Student "edition" found at {csi dot journalspace dot com}.

Maybe I shouldn't have started this blog now, not with everything that's been going on.

In my Computer Circuit Fundamentals class, we are now in the topic of 8-bit and 16-bit multiplication and division, where, they have to be able to distinguish between how the value of two 8-bit registers are automatically converted by the computer into a 16-bit number.

I gave them the clue that they could first convert the numbers to binary to be able to get the "whole" number, but there is also a shortcut where they have to just multiply the higher set with either 256 or 65536 depending on whether it's 8 or 16 bit.

Then, for dividing the values, the procedure is just to divide by the same number (the whole number answer being in the lower register) and getting the whole number remainder for the higher register.

In the impromptu quiz that I gave them, they tried multiplying by ten, which is, as I told them at one point, the procedure for decimal values, but not for divided binary numbers.

When they got the hang of it, I also gave them the chance to do the same for two 16-bit registers to be combined to a 32-bit variable.

This check, I told them, is to prepare them for their next test which is next week.

At this point they joked that the term was going by so fast, and that most likely they would be asked to get a fitting for their togas and dressing up in formal for the graduation pictures soon.

I'm also still surprised that at this point there are yet students who are asking when they should convert the values they retrieve from ASCII to decimal, when it should be done immediately after the keypress, and the reverse done immediately before display.

Some, apparently, are still performing operations on ASCII values and not decimals, which accounts for some of the errors they encounter.

Now they are also receiving the divide overflow error, which means the values they are placing in their division operation are not within the range that they expected, due to some pre-defined registers being used by some commands. That's why I already taught them how to store their values in user-defined variables.

Session 1685 still relies on other group members to finish their program. Class dismissed.