[gambit-list] Old programmers

Hendrik Boom hendrik at topoi.pooq.com
Tue Mar 12 14:59:55 EDT 2013


On Tue, Mar 12, 2013 at 11:21:19AM -0400, Bradley Lucier wrote:
> From:
> 
> http://www.teamliquid.net/blogs/viewblog.php?topic_id=401393&currentpage=2
> 
> I am learning to code a little right now while taking all of my basics in college. I will continue the line that our family has with programming.
> 
> My grandpa coded (with punchcards no less), my mom codes and I will code.
> 
> In the name of all punchcard-programming grandpas, all I can say is "Ouch, that one hurt."
> 
> Brad

I learned to program on a Bendix G-15d computer, way back n the early 
60's.  It was an old machine even then  It didn't have any of the 
new-fangled core memory; it had a rotating magnietic drum as its memory.  
Each instruction was an implicit goto.  It would tell when in the course 
of the drum's rotation one should fetch the next instruction.  So every 
loop took a minimim of one drum rotation per iteration.

Later I had access to more conventinoal mainframes, batch processing, 
wait hours for your program to run and get the printout.

It was fun back then, and I'm still at it, but on a netbook.
Its amazing how much more I can get done if I don't have to wait hours 
for each debug run.

-- hendrik




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