Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2012/12/26

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Subject: [Leica] Some artifacts at the Computer History Museum IMG:
From: john at mcmaster.co.nz (John McMaster)
Date: Thu, 27 Dec 2012 03:00:40 +0000
References: <B9188149-0D87-49FC-8D17-6D0E45E52936@acm.org> <2B4E44DA-B12F-447D-8D57-1F70B73133D0@frozenlight.eu> <1356078638.99316.YahooMailNeo@web87403.mail.ir2.yahoo.com> <040801cddf9f$e28a9720$a79fc560$@gmail.com> <1356110884.23266.YahooMailNeo@web87402.mail.ir2.yahoo.com> <80F9701439F20347874CE5E4E03C22E99CD3825B@WhizzMAIL01.whizz.org> <CAAxL04M-bbc5SBQCJOcftHTp+UNKE81SPo9wWT+cR7dGfWq=qw@mail.gmail.com>

Studying what?

john

> -----Original Message-----
> 
> Small world.  I also went to IC in 1983.
> 
> Joseph
> 
> 
> On Thu, Dec 27, 2012 at 7:39 AM, John McMaster <john at mcmaster.co.nz>
> wrote:
> 
> > Punched cards were still in use at IC Mech Eng in 1982 (the year
> > before I went there)......
> >
> > John - catching up
> >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > >
> > > Hi Piers,
> > > your software could have been running alongside mine then, since I
> > > was at IC!
> > > Your card punching was much more onerous than ours though, at
> > > Imperial there was a room with half a dozen punch machines we could
> > > use (as long
> > as
> > > there was one free).
> > > Frank
> > >
> > > >
> > > >1970-71?
> > > >
> > > >Me too, but in my last year at (high) school, taking an elective
> > > >course. The school had something like 30 minutes each month on the
> > > >Imperial College mainframe in London, which involved gathering
> > > >together the punched cards from the class, sending down to London
> > > >by Royal Mail, receiving back the print out which was then split
> > > >out to each user. I should clarify that the cards were
> > > >pre-semi-punched, meaning that the user had to use a pin to push
> > > >out the chads from each row/column by hand
> > > to code the desired character.
> > > >
> > > >It took a while to do one line of code, even after the time it took
> > > >to learn the fundamentals of Fortran IV programming!
> > > >
> > > >And then it took a while to get the response back from the mainframe.
> > > >
> > > >By post.
> > > >
> > > >Two ways.
> > > >
> > > >(I guess that was half-duplex transmission!).
> > > >
> > > >I remember the impatient waiting for the print-out to come back,
> > > >but my memory of reading it is very clear...
> > > >
> > > >XXX SYNTAX ERROR LINE 100 XXX
> > > >
> > > >The school later graduated to having its own ICL1900 (if memory
> > > >serves) on site, long after I had left. Wouldn't have made any
> > > >difference to my skill-level!
> > > >
> > > >Piers
> > > >


Replies: Reply from jkfyao at gmail.com (Joseph Yao) ([Leica] Some artifacts at the Computer History Museum IMG:)
In reply to: Message from kanner at acm.org (Herbert Kanner) ([Leica] Some artifacts at the Computer History Museum IMG:)
Message from photo at frozenlight.eu (Nathan Wajsman) ([Leica] Some artifacts at the Computer History Museum IMG:)
Message from frank.dernie at btinternet.com (FRANK DERNIE) ([Leica] Some artifacts at the Computer History Museum IMG:)
Message from piers.hemy at gmail.com (Piers Hemy) ([Leica] Some artifacts at the Computer History Museum IMG:)
Message from frank.dernie at btinternet.com (FRANK DERNIE) ([Leica] Some artifacts at the Computer History Museum IMG:)
Message from john at mcmaster.co.nz (John McMaster) ([Leica] Some artifacts at the Computer History Museum IMG:)
Message from jkfