Do I remember paper tape? The first "computer" I worked on was actually
just a teletype machine that used an acoustically coupled modem to tie
into a mainframe (or something) at the University of Minnesota in
Minneapolis (I started college at the Brainerd State Community College,
which was an extension of the U of M at the time).
We would type our programs into paper tape, then upload them via the
modem connection for execution. When we did graphs, we printed them out
in ASCII format on the teletype. Quaint I guess you would call it.
Later, the physics department got their first real computer, which was a
desk-top thing made by Olivetti. You would program it through its
console, and record the programs on a magnetic card that was about the
size of a Hollerith card. I think it had a maximum program storage
capability in the neighborhood of 120 instructions. Thankfully, it had a
couple dozen registers that you could "borrow" to store program
instructions, and if you were clever, you could stretch your programs to
over 130 instructions. It had two lights on the front, one red, and one
green. The green light would blink every time it executed an
instruction; about one or two instructions per second (yes, you could
watch it as it executed the instructions). Floating point instructions
were much slower; they would take 3 or 4 seconds to execute each
instruction. If you had a program fault (like divide by zero), the red
light would come on, and it would halt. If you knew your program well,
you could tell where in your program the fault was by counting the
blinking green light flashes and speed.
The first computer company I worked for did not have a "boot" function.
You had to fat-finger the boot in through the console. It was a 20 or 25
instruction program that everyone had to memorize. I also learned to
write "diagnostics" by fat fingering in programs through the console.
Interestingly, the machine was a 24-bit machine. Worked well with either
6-bit "BCD" (pre-ASCII?), or 8-bit ASCII.
Ahhh. the good old days.
bp
<part15sbs{at}gmail{dot}com>
On 7/10/2016 7:23 AM, Ken Hohhof wrote:
Remember paper tape? I remember entering the boot code from toggle
switches to read the OS from paper tape. And I have a vague
recollection of a 2 step compiler or maybe assembler where not only
was the source code on paper tape, but the intermediate step was
punched onto paper tape and then read back in. Or maybe that’s a bad
dream I had.
*From:* Forrest Christian (List Account) <mailto:li...@packetflux.com>
*Sent:* Sunday, July 10, 2016 2:59 AM
*To:* af <mailto:af@afmug.com>
*Subject:* Re: [AFMUG] cnMaestro On-Premise
Some of my really early work was helping to program a system which
used a z80 cp/m system for motion control.
The compile step was long enough for a coffee or soda break.
Assuming the compiler finished without errors, the link step was long
enough to walk to lunch, get lunch, and come back. And still not
finish.
At some point we figured out that the process was disk bound (floppies
are slow). So we built a ram disk card for the s100 system to speed
things up. I think the cp/m driver for that card may have been my
first z80 assembly code. Cut the time to almost nothing..
Sadly, that ended our forced lunch breaks.
On Jul 9, 2016 11:11 PM, "Chuck McCown" <ch...@wbmfg.com
<mailto:ch...@wbmfg.com>> wrote:
How about compiling a fortran program on an Apple IIe and going
for coffee, then a half hour later coming back to see your first
syntax error.
I had a TRS-80 too. And the Timex Sinclair Z80.
*From:* Ken Hohhof <mailto:af...@kwisp.com>
*Sent:* Saturday, July 09, 2016 7:28 PM
*To:* af@afmug.com <mailto:af@afmug.com>
*Subject:* Re: [AFMUG] cnMaestro On-Premise
I remember submitting punchcard decks and waiting a couple hours
for the printout off the mainframe (CDC 6400).
*From:* David Milholen <mailto:dmilho...@wletc.com>
*Sent:* Saturday, July 09, 2016 7:15 PM
*To:* af@afmug.com <mailto:af@afmug.com>
*Subject:* Re: [AFMUG] cnMaestro On-Premise
Got me by a few years in 1979 was my first :)
On 7/9/2016 12:13 AM, Chuck McCown wrote:
But that is not very long...
I wrote my first program in something like 1968.
