E-books- how to get benifits?

E-books- how to get benefits?

Hello dears,
I was reading an e-book about digital design with VHDL and stopped for many days,
and now i'd like to continue reading. But i discovered that, nothing from what i had read is in my mind!
i lost every single word i had read before! annoying doesn't it?
Do i have to read it again from the beginnin'?
i'm asking you now to tell me how can one get the maximum benefit from reading such a book?

Thanks in advance!

Is this a joke thread?

Re: E-books- how to get benefits?

MAAASD said:

Hello dears,
I was reading an e-book about digital design with VHDL and stopped for many days,
and now i'd like to continue reading. But i discovered that, nothing from what i had read is in my mind!
i lost every single word i had read before! annoying doesn't it?
Do i have to read it again from the beginnin'?
i'm asking you now to tell me how can one get the maximum benefit from reading such a book?

Thanks in advance!

Click to expand...

eBooks is future for books.

eBooks have some lots of benefits. You can get it for free, searching word, phase or sentence is fast, possibility of making a lot of copies, you can have several copies of ebook in different devices at the same time, price is lower then printed books, phrase translation is easy, no bacteria and viruses, correction of errors possible, no need for paper, magnification of text. You can use tabled or eReader and read like printed book, you can have many many ebooks at your fingertips. Bad things unauthorized copying. Needs electrical device for reading.

Printed Books have higher price, only one copy, can be lost, can be damage, translation not possible copy/paste, searching text not possible, can have bacteria or viruses, weight of book not small, need space in room, kill forests, time self-destructive (need expensive reparation). No need for electrical power, just reader is needed. For most people better view on book while reading.

Re: E-books- how to get benefits?

MAAASD said:

But i discovered that, nothing from what i had read is in my mind!
i lost every single word i had read before!

Click to expand...

It is important to read slowly, think about it, and make sure you understand it. Words are easily forgotten but if you understand a thing, that understanding will last longer.

Try to do examples and exercises. That forces you to think about it and makes sure you understand.

Make notes too. It is easier to remember what we have written than to remember what we have read. After you have read a section, if you close the book and try to write a short summary of what you have learned, in your own words, that will help it to stick in your mind.

TrickyDicky said:

Is this a joke thread?

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I don't think so. Many people don't know how to study effectively. A few years ago I was surprised when a friend of mine (age 40+) enrolled at a local university and one of the compulsory courses in the first year was a module about how to study.

@tpetar & @godfreyl

Thank you very much,your reply is much appreciated.

TrickyDicky said:

Is this a joke thread?

Click to expand...

Do you find my thread under joking section?
Do we even have joking section here?

kindly don't hamper others interest that may have really a bad effect on them

MAAASD said:

Do you find my thread under joking section?
Do we even have joking section here?

Click to expand...

Well, the math & physics section is a joke, so you might want to check that out. XD

Other than that, when I tried to learn verilog from a book what I did was think of little exercises and try to do it. So when a chapter covered subject <whatever> I'd try and make up a module with that and try to figure it out.

What also works fairly well if you don't want to do the self made up exercises now, is to write those down + the page numbers you are referring to. Then keep on reading now and do the exercises later. The act of making these up and writing them down also helps remembering what the hell the current chapter is about.

So basically try applying the fleeting information before it evaporates. Different people different learning styles, but that what works for me. What doesn't work for me is read an entire book in one go and then hope I can apply it all succesfully. Well, unless it's a short book, but you catch my drift.

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Oh yeah, and while learning verilog, I learned it with a specific project in mind. So the experimental bits of code I tried all had to do with that. Point being, I think it helps to aim for something specific when learning vhdl/verilog. That way you are reading the book with "okay, so how do I do such and such" in mind. IMO that helps to make the learning points stick...

