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Comment by yoyohello13 | Hacker News Reader

Extremely cool! Nand2Tetris actually got me in to CS. I had very minimal programming experience but wanted to know how a computer worked. I took the Nand2Tetris course in 2018 and have been hooked ever since. Been programming professionally for 5 years now.

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I’m currently going through the content and feeling a bit lost actually completing the practicals in module 3-4 - less around the hack syntax and more around what I’m trying to achieve and why. I’m considering skipping forward to assembly coding then circling back. Failing that, any other tips?

Edit: for context, I can program C#, Node/React, python and Java, and have read a lot of high level code but minimal exposure to systems coding.

You might like nandgame.com. It's the same ideas but in a visual drag-and-drop format, which can make it a little easier to get your head around some of the ideas. I found it helpful to work through all the exercises there and then go back to the Nand2Tetris course.

Perhaps try John Waldron's "Introduction to RISC Assembly Language Programming". I learnt from that many years ago during undergrad days.

The simulator works on Windows/Linux/macOS. A bit simpler than X86 assembly.

how long did it take you to complete the course?

Few months I think.

Full time? I did it when the book first came out, well the first 11 of the 12 chapters. It took me a long time though I was also working a full time job at the time.

Yeah I was working part time at the time so I was putting in ~8hr days.

Also I wish the juniors on my team would do this book. It has helped me so much. Just not directly.

Btw, if you enjoyed the book you might like this:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Computer-Systems-Programmers-Randal...

I'd love to have the time to work through it as I think the level of in depth knowledge it provides would be the best thing for me as a programmer.

I found it through:

https://teachyourselfcs.com/

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