Reply to: Blast from the past (re: Fred Brooks)

[NigelJK]

Like say BBCBasic?
Now the interpreter sits in the CPU cache, along with the program if you use RISCOS.

[SueEllen]

In my day we wrote COBOL in pencil on coding sheets that went away to be punched at a bureau. Then we were only allowed one compile a day. Kids today eh?

compilation?

Try an interpreted language....

[NickFitz]

Youngsters, my first attempt at programming was toggling the code in on the front panel of a PDP8 and the next experience was punching holes in paper tape My dad got into programming in the early 50's as a civil servant when they came round asking for people to be programmers (no experience necessary) for the new computer thingy that was the size of a house for the DHSS He got membership of the BCS just for being a programmer in those early days.

I remember Algol, Fortran and the early days of C and writing programs in Fortran then taking the assembler output and optimising it to improve performance Nowadays its Java all the way for me

We had a PDP-8/e at school, which we were allowed to use in our own time after demonstrating a sufficient level of competence. I quite often used to go and spend a few hours a day in the computer room during the school holidays. If you were the first one in there, you had to toggle in the bootstrap code for the high-speed punch tape reader using the toggle switches on the front to get it started

[Lockhouse]

In my day we wrote COBOL in pencil on coding sheets that went away to be punched at a bureau. Then we were only allowed one compile a day. Kids today eh?

[DoctorStrangelove]

Youngsters, my first attempt at programming was toggling the code in on the front panel of a PDP8 and the next experience was punching holes in paper tape My dad got into programming in the early 50's as a civil servant when they came round asking for people to be programmers (no experience necessary) for the new computer thingy that was the size of a house for the DHSS He got membership of the BCS just for being a programmer in those early days.

I remember Algol, Fortran and the early days of C and writing programs in Fortran then taking the assembler output and optimising it to improve performance Nowadays its Java all the way for me

The first machine I encountered in 1972 was the Modular One computer* in the Electrical Engineering dept at Loughborough.

It had 4k of core**, and was programmed in FORTRAN IV using paper tape via an ASR33.

It even had a VDU: not a data input device but rather a display terminal for graphs & such like, with, I think, a bistable screen so the trace didn't fade (so quickly).

No disks so everything was loaded using the paper tape reader.

A compile took rather a long time: load the FORTRAN compiler, read the source, find errors, read the source, punch the object, load the linker, read the object, punch the exe, run the exe & watch it die horribly.

Them were the days.


*There's not much on the Modular One on the interweb and nothing I've ever found about the one in Loughborough.

**Spent my "career" programming machines of that size, the difference being they've shrunk from something taking kW and a whole room to something with 18 legs that takes mW and sits in magnificent isolation on a PCB.

Yes, didn't Borland threaten to sue them or something, so they changed their name to Zortech.

Yup. That was it. IIRC Walter Bright was the author of the compiler.

Indeed: https://www.red-gate.com/simple-talk...k-of-the-week/

[tazdevil]

you missed OS2.

Yup was subscribed to IBM's OS2 developer programme

[vetran]

Yes I worked with the PDP 11 and RSX-11M forerunner to VMS which was the forerunner to WNT which became Windows (same design lead). Factoid, VMS > WNT, IBM > HAL

you missed OS2.

[tazdevil]

My dad worked on the PDP...11 I want to say. They were just switching to things like MS-DOS3 and Novell as I became old enough to understand such things, he worked on the early days of computerising the printing industry.
So luckily the oldest I ever had to work on was MS-DOS on an AMSTRAD 1512 (which was awesome).
Although at uni my physics course insisted on teaching us FORTRAN while CompSci was focusing on Java (even back then they were trying to ditch C++)

Yes I worked with the PDP 11 and RSX-11M forerunner to VMS which was the forerunner to WNT which became Windows (same design lead). Factoid, VMS > WNT, IBM > HAL

[mattster]

I think it was called Joel on Software and was written by Joel Spolsky but yes, it was a brilliant blog

Agreed, read a lot of his stuff back in the day. His Netscape rewrite article referenced in the OP is a classic, as are many of his posts actually.

[Dark Black]

Ah. Zorland C. There's a copy of that in the front room office somwhere. On 5.25" floppies. .

I did quite a lot with that.

There's a copy of M$ FORTRAN 77 in there somewhere too.

I did quite a lot with that. . (Though it's been untouched since 1991 when Siliconix closed down).

There's a copy of M$ C V3 in there too, with the Windoze(tm) SDK on a single floppy IIRC.

Yes, didn't Borland threaten to sue them or something, so they changed their name to Zortech.

[d000hg]

Youngsters, my first attempt at programming was toggling the code in on the front panel of a PDP8 and the next experience was punching holes in paper tape My dad got into programming in the early 50's as a civil servant when they came round asking for people to be programmers (no experience necessary) for the new computer thingy that was the size of a house for the DHSS He got membership of the BCS just for being a programmer in those early days.

I remember Algol, Fortran and the early days of C and writing programs in Fortran then taking the assembler output and optimising it to improve performance Nowadays its Java all the way for me

My dad worked on the PDP...11 I want to say. They were just switching to things like MS-DOS3 and Novell as I became old enough to understand such things, he worked on the early days of computerising the printing industry.
So luckily the oldest I ever had to work on was MS-DOS on an AMSTRAD 1512 (which was awesome).
Although at uni my physics course insisted on teaching us FORTRAN while CompSci was focusing on Java (even back then they were trying to ditch C++)

[vetran]

Sinclair Basic on ZX81, then CPM for building voicemails.

The change has been incredible.

[TheDude]

My first job was Ada 83 on OpenVMS using a dumb text editor working for Logica.

I was unlucky not to be in one of the better departments using modern technology and it took me a few years to escape legacy hell.

That said I learned a hell of a lot.

[tazdevil]

Youngsters, my first attempt at programming was toggling the code in on the front panel of a PDP8 and the next experience was punching holes in paper tape My dad got into programming in the early 50's as a civil servant when they came round asking for people to be programmers (no experience necessary) for the new computer thingy that was the size of a house for the DHSS He got membership of the BCS just for being a programmer in those early days.

I remember Algol, Fortran and the early days of C and writing programs in Fortran then taking the assembler output and optimising it to improve performance Nowadays its Java all the way for me

[d000hg]

M$ ... Windoze

Really? Still, in 2022? You're a bit old to be talking like a spotty 14-yo from 1992