Fw: Anyone want to buy a supercomputer?
We are fortunate to have lived in time to see the progress from those early days, to machines that actually think and very soon the emergence of AGI. Ron Smith r...@mrt4.com -- Begin forwarded message: Date: Wed, 1 May 2024 20:04:55 + From: Jeffry Smith To: "gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org" Subject: Anyone want to buy a supercomputer? https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2024/04/us-government-auctions-5-34-petaflop-cheyenne-supercomputer/ Useful for running your Basic programs https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/05/the-basic-programming-language-turns-60/ Jeff ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: Anyone want to buy a supercomputer?
Personally I've only used punch cards as free flash cards. My dad provided them as he retired legacy systems when I was in kindergarten. FWIW I was in the basement of a large company 4 years ago and stumbled across two punch card machines that I thought were in storage, a week later I discovered them running a program. Today I'm working on updating a radar system from Vax/VMS to modern hardware. If anyone is interested in also working on updating a system written in Ada on VMS and moving it to Linux using Ada and C++ drop me a line. Richard J. Kolb On Thu, May 2, 2024 at 10:49 AM Mark E. Mallett wrote: > On Wed, May 01, 2024 at 07:52:37PM -0400, jon.maddog.h...@gmail.com wrote: > ... > > > So BASIC has a lot of detractors, mostly due to the infamous "GOTO". > > FORTRAN's "computed goto" put that to shame ;) > > > > So here is to you, BASIC! You moved a lot of people forward. > > Indeed. > > -mm- (no thanks on the supercomputer) > > > PS: Some time in the mid-70s I wrote a FORTRAN preprocessor that > allowed the use of symbolic labels. It could also renumber labels, > move format statements to their own section with their own number > grouping. A la ratfor I guess, tho I had never heard of that (it > sort of barely existed then anyway). > > PPS: I only ever took one language course in my ignoble time at college, > prior to the thing in the PS above. It was FORTRAN. I took it three > times because I failed it twice, me being a horrible student and > distracted by.. well, computers. The third time I got a D. The final > term project was returned with a red scrawl over the front page saying > "I asked for a project, not a thesis." That was sort of on my mind > because I think I had that printout up until about a week ago when it > was accidentally thrown out by somebody working on the house here. > > Ah, nostalgia. I remember that. > > ___ > gnhlug-discuss mailing list > gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org > http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/ > ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: Anyone want to buy a supercomputer?
On Wed, May 01, 2024 at 07:52:37PM -0400, jon.maddog.h...@gmail.com wrote: ... > So BASIC has a lot of detractors, mostly due to the infamous "GOTO". FORTRAN's "computed goto" put that to shame ;) > So here is to you, BASIC! You moved a lot of people forward. Indeed. -mm- (no thanks on the supercomputer) PS: Some time in the mid-70s I wrote a FORTRAN preprocessor that allowed the use of symbolic labels. It could also renumber labels, move format statements to their own section with their own number grouping. A la ratfor I guess, tho I had never heard of that (it sort of barely existed then anyway). PPS: I only ever took one language course in my ignoble time at college, prior to the thing in the PS above. It was FORTRAN. I took it three times because I failed it twice, me being a horrible student and distracted by.. well, computers. The third time I got a D. The final term project was returned with a red scrawl over the front page saying "I asked for a project, not a thesis." That was sort of on my mind because I think I had that printout up until about a week ago when it was accidentally thrown out by somebody working on the house here. Ah, nostalgia. I remember that. ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: Anyone want to buy a supercomputer?
FORTRAN was the first programming language I learned. Then used it to model laser modes for thesis. Punch cards. I don't remember what was the university's mainframe called. Today I'm still helping users who write, compile and run FORTRAN programs on Linux servers. -- Šarūnas Burdulis Dartmouth Mathematics math.dartmouth.edu/~sarunas · https://useplaintext.email · OpenPGP_signature.asc Description: OpenPGP digital signature ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: Anyone want to buy a supercomputer?
Thanks Jeff and Maddog. I learned Fortran II ( then Fortran IV) on an IBM 4044 in 1965 and GE timesharing basic. All input to the 4044 was punch cards. Being in ROTC, I went right into the Army, then to Viet Nam. No computers until 1970 -- Jerry Feldman Boston Linux and Unix http://www.blu.org On Wed, May 1, 2024, 10:35 PM jon.maddog.h...@gmail.com < jonhal...@comcast.net> wrote: > My first language was FORTRAN, using punched cards on an IBM 1130 in 1969, > but when I went to teach at Hartford State Technical College in 1977-1980 > we used BASIC-PLUS on a DEC PDP 11/70 running RSTS/E as a time-sharing > operating system. > > Students in those days had no computers at home, and many typically had no > computer classes in high school. The first time they touched a computer > keyboard was in my "Introduction to Computer Programming" class. > > When you first logged into your RSTS/E account you were immediately > talking to the BASIC-PLUS interpreter, more or less like to talk to a shell > interpreter today. > > READY > > was the output given to you. > > If you typed in the line without a line number, the line was executed > immediately, so you could use it as a "calculator": > > Print 5*3 > > would give you "15" as an answer. If you typed in a line number at the > beginning of the line it stored the command in line order: > > 10 Let A=3 > 20 Let B=5 > 30 Print A*B > 40 END > > Run > > would give you the same answer, but the values of "A" and "B" would stay > in memory as would the rest of the program. > > With BASIC-PLUS you did not need an editor (you could use one, but you did > not NEED it). You did not have to know what a compiler was or a Linker or > know how to use a fancy debugger. > > Students could start writing programs (albeit sometimes crappy programs) > from day 1. > > On the other hand I taught a group of electrical technology students a > course in how to write FORTRAN. I was allowed eight weeks (a summer > course) instead of the traditional 13 weeks. Even I thought this was > crazy, but the administration told me it had been done many times before. > > The administration lied. > > Most of the students just got past the stage of being able to edit, > compile and link a simple program before the course was over. > So BASIC has a lot of detractors, mostly due to the infamous "GOTO". But > BASIC-PLUS also allowed you to write and call subroutines and functions. > > So here is to you, BASIC! You moved a lot of people forward. > > md > > On 05/01/2024 4:04 PM EDT Jeffry Smith wrote: > > > > https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2024/04/us-government-auctions-5-34-petaflop-cheyenne-supercomputer/ > > > Useful for running your Basic programs > https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/05/the-basic-programming-language-turns-60/ > > Jeff > ___ > gnhlug-discuss mailing list > gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org > http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/ > > ___ > gnhlug-discuss mailing list > gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org > http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/ > ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
