Greg, we seem to be of the same vintage - Class of 74. Fresh publications of 'Chambers 7 figure log tables' could still be purchased in 1975 when, along with a slide rule, I was required to have them for first year engineering. Log Tables / Slide Rule, same principle - who'd have thought you could multiply numbers by adding their logs and looking up the reverse log. In mid-1974 I may have been one of the first in Australia to have a HP21 calculator. It began the love affair nearly all engineers have with Reverse Polish Notation (not sure if still the case today). 1975 was also the year of the PDP-8 and punch card machines (Fortran & Basic) for me and then some main frame I only ever saw once because you had to deliver up a stack of pencil-mark cards for overnight processing only to get reams of large multi-fold paper the next day to say there was an error in line 276 (a crash). You could always resubmit the next night to find the error in line 305. Imagine today if you had to wait overnight for each error !! There was also an electric adding machine in my life a little at that time. It would clunk and churn for a minute or two to add numbers by spinning internal wheels after pushing the hundred or two mechanical buttons on the front. The PC and DOS came later. Did anyone ever use the DOS PDQ library for the US? PDQ for Pretty Damn Quick. It was for QuickBasic (probably only engineering types - not programmers who I believe went to COBOL like you). Enjoyed your computer history page ..
From: ozdotnet-boun...@ozdotnet.com [mailto:ozdotnet-boun...@ozdotnet.com] On Behalf Of Greg Keogh Sent: Sunday, 14 July 2013 9:13 PM To: ozDotNet Subject: Re: [OT] My "computer history" page You lived in luxury !! - I had to endure Chambers 7 figure log tables Holey schmoley, I never knew that 7 figure tables existed. I ran a search and came up with a picture here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Chambers-Seven-Figure-Mathematical-Tables-Trigonomet rical/dp/B00200WFG0 It's not just a thin booklet, it's a hardcover "book". I imagine these were expensive and only used for real science. The one in the link is going for 5 quid, so maybe I'll buy it. It's from 1948, which makes sense in comparison to the timeline of the computer. Greg No virus found in this message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 2013.0.3349 / Virus Database: 3204/6489 - Release Date: 07/13/13
