Today's fortune cookie

JPG · Post by **JPG** » Mon May 07, 2012 12:34 am

saminmn wrote:When I went to KU I took a fortran/numerical analysis class. It was summer in Kansas, so computer room in Summer Field Hall was nice and cool. 2 summers later it was bombed. The late sixties were turbulent times.

There were no computer science degrees at that time, but the one class was the start of my career. iBM 360 model 30 with 64k and another, the big hummer, a model 40 with 256k. Fortran, P/L 1, And COBOL made up the first 18 years of my career in equal parts. I cussed the computers regularly and enjoyed my jobs throughout.

I got my TRS-80 in 1981, 16k and no disks. I still have it in the basement and it has 48k and a pair of 5 1/4" drives. I eventually got into programming GUI based systems and internet applications. I thought I probably work 6 to 10 month a year in retirement, due to poor economy, it did not happen. I don't know where I would find time for it anyway now!

Peace

What! No assembler language?;)

robinson46176 · Post by **robinson46176** » Mon May 07, 2012 9:15 am

[quote="JPG40504"]What! No assembler language?]

Burroughs "Advanced Assembler II" (mid 1960's).

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bffulgham · Post by **bffulgham** » Mon May 07, 2012 10:59 am

[quote="JPG40504"]What! No assembler language?]
IBM 360 Assembly in the early 70s. Graduated to 370 Assembly in the early 80s thru the early 90s. Was the subroutine, macro and OS guy for the university.
Loved IBM Assembler on the 360/370 series.
Hated DEC Assembler on the VAX series.

Ed in Tampa · Post by **Ed in Tampa** » Mon May 07, 2012 12:18 pm

[quote="JPG40504"]What! No assembler language?]

Assmbler????
Why stop there lets talk about machine language code where I lived for 13 years.

Talk about machines and small memory. I had a major car manufactures parts depot as an account. They managed their 6 state parts inventory on a machine 360 mod 20 with 4k of memory. I upgraded the computer to 8k by installing a second block of memory. Technicians from all over the city came to see a computer with 8k of memory. Each bit of storage was a ferrite core with three wires running through them. Ferrite core was approx 15-20 mm in dia and the hole through which the wires passed was probably 5-7mm in dia.

In those days the phone company tested data lines much like the celluar guy, "can you hear me now?" If you could hear them the line was good even if it sounded like someone was making pop corn on it. They just couldn't understand why anyone would need a cleaner line than one you could hear on.

I also remember DOS that run on mainframes before OS and VM370 and MVS and VSE. That DOS was called 360 DOS and was birthed from 1401 autocoder.

I remember entering simple DO loop programs into the console of computers that would cause a card reader to feed a card, read a card, test for a completion code and eject the card upon recept of the completion code. Then loop back onself to do it again.
I keyed that into so many consoles while working on card readers I could do it my sleep.

JPG · Post by **JPG** » Mon May 07, 2012 2:57 pm

Ed in Tampa wrote:Assmbler????
Why stop there lets talk about machine language code where I lived for 13 years.

Talk about machines and small memory. I had a major car manufactures parts depot as an account. They managed their 6 state parts inventory on a machine 360 mod 20 with 4k of memory. I upgraded the computer to 8k by installing a second block of memory. Technicians from all over the city came to see a computer with 8k of memory. Each bit of storage was a ferrite core with three wires running through them. Ferrite core was approx 15-20 mm in dia and the hole through which the wires passed was probably 5-7mm in dia.

In those days the phone company tested data lines much like the celluar guy, "can you hear me now?" If you could hear them the line was good even if it sounded like someone was making pop corn on it. They just couldn't understand why anyone would need a cleaner line than one you could hear on.

I also remember DOS that run on mainframes before OS and VM370 and MVS and VSE. That DOS was called 360 DOS and was birthed from 1401 autocoder.

I remember entering simple DO loop programs into the console of computers that would cause a card reader to feed a card, read a card, test for a completion code and eject the card upon recept of the completion code. Then loop back onself to do it again.
I keyed that into so many consoles while working on card readers I could do it my sleep.

Nice to know somebody else realizes assembler and 'machine' code are different.

If not, what does an assembler program do?:D

mgbbob · Post by **mgbbob** » Mon May 07, 2012 4:51 pm

you guys are over my head but I did start on a timex Sinclair with the 16K expansion module. I still have but haven't attempted to fire it up in years.

fredsheldon · Post by **fredsheldon** » Tue May 08, 2012 9:05 am

And then there is the 'FORMAT C' command

My favorate Cobol verb is the 'Alter' statement. Makes debugging a joy

robinson46176 · Post by **robinson46176** » Tue May 08, 2012 10:07 am

We used to often joke about the supposed mysterious BO&FU command... BO stood for "Branch Out".

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robinson46176 · Post by **robinson46176** » Tue May 08, 2012 2:24 pm

Maybe today's new fortune cookie message will inspire someone to tackle a more complex woodworking project. It said:
"In great attempts it is glorious even to fail..."

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JPG · Post by **JPG** » Tue May 08, 2012 2:24 pm

robinson46176 wrote:We used to often joke about the supposed mysterious BO&FU command... BO stood for "Branch Out".

.

FU????? I am not cobal literate( too verbose - intended for use by stiff shirted types wearing halters with a half windsor knot).

;)

Yes I have thought of something, but it is not likely germain!:rolleyes: