP using a "wave soldering" Weller bit and a lack of alcohol the previous night. We eventually went BGA for production, which annoyed Tim the hardware designer immensely as it was a true PITA to get the leads out.
That wasn't Z80 based though - we moved to ARM for that one and a considerable jump in processing power. We needed it: jumping from 128 jets to 512 on a single printhead is a major change, and the Z80 just wasn't up to the job. (Even at 32MHz is was barely keeping up with the 17mm 128 head thanks to some seriously optimised assembly code - and seriously unreadable as a result.)
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
modified 11-Oct-21 15:33pm.
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Old school memories, not Z80 though: Dazzle kaleidoscope. I remember thinking 'Holy cow, that is a fast program!" For the times, it was.
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I liked working with the Z80. Back in the early 80s, I used a Z80 extension card built for the Apple II, and wrote an entire spectroscopic analysis package (partly in Z80 Assembly Language and partly in BASIC).
The project cost the University less than US$ 10,000, while the spectroscope manufacturer's terminal cost over 3 times that, and couldn't do everything my software could!
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
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Having a lot of fun, haven't wrote anything in assembler in a while and Z80 assembler in a very long while.
Wired up a 24 key keypad through some 74C923's and a ATmega328P to the Z80 PIO. Simple stuff!
The less you need, the more you have.
Even a blind squirrel gets a nut...occasionally.
JaxCoder.com
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Sadly, too true.
And not only related to programming.
I was having a nice day... until 20 mins ago.
Damn it!
And just in case... don't ask, I won't explain further.
M.D.V. 
If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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Go on... indulge everyone's prurient curiosity... you know you want to...
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
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M.D.V.
If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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I am back at my.... 4 years old Maths & drawing problem! 
Doing better low level primitive from scratch again...
not just better numerical Maths, but also different data primitive and results, who knows, might solve it this time!
(in a while, writing the Maths primitive is quite slow, it turns out... )
Anyway, wish me luck! 
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YAY optimization!
Real programmers use butterflies
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Unfortunately not.. it's still at the stage of making the algorithm work reliably! 
But I think and hope the new way of doing it my bear fruits.. we'll know in a little while I guess... (now rebuilding it all from the ground up...)
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Luck
The less you need, the more you have.
Even a blind squirrel gets a nut...occasionally.
JaxCoder.com
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Super Lloyd wrote: I am back at my.... 4 years old Maths & drawing problem!
I often think about time spent on development.
I notice that, for example, a Pixar movie can take > 5 years & require hundreds of people.
Then I start thinking, "Have I ever worked on one piece of software for 5 years?"
I do have a thing in production (sends / receives 80K files a day) that I've worked on for 2 years but it is totally self-managing now.
What's the longest you've ever worked on one project for?
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7 years, then I changed workplace.
GCS d--(d-) s-/++ a C++++ U+++ P- L+@ E-- W++ N+ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t+ 5? X R+++ tv-- b+(+++) DI+++ D++ G e++ h--- r+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
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That's a long time. Was it a large system?
Were there numerous people on the project?
Did it make it to production*?
Just curious.
*I worked on a particular (large) project for mortgage bank that spent $75 million and lasted about 3 years before giving up. Oy!
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Largeish system, it was already in production, there were 2 people on it, sometimes 3. The system had to be kept up to date, customized for multiple customers (7 hundred customized versions!), bugfixed and evolved, plus it had to support new hardware - it had to directly control several components connected via RS232, Ethernet, USB and other less common connections.
GCS d--(d-) s-/++ a C++++ U+++ P- L+@ E-- W++ N+ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t+ 5? X R+++ tv-- b+(+++) DI+++ D++ G e++ h--- r+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
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That's difficult, because I had one peice of embedded software that got used for ... 20 years or so?
It got altered and modded fairly often, and large chunks chucked in the bit bucket when new hardware was ready for it, but the basic stuff was the same. Started out as a financial systems monitor, became a train aircon controller, the an industrial inkjet printer, then another inkjet, and another, and another ... grew a couple (OK 3) PIC coprocessors which ram-raided it's memory to run LCDs, PSU's, and printheads, but kept me well paid for a very long time, that did!
And it was crap code, all written by me (embedded Z80 assembler with some C for the user interface). As the 32K EPROM filled up, another chunk of the C was converted to assembler (IAR's optimiser was bloody useless) until there wasn't a whole lot left. 
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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Sounds like an interesting one. Very cool story to hear about long-lasting project.
Thanks 
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OriginalGriff wrote: As the 32K EPROM filled up, another chunk of the C was converted to assembler
Reminds me of an embedded project I worked on in the late 1980's, written in BDS 'C' for a Z80. I spent the last few months of the project reworking things so that I could fit more and more stuff into the last 256 bytes of EPROM.
... and then the money bastards turned off the flow, and the project died.
Software Zen: delete this;
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10 years and counting on a video surveillance application, it's a never ending story as new camera models and protocols keep popping up. Can't someone tell those manufacturers to stick a standard implementation of H265 for instance, they are driving us nuts!
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RickZeeland wrote: Can't someone tell those manufacturers to stick a standard implementation of H265 for instance, they are driving us nuts!
I totally get it. A lot of times it's just the tail wagging the dog. (Or, maybe it is always that.) 
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raddevus wrote: What's the longest you've ever worked on one project for?
We have an in-house tool I developed in 2000 that is still under active maintenance, so 21 years.
In terms of products, I have one that's been around almost 20, and another that's 13 years old. Both of those are also under active development.
Software Zen: delete this;
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22 years and it's still going. 
"Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse
"Hope is contagious"
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This is a home project... there is not that many line of code, it's just very hard... It's a specific algorithm I just cant give up yet..
I also was working on-off on my drawing app (of which is algorithm is part off) so I guess many years.
When I worked for NovaMind I work for 3 years on the same app. And now I just joined EA working on the Game Editor that seems like it is and will remain a never ending task....
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Early today: I'm spending the morning re-roofing a mates shed, so I have no idea when I'll be finished. He's not very organised ... I'm still waiting for the text to tell me where the house is, much less the shed. He has bought the felt, apparently - which is a start, anyway ...
In the morning, swinging both ways - evil and clumsy with both hands? (12)
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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AMBIDEXTROUS
AM to start...
then ..BI..
but I thought DEXTROUS was the antithesis of evil and clumsy.
Overall it fits the definition, anyway.
[edit2] or is it AMBISINISTER? [/edit2]
Software rusts. Simon Stephenson, ca 1994. So does this signature. me, 2012
modified 11-Oct-21 3:00am.
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