At my first real corporate mainframe programmer job in 1981, my first few programs were written out on coding forms and keypunched. That made me feel important! :-) When it became too much of a pain in the neck to wait for keypunched modifications I started using the CRT and a line-editor. I could see the entire program line after line, but needed to enter a command to pick the line of code I wanted to modify or delete, or to add a new line.
Tom C.
From: "P. J. Alling" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: [email protected] To: [email protected] Subject: Re: OT: How do you store your precious moments for posterity? Date: Wed, 03 May 2006 16:36:39 -0400I'm not as old as I thought, I learned to program on a CRT, (My last assignment, for extra credit, had to be submitted on *Hollerith Cards, ages more advanced than paper tape.*Tom C wrote:Just need to ask... how many indoor bathrooms were in the world when you were born? Inquiring minds want to know!We saved our programs in high school on paper tape and entered them at the teletype. DEC10.Tom C.From: graywolf <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: [email protected] To: [email protected] Subject: Re: OT: How do you store your precious moments for posterity? Date: Tue, 02 May 2006 12:06:07 -0400Hey, Shel, would you copy my 8" floppies to DVD for me? And I've got a half dozen 1/4" 512mb SCSI tape cartridges that I would like to have copied too... Oh, yes, about 150 3.5 inch floppies as well; my floppy drive died last year and I do not feel it is worth $5 to replace it although I may get around to pulling it out of the machine sometime real soon now.PS: Anybody got a paper tape reader I could borrow, and a PDP7 to hook it up to? Anyone else out there realize that in 30 years we have gone from teletype machines and paper type to 30" LCD's and 500gb hard drives on personal computers? When I was born there was one one* electronic computer in the world.* Just googled it, apparently I was wrong, there were two working non-programmable EC's, and one programmable EC under construction.Humm...? That makes me think. The two modern conveniences I would not want to give up are the indoor bathroom, and the personal computer.graywolf http://www.graywolfphoto.com http://webpages.charter.net/graywolf "Idiot Proof" <==> "Expert Proof" ----------------------------------- Shel Belinkoff wrote:A more powerful machine doesn't necessarily mean a machine that's more complicated to operate. While it's true that new programs may require abit of time to learn, it seems that many, especially those designed for theaverage user, aren't that difficult to figure out, especially if you'veused earlier versions of the same or similar programs. Granted, for some programs and for some people, taking a class or reading a well written bookmay be helpful.As for compatibility, I've solved that problem. I keep an older machine inrunning condition, plus, when I get a new machine, I add slots or older media. The latest machine here takes the old 3.5 floppy disks, but alsohas a CD player and burner and a DVD player and burner, as well as USB and Firewire ports. I'm still using WordPerfect 6.1 and Lotus 2.01 as well asthe latest version of Photoshop. Compatibility is available for those who seek it. However, one cannot blindly go into CompUSA or some such and buy a computer "off the shelf" without doing their homework. People go to Consumer's Reports and readabout refrigerators and toasters, buy car magazines to learn about the new cars they are considering, and in general do their homework to some degree.Buying a computer is no different in that regard. Shel[Original Message] From: Malcolm SmithFor once, my sympathies lie with the public. Operating systems over theyears have made it become simpler and simpler to operate computers and yet to keep up with technology, you need a more powerful machine, which folkknow less and less about. As folk update hardware, their need to 'knowhow'to work it becomes more unnecessary, along with the fact that the storage methods used on previous machines aren't brought forward or are superseded on the new. I know lots of people with floppy discs, zip discs or CDs with their pictures stored on them, which their new machines can't access. Howdoyou expect the non-technical average user to buy into a new system andmethod of storage, when every few years it's been superseded and been madeobsolete? You used to take film pictures and put the results in thedrawer.Now you have much more convenience on taking and sharing those images, butfor most people long term storage is an unknown - even when they try.-- When you're worried or in doubt, Run in circles, (scream and shout).