The secret of learning is not simply transferring knowledge to your memory cells but remembering where you stored it. Some use visual memory addressing by association to commonly accessed visual paths. Others use repetition to store the addresses to memory and recall them ( cache refresh method). Some use symbol link methods with relatively short paths to long path locations. Others self-test their understanding by trying to paraphrase in their own words what they think they understand.

If you just read the words without storage of the meaning , then those access methods may fail.

Learning how to learn is the most important result of university, so that you can apply this skill in any new area requiring more learning. Having a passion for a subject makes learning more fun.

Retention also requires avoiding the funny weeds that can erase ROMs in a flash. ( ho ho ho)

SunnySkyguy said:

Retention also requires avoiding the funny weeds that can erase ROMs in a flash. ( ho ho ho)

Click to expand...

So basically you're saying I shouldn't be licking toads early in the morning? @_@

I read that some smart dogs do that.."Indeed, smarter or more hedonistic dogs than Wally have learned that by licking the toad they can get a very nice high. "That is a very real phenomenon. That is not a bad thing, that would give a dog a slightly more exciting life than what it normally has." but that was new info to me which will likely have a half life of one beer.

@@mrflibble
Well, i may need to do exercise to remember section i've just learned, but i don't have an FPGA and even i don't know
how one could download his VHDL to this board. I'm reading at home trying to gain experience in this field but the disappointing this is that,
the most important thing i can do is to follow the examples in the book and test it on Quartus,checking the waveform.
I need to know how far i can go with my VHDL code! for example, if i wrote an example of a game using VHDL how can i play it?
Truly, i feel like anything i typed is not important because it's just a code, disappointing!
If i write a code for a certain circuit, i may need to see it in real life! i mean in hardware
to feel that i've made something. Do you understand me?

@SunnySkyguy
You're talking using difficult definitions (memory, cashe ) but thank you very much

**broken link removed** is a free open source compiler so you can view waveforms of your virtual hardware.

@SunnySkyguy
Look, i've made many circuits using VHDL and check the waveform on Quartus
but all i need is to make use of this code in practice. i mean how can i get the hardware that's equivalent to my code?

MAAASD said:

@@mrflibble
Well, i may need to do exercise to remember section i've just learned, but i don't have an FPGA and even i don't know
how one could download his VHDL to this board. I'm reading at home trying to gain experience in this field but the disappointing this is that,
the most important thing i can do is to follow the examples in the book and test it on Quartus,checking the waveform.
I need to know how far i can go with my VHDL code! for example, if i wrote an example of a game using VHDL how can i play it?
Truly, i feel like anything i typed is not important because it's just a code, disappointing!
If i write a code for a certain circuit, i may need to see it in real life! i mean in hardware
to feel that i've made something. Do you understand me?

Click to expand...

Well, you're lucky then! Because you can do all of your vhdl learning using freely downloadable tools. And you'll learn how to simulate and write testbenches in the bargain. All of which are needed skills for when you have that actual hardware. So yes, it's more rewarding to see blinky leds and waveforms on your scope, but no you do not need that for learning. So yeah it does help to have real hardware, but not having it is no excuse.

You can download free tools from Altera/Xilinx/etc and do your test designs + simulations using that.

But yes, as said hardware helps. So what's stopping you from buying a dev board?

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SunnySkyguy said:

I read that some smart dogs do that.."Indeed, smarter or more hedonistic dogs than Wally have learned that by licking the toad they can get a very nice high. "That is a very real phenomenon. That is not a bad thing, that would give a dog a slightly more exciting life than what it normally has." but that was new info to me which will likely have a half life of one beer.

Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure that dunking the toad in your beer before drinking it would help the memory transfer.

@mrflibble
Does the great thing i can do with VHDL is watching LEDs flashes on a dev board?
Please don't say yes!? :'(
And i was thinking that i can create great designs and somehow (i don't know the method ) these great designs can be translated to hardware
and i can take this hardware and putting it in any system and press a button to see it doing the job that's supposed to do?
I'm Depressed now!

