Reply To: How can I get involved?

Wow, the Nova. I did a compiler for that once, Nova 1200. Language roughly as complex as early C++ in the C-front era, the compiler could compile itself in 64k of (core) memory that you shared with the OS. 🙂

Diagnostics for the Mill need to be written in C++ because they have to integrate with the specification system which is also C++, and the specification data structures, which are C++ data structures. Yes, other languages could be used, but we don’t want the maintenance headaches that language fan-out causes.

But Mill diagnostics are not actually written, they are specified, and from the specifications comes the asm code for the actual target test code. We don’t have the resources, human, money or time, to write diagnostics for a dozen family members and manually track the changes that they incur as they evolve. The same is true for hardware diagnostics, except the output is probe signals or whatever the hardware sims (or the actual hardware in time) talk.

The C++ problem aside, we welcome volunteers for the team. We don’t accept work-for-free volunteers, but we do accept sweat-equity vp;unteers where the team member is compensated by an interest in the company. It is a major cost to us ramping a new person up on the Mill, our code base, and our work, and the ramping must be intensive and productive or the new person never gets out of ramp mode. In practical terms, this means that any new person must realistically be able to commit 20 hours per week on an on-going basis.

For you or any other reader here, if the above sounds like you then contact me directly at ivan@millcomputing.com.