I was looking for a way to count the number of unique values of an array as part of an assignment. Google turned up with some ideas, but no definite answers. Then I came to know of two functions unique and histc. Here is the code to count the unique elements
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My, my !! How time flies. I was a college graduate, awaiting a fulltime job to “polish and build upon my skills” (or whatever it is in your resume!) when I began this blog. I guess, I posted regularly for about a month or two, before vanishing from the screen.
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We saw in our earlier posts, how to wire up the programmer and how to write a C Program. Now, let us see how to compile and download the program onto the device. gcc, as most of you may know, is a cross compiler. A cross compiler is usually used for off target compiling. Thus, a program can be compiled by gcc targeting any platform, not just the host platform. In short, eventhough gcc runs and compiles on a PC, it can be asked to compile for ATmega8. Thus, effectively, we can generate a hex file readable by the device; but not by the PC.
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The GNU/Linux offers a plethora of tools to program the ATmega8 efficiently and quickly. avr-gcc provides a port of the popular gcc compiler. This enables a newbie with basic knowledge in C to program the controller easily without the hassle of learning assembly instructions. Moreover, programming the controller in a middle-level language as opposed to assembly gives higher command over the code, but at a higher program size.
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Its been almost a month since I last visited the ATmega8 I bought the other day. Yet, there it was sitting nicely beneath my PC stand, a bit dusty though. With renewed interest and vigor, I rebooted my attempts. This time, I was ready with all the required components. I left you in the previous article stating that I wired up the programming circuit; but I failed to mention the circuit used. Without further ado, here’s my programmer circuit.
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As even the most ignorant, illiterate creature may have known by now, we have a solar eclipse coming up tomorrow morning. The eclipse will begin in India from approximately, 05:31:13.6 AM and will last upto 07:14:12.6 AM. As we all know, the eclipse is making a buzz around the country; but we, keralites are not so lucky.
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I think I owe my readers an apology. I was completely, totally absent for about a month in blogosphere and partially in twitterverse. There were abrupt and sometimes odd tweets flying apart from me. And, obviously, something big was happening. It has passed and I am back.
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The other day, I decided it was time enough that I loitered around, doing nothing to improve my knowledge or skills at what I am supposed to be good at, Electronics. Oh, well, thats what the world supposes you to be, right ? You know, after getting a B.Tech degree in Electronics, you should at the very least be able to implement a comparator properly. I can, and I have. But thats not the point. I’ve done nothing related to electronics after I completed my degree. So, on the day of WordPress disaster, I bought all the components required to make my perfect dream.
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Sometimes the most unfortunate of the events fall upon at the most ill deserved of the times. Frustrated with the waiting, I set out on a maiden voyage to brush up my skills as an Electronics Engineer and pick up quite a few new things along the way. Except for the fact that I had to wait at Kerala Electronics, Trichur for almost a full hour to buy the components during which time, I heard enough of the old Trichur slang, the purchase was fruitful. I even got to spend some quality time over a juice of fresh pineapple with an old, close friend of mine.
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This post is more to serve as a reminder to myself. Perl has a handy keyword called pack which helps to store a variable in the template specified. pack thus takes two arguments. The first argument is the template and the second argument is the string to be packed according to the template.
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