🚀 go-pugleaf

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In article <8pi4pn$msb$1@bunyip.cc.uq.edu.au>,
ianst@refer.to.sig.au.invalid (Ian Staples) wrote:


>In article <mkNu5.525$%p.2653@news1.atl>, 
>"Judson McClendon" <judmc@bellsouth.net> wrote:
>
>>You're programming in the past, using outdated technology.  I started
>>programming in 1968 using punched cards.  When CRT based programmer
>>editors came out, it made a tremendous boost in productivity.  I still
>>loved my printed listings, and used them for a long time.  [...]
>
>:-)
>
>Ah, memories...  I know the feeling.
>
>My first "on line" data entry and programming (FORTRAN) was done
>on a TTY connected to the PDP-10 at UQ, and I became quite paranoid
>about keeping hard copies of every damn thing I did -- so I could
>check for possible errors later was the rationale.  I was quite
>frustrated by the "modern" VDUs in the Vet Dept which I had to use
>occasionally when the good old TTYs in Agric were booked out [those
>vets could afford all the good gear it seems] -- no hard copy!
>What if I had made errors!?
>
>Well, in fact, the hard copies lived unseen and unread in a cupboard
>for over 25 years after they were "needed".
>
>But I must admit, I still prefer a listing if I'm studying the logic
>of a program.  You don't see enough at one time on a screen, and I
>find it easier and more satisfying to flick back and forth between
>real pages rather than scrolling up and down on a VDU.  (Maybe if I
>was better at remembering what I've just seen, it wouldn't be such a
>problem. 8-)
>
>Cheers,  Ian S.
>
>ianstDELETE@THISdpi.qld.gov.au

REPLY
Good story Ian.
It reminded me of one of the older computer typsetters. It had a
keyboard and a cable running to a 'pop-rivetted' metal box which had 8
leds on it. When typesetting a book or anything else that's all you
could see - one or more leds showing red. This was just before VDU's
were introduced - the ones that showed up to 3 lines of type (at
once)!
Actually the new-fangled computers for typesetting were not as good as
the old Monophoto + Monotype typesetters - at least they had a thing
that looked like a coffee tin with numbers all over it. They were
particularly handy for the setting of mathematical equations - because
you could 'see what you were doing' as it rotated back and forth.
Another interesting thing: The journalists in Adelaide all went on
strike when VDU's became compulsory as they were replacing mechanical
or electric typewriters back in '81.
Ray