My first program was 6800 Machine Language. My second, was 6502 (VIC-20), my first ASM was 8085. With that, I actually wrote an embedded OS. The byte order seemed strange to me, after the Motorola chips. Also, the two-part memory addressing.
Eventually, I ended up doing ASM with 68000 (Mac Plus), but by then, I was well on my way with higher-level languages.
Starting from Machine Language helped me a lot in understanding some of the more fundamental concepts of software. It was also an excellent troubleshooting teacher, which has probably been the most valuable software development skill I have.
These days, though, with the current complexity of CPUs, I don’t think it would be reasonable to start folks off with assembly/machine languages, anymore. I’m not sure that “retro” CPUs would really represent some of the difficulties experienced with highly parallel processors. I would worry that it might encourage an “idealized” view of the underlying architecture.
Eventually, I ended up doing ASM with 68000 (Mac Plus), but by then, I was well on my way with higher-level languages.
Starting from Machine Language helped me a lot in understanding some of the more fundamental concepts of software. It was also an excellent troubleshooting teacher, which has probably been the most valuable software development skill I have.
These days, though, with the current complexity of CPUs, I don’t think it would be reasonable to start folks off with assembly/machine languages, anymore. I’m not sure that “retro” CPUs would really represent some of the difficulties experienced with highly parallel processors. I would worry that it might encourage an “idealized” view of the underlying architecture.