On Tuesday 16 May 2006 22:41, Alan Gauld wrote:
> > Heh, you and me both. I cut my teeth on IBM System/370
> > assembler. Last
> > time I had a job where I actually did programming as part of it,
> > it was
> > System/390 machine code. That's right, machine code, not
> > assembler; I'd
> > directly type my hexadecimal programs into low storage at the
> > operator's
> > console.
>
> Hah, if you haven't bootstrapped a VAX using the toggle switches on
> the front panel you ain't a real progammer ;-)
>
> Actually one of our local Universities still starts their computer
> science
> courses by teaching students how to do that, before moving them
> onto machine code, assembler, C and finally Java(*). It's like an
> historical tour
> of computing/programming. The machine code is done on little hex
> keypads with pocket calculator style printout rools! Its only when
> they
> get to C that they get to use a PC!
>
> (*) Actually they get to choose from several languages in their 4th
> (final)
> year, including Lisp and Prolog(both), Haskell and PL/SQL...
> They consistently produce very good graduates, so it seems to work.
>
> Alan G
You chaps are making me nostalgic; days of the 8080A/Z80/F8/6800 when
I built my first computer. In those days 2K of memory was considered
large for a personal computer.
Stan.
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