IRC channel logs

<matrix_bridge><cosinusoidally> Matrix shows the message that was referred to. It was https://logs.guix.gnu.org/bootstrappable/2026-04-14.log#195637

<matrix_bridge><cosinusoidally> The one about https://github.com/alganet/abuild building various versions of stage0

<roconnor>As someone who doesn't know much about hardware, it is funny that the steadyhand project uses a diode board for converting nibbles to 7-segment hex, when Ben's video literally just programs that conversion matrix into an EEPROM. Surely a small EEPROM is cheaper than that diode board, even if if you only use 16 bytes out of the whole device.

<Googulator>It's not about the price. To program an EEPROM, you need a device capable of programming it. You can't do it "with a magnetized needle".

<Googulator>And whatever you use to program it, you need to trust that it programs it faithfully.

<Googulator>For a diode array, you can physically see how it's wired, and thus verify that it's set up correctly to always show the right digits.

<matrix_bridge><Andrius Štikonas> For 2nd generation device you can the uae eeprom programmed in tje 1st generation if you really want

<matrix_bridge><Andrius Štikonas> But then you have to build 2 devices

<matrix_bridge><Andrius Štikonas> So not that much of a win

<matrix_bridge><Jeremiah Orians> If one really wanted to cost reduce, a single large eeprom could hold all of the actual logic but then it would be a bootstrap problem as how would one program that eeprom.

<roconnor>In Ben's video he more or less programs an EEPROM by hand with approximately a breadboard and one capacitor.

<matrix_bridge><Jeremiah Orians> The early hardware firmware remains a problem because it is extremely non-portable and the complexity seems to scale with the capacity. Up to a couple MB can be done on magnetic tape or floppy disks but hard drives need to have collision detection and avoidance protocols

<matrix_bridge><Jeremiah Orians> As a single speck of dust would be a head crash

<roconnor>There are also some dip switches, a button, leds and resistors included as well, but that is mostly for quality of life improvements.

<roconnor>Again, I'm not a hardware person, but it seems all you need to do in theory is wire up address pins to ground and 5v as needed, wire up the IO pins the same way, and then toggle the write pin for a fraction of a microsecond using an RC circuit. As a software person I was amazed since I always figured you needed a fancy computer to program an EEPROM.

<roconnor>I'm currently staring at a digikey shopping cart because I kinda want to try this myself.

<matrix_bridge><Jeremiah Orians> Go for it, I encourage anyone who wants to improve our early bootstrap (I’ll even buy hardware for people if it’ll help)

<roconnor>lol. I don't know if me tinkering counts as improving the early bootstrap.

IRC channel logs

2026-04-16.log