When I was at university in the 1970s, the Maths Department had a post-grad work room with some large machines sitting on a row of benches. Each was larger than a large electric typewriter (or small office photocopier today) and they were linked with a long chain steel chain, bolted to the bench, to prevent theft.
Nobody wanted to steal them, though, because even in those days a cheap pocket calculator could out-perform them. Students mainly used them to prop books against, and the tops were covered with dust. As the university was founded in the 1960s, they couldn't have been more than 15 years old.
I are an engineer. Last week I could not spell it. Late 1960s. Introduction to computing at university. Write a program. Your scribbles went off to someone who typed out your words, numbers, onto punched cards. Hollerith cards.You got a bundle of punched cards that you took to the man who could feed them into The Machine. A week later you got a message "explaining" why your program failed. Message gobbledegook. Went back to my sliderule. Was good enough for all practical purposes. It was what Boeing built reliable aeroplanes with. And Clydeside built decent ships with. Now......?
Doonhamer - my father used to bring home thick bundles of punched cards to check through at home because it was so tedious feeding them in only to be told the program had failed.
5 comments:
"Oh you know my father always used to say
A bad workman blames his tools.
But it seems to me
a man who uses a tool, is just a fool"
'Songs of Yesterday'. Free
When I was at university in the 1970s, the Maths Department had a post-grad work room with some large machines sitting on a row of benches. Each was larger than a large electric typewriter (or small office photocopier today) and they were linked with a long chain steel chain, bolted to the bench, to prevent theft.
Nobody wanted to steal them, though, because even in those days a cheap pocket calculator could out-perform them. Students mainly used them to prop books against, and the tops were covered with dust. As the university was founded in the 1960s, they couldn't have been more than 15 years old.
Tammly - that could be Starmer's line.
Sam - I remember our first lab computer was an IBM Series 1 which was the size of a wardrobe. For lab work it seemed dated even when it was installed.
I are an engineer. Last week I could not spell it.
Late 1960s. Introduction to computing at university.
Write a program. Your scribbles went off to someone who typed out your words, numbers, onto punched cards. Hollerith cards.You got a bundle of punched cards that you took to the man who could feed them into The Machine.
A week later you got a message "explaining" why your program failed. Message gobbledegook.
Went back to my sliderule. Was good enough for all practical purposes. It was what Boeing built reliable aeroplanes with. And Clydeside built decent ships with. Now......?
Doonhamer - my father used to bring home thick bundles of punched cards to check through at home because it was so tedious feeding them in only to be told the program had failed.
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