/diy/ - Do It Yourself

What do you guys do for a living?

This summer I'm going to finally learn how computers and electricity actually work, beyond the level of regurgitating definitions. I see NAND2Tetris shilled a lot from various communities, but I think Ben Eater's DIY 8-bit computer series (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLowKtXNTBypGqImE405J2565dvjafglHU)) looks a lot more hands on and fun (and therefore a better learning experience - plus it's more time away from the screen). If you haven't seen it, he walks you through constructing an 8bit computer from a breadboard.

Am I wrong in thinking that they will contain roughly the same content? I'm still waiting on some parts to arrive before my nosedive into this, along with clearing up and building a workspace, so I'm hoping to gather some resources and direction right now. I'm for sure buying that book Ben Eater mentions he got the design from. If you have any supplementary educational resources, I'd appreciate it. I've always wanted to read the famous CS:APP book and The Art of Electronics, so maybe I'll flip through those in conjunction with the project.

As an end goal, I'd like to make a compiler for a mainstream, standardized language like C, so I can run homemade C programs on my future 8bit machine. Is that an unreasonable ambition? I'd also like to be able to build some dope synths and get into FPGA programming down the road. I know I'm sort of all over the map and pie-in-the-sky sounding, just super excited right now and can't wait to get my space operable so I get moving.