... what I think will be positive trends. For example I tried to introduce the old main frame programmers at the auto companies to embrace PCs and object oriented programming, and they laughed and clung to their keypunches and IBM main Frames, until G.M had to turn to EDS and a bunch of kids to get them into the modern age. Basically what I do is try to "Accentuate the positive", and call...
... a day or so later, just like you then took the deck to the submit bin to have it run by the gods of the center...ah, the good old days when the excuse of "it's in keypunch" was a valid one... :) Well that all makes sense. I was having trouble figuring out what could be male or female about holes in cards. We now have this brave new world of dangling chads. Gosh, I wonder if ...
... centers, a group of key-punch operators in a room somewhere. One coded or entered input data manually on coding/data forms, took it to the input clerk and got the punched deck back a day or so later, just like you then took the deck to the submit bin to have it run by the gods of the center...ah, the good old days when the excuse of "it's in keypunch" was a valid one... :) --
... is probably a bad idea. Using + would not have been so bad, though. The tradition of sequential numbers for continuations would have started the second line with 1.14, which would also have been confusing. I do remember once using / for a continuation character, not realizing that the control card in the keypunch applied numeric shift to column 6. The result was 0. -- glen
...bit floats? The TOPS-10 Fortran compiler for the 36 bit PDP-10 accepted REAL*4 for single and REAL*8 for double precision. REAL*8 is shorter, easier to type (keypunch) without mistakes, and easier to read than DOUBLE PRECISION. -- glen Some programmers, particularly those experienced in C (like you) often criticize long keywords in other languages as being hard to type....
... Fortran compiler for the 36 bit PDP-10 accepted REAL*4 for single and REAL*8 for double precision. So, REAL*4 meant "four nine-bit 'bytes'"? REAL*8 is shorter, easier to type (keypunch) without mistakes, and easier to read than DOUBLE PRECISION. I used to have a small number of cards with DOUBLE PRECISION on them. It takes seconds to dup a dozen more of them. These days I use...
James Giles wrote: (snip) What's REAL*4 on a machine with 36-bit floats? The TOPS-10 Fortran compiler for the 36 bit PDP-10 accepted REAL*4 for single and REAL*8 for double precision. REAL*8 is shorter, easier to type (keypunch) without mistakes, and easier to read than DOUBLE PRECISION. -- glen
... to discuss (debug) a listing over the phone withouut a common listing in from of you. How do you pronounce Test, test and TEST when you are in a hurray? Long before C was around and keypunchs were the standard folks found that adding those leading blanks were a drag so the "real men" did not bother. And all the young men who think old still follow those rules. Coffee in the morning is...
... to echo the inputs would seem to be good advice. Particularly if you are dealing with the slightly fussy issue of formatting and some hazy memories of what practices where back when O26 keypunchs were avant guard gear. Spacing was for more than just tidy listings! The formatting fussiness also applies literals in the program as they will be the default precision (single) unless you take ...
...should you have separate file/cpu servers? I also really would like to see an SF-bay meeting, if only to see Plan9 in action. I've been using command-line interfaces since teletypes & 026 keypunches, and I remain convinced that I could learn another one. I've been trying to think of ways to evangelize rio and acme. It's a tough sell - there ...
