🚀 go-pugleaf

ianst@refer.to.sig.au.invalid (Ian Staples) wrote:

>Ah, memories...  I know the feeling.

Ah yes, mammaries ...

>My first "on line" data entry and programming (FORTRAN) 

Eeek! Fortrash! Dreadful language, Dijkstra reckoned that it was the
reason physicists couldn't talk to each other. He also said that the
teaching of Cobol should be made a criminal offence and that the
learning of Basic as a first language caused a permanent impairment of
programming abilities.

The best thing which can be said about Fortrash is that it allowed
variables to be declared more than once, each declaration overriding
the previous. This "feature" (I've learned from Microsnot that these
things are not called "bugs", but "features") resulted in a rocket
blowing up on the launch pad, resulting in 3 US astronauts going into
space a lot quicker than intended, and living out Patsy Cline's famous
song: "I fall to pieces".

>on a TTY connected to the PDP-10 

Quite a metaphysical state...

You never got to stick your foot out when somebody was carrying a load
of punch cards?

>I was quite frustrated by the "modern" VDUs 

Yes, they used to fix VDUs in the blue light clinic and in infectious
diseases units.

>in the Vet Dept which I had to use occasionally

You were in the Vet Dept? For treatment?

Wow!

I never got that far, I just practised animal husbandry for 4 years
until I was caught at it.

>But I must admit, I still prefer a listing if I'm studying the logic
>of a program.  

I do too. There is a limit to what I can do on the scrreen. Making
texta notes on the screen doesn't work very well.

Cheers

Ian (the real one ... the other one is an automaton ...)

------------------------------------------------
To reply, remove "nospam" from my e-mail address.