I hope this post isn't against some written or unwritten rules (I know it doesn't meet the requirements of Show HN).
This is a modified version of my CPU design which was a homework assignment in one of my college classes 32 or so years ago. I originally drew the design on paper (homework), and a few years ago, I put it in Logisim. Since I don't have an FPGA board, I gave my design to Dr. Kevin Walsh, and he ran it (with his modifications (mostly cosmetic)) on his FPGA.
If you want to see the progression of this project, you can view my playlist:
If you want to learn basic x86 assembly language or Win32 API (Windows) programming, here's a relatively simple program which would likely be helpful (especially combined with the tutorial videos listed on the github page). Or just enjoy some nice fractals. In short, I haven't left Windows users out in the cold.
a bit late to the party, but how hard would it be to adapt it to linux or mac? The assembly part should be the shame, isn't it? (ignoring non-intel macs)
I already ported it to Linux... Here's a link to my hackernews post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27565708
I decided not to use inline assembly for the linux version (since I absolutely hate how gcc does inline). So the assembly routines are in .asm files which are assembled by nasm and linked in.
I don't know about Mac. Mac OS (not original Mac OS though) is based on Unix/Linux, so it might not be hard to do, don't know. Someone told me Macs now typically have x86 based CPUs (though that will probably change soon), so the assembly shouldn't be a problem.
I don't know if I would recommend it, but I've noticed that in the past, whenever I moved to a different type of computer/OS (Amiga, MS-DOS, Windows, etc.) or language (Java, Javascript, etc.), I ported my biorhythm program to the new system/language. It starts out simple - just strings, math, file/screen input/output, then progresses to graphical plotting of the biorhythm curves. It's a simple algorithm. Disclaimer, I don't know if I believe in biorhythms, it's just something interesting and a flashback to my childhood in the 70s.
Basically, I would say the easiest way would be to choose something you've already conquered in a language/system you already know. That way, you're only tackling one new thing.
BTW, it wasn't always biorhythms for me - I originally wrote my Mandelbrot program in Pascal, and taught myself C in order to convert it to C so it would run faster.
Coincidentally, my biorhythm program would tell you various things about yourself (birthstone, zodiac traits, yin/yang, Chinese animal, numerology, but also the phase of the moon the day you were born). Yeah, I threw in everything I could find/calculate.
If you want to learn basic x86 assembly language or XWindow / Motif programming, here's a relatively simple program which would likely be helpful (especially combined with the tutorial videos listed on the github page). Or just enjoy some nice fractals.