I feel, writing VHDL codes without having the equivalent hardware is like you're very hungry, you decided to make a dinner, you make all the instructions to get a good taste
but finally you discovered that, you don't know how to cook!! So you feel like your work was useless ... And you still HUNGRY!
I believe it's not fair and thus, i can't study this way!
Any idea?

hi my friend.i had such this problem before.but you can solve it. before reading ,drink a cup of coffee mixed by honey.it can be so help full.

MAAASD said:

@mrflibble
Does the great thing i can do with VHDL is watching LEDs flashes on a dev board?
Please don't say yes!? :'(
And i was thinking that i can create great designs and somehow (i don't know the method ) these great designs can be translated to hardware
and i can take this hardware and putting it in any system and press a button to see it doing the job that's supposed to do?
I'm Depressed now!

I feel, writing VHDL codes without having the equivalent hardware is like you're very hungry, you decided to make a dinner, you make all the instructions to get a good taste
but finally you discovered that, you don't know how to cook!! So you feel like your work was useless ... And you still HUNGRY!
I believe it's not fair and thus, i can't study this way!
Any idea?

Click to expand...

I'm not going to try to convince you go without hardware. So that's that. Buy a dev board. Chop chop, make it snappy! Okay, so you now virtually have a dev board (just add time + money to transition from virtual to actual), that's one less problem.

And obviously you can do more than blink leds. It's just a random quick example. What do you want? A Hyperdimensional Transputer of Awesomeness? You can probably do that too, for a sufficiently adjusted value of "Hyper".

And any ideas ... about what? About designs? How it usually works is that you, the soon to be fpga board owner, make up your own stuff that you want to build. Right? Or can I give you my design ideas and you'll implement them for me? That would be great! Well alright, I'll make one up. So you want more than a blinkie led because that is beneath you as a first exercise. So make a 32-bit microcontroller with FPU and oh I dunno, some vector stuff because that's cool. And of course you want DDR3 memory. And HDMI. Oh and a USB core. and and and. Well that, or just pick something YOU like that is 1) simple enough that you will actually get it working and 2) exciting enough that you feel it'll be worth your while.

Personally I actually DO the led blinkie / printf / whatever stupid simple thing as a first go. Be it for a fpga board or a new MCU board, etc... That way you can learn all about the non-exciting yet crucial "features" in your toolchain. In my very first "project" I would not want to learn about all the "what does this button do" in the tools AND "what does this vhdl expression do" AND make a complex design. But hey, it's your VHDL learning experience so have at it in whatever way YOU see fit.

Edit: and having coffee with honey while doing all that sounds like a plan! XD

84% of study is done by visual ips

6% of study is done by hearing

10% by other sense organs

so for an effective learning try impart as much of visual and audio aids

that can really boost your understanding

You might want to check out 'minimig'. I've not tried it yet, but it looks an interesting dev board ; )
Some company is selling ready-built boards.

@mrflibble

To tell the truth i didn't do anything on FPGA before i only am asking what to do to improve my skills or even to get me the skills in that field.
i didn't see any FPGA board before so, forgive my stupidity.
We just take brief introduction of VHDL in college and then make project of Simple microprocessor and after compiling & testing all was clear and i got the project marks
but we didn't download it to FPGA we didn't even see the so called FPGA.
so after the project i was thinking if i can go further with VHDL and make real designs and use them in real hardware ? i don't know how that's why i'm asking you
For example, i saw a topic somewhere of a person who makes a game using VHDL and playing it in real life
so he can feel his efforts when he's playing the game

and here is link for the topic
HERE
i hope i can make things real like that!
anyway, any advice you give me is much appreciated
help me to get to the right way, Please be patient!

Edit: and sure thanks for the coffee!

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sky_123 said:

You might want to check out 'minimig'. I've not tried it yet, but it looks an interesting dev board ; )
Some company is selling ready-built boards.

Click to expand...

What do you mean by ready-built boards?