*From:* Mike Hammett <mailto:af...@ics-il.net>
*Sent:* Friday, July 08, 2016 7:20 PM
*To:* af@afmug.com <mailto:af@afmug.com>
*Subject:* Re: [AFMUG] cnMaestro On-Premise
I've been running VMs for ten years. :-p
-----
Mike Hammett
Intelligent Computing Solutions <http://www.ics-il.com/>
<https://www.facebook.com/ICSIL><https://plus.google.com/+IntelligentComputingSolutionsDeKalb><https://www.linkedin.com/company/intelligent-computing-solutions><https://twitter.com/ICSIL>
Midwest Internet Exchange <http://www.midwest-ix.com/>
<https://www.facebook.com/mdwestix><https://www.linkedin.com/company/midwest-internet-exchange><https://twitter.com/mdwestix>
The Brothers WISP <http://www.thebrotherswisp.com/>
<https://www.facebook.com/thebrotherswisp>
<https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXSdfxQv7SpoRQYNyLwntZg>
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*From: *"Chuck McCown" mailto:ch...@wbmfg.com
*To: *af@afmug.com <mailto:af@afmug.com>
*Sent: *Friday, July 8, 2016 8:17:05 PM
*Subject: *Re: [AFMUG] cnMaestro On-Premise
It is astounding to be witness to such an acceleration of
technology. I remember when VMs were scary experimental. And it
was not all that long ago from my perspective.
*From:* Mike Hammett <mailto:af...@ics-il.net>
*Sent:* Friday, July 08, 2016 7:11 PM
*To:* af@afmug.com <mailto:af@afmug.com>
*Subject:* Re: [AFMUG] cnMaestro On-Premise
You run it as a VM on your platform of choice, though mine is
VMWare. It auto sets up the whole environment, OS and all.
-----
Mike Hammett
Intelligent Computing Solutions <http://www.ics-il.com/>
<https://www.facebook.com/ICSIL><https://plus.google.com/+IntelligentComputingSolutionsDeKalb><https://www.linkedin.com/company/intelligent-computing-solutions><https://twitter.com/ICSIL>
Midwest Internet Exchange <http://www.midwest-ix.com/>
<https://www.facebook.com/mdwestix><https://www.linkedin.com/company/midwest-internet-exchange><https://twitter.com/mdwestix>
The Brothers WISP <http://www.thebrotherswisp.com/>
<https://www.facebook.com/thebrotherswisp>
<https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXSdfxQv7SpoRQYNyLwntZg>
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*From: *"Chuck McCown" mailto:ch...@wbmfg.com
*To: *af@afmug.com <mailto:af@afmug.com>
*Sent: *Friday, July 8, 2016 8:07:42 PM
*Subject: *Re: [AFMUG] cnMaestro On-Premise
I am not much of a VM or linux guy, so please forgive my
ignorance. But does this mean you have to run it on an Ubuntu
machine?
*From:* Mike Hammett <mailto:af...@ics-il.net>
*Sent:* Friday, July 08, 2016 7:04 PM
*To:* af@afmug.com <mailto:af@afmug.com>
*Subject:* [AFMUG] cnMaestro On-Premise
It's very easy to install, comes as an OVA built on Ubuntu 14.04.
It has a nice TUI for the console to do things like changing IPs,
console password, etc.
The web UI has an 8 - 16 character password requirement.
#shittypasswords
-----
Mike Hammett
Intelligent Computing Solutions <http://www.ics-il.com/>
<https://www.facebook.com/ICSIL><https://plus.google.com/+IntelligentComputingSolutionsDeKalb><https://www.linkedin.com/company/intelligent-computing-solutions><https://twitter.com/ICSIL>
Midwest Internet Exchange <http://www.midwest-ix.com/>
<https://www.facebook.com/mdwestix><https://www.linkedin.com/company/midwest-internet-exchange><https://twitter.com/mdwestix>
The Brothers WISP <http://www.thebrotherswisp.com/>
<https://www.facebook.com/thebrotherswisp>
<https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXSdfxQv7SpoRQYNyLwntZg>
--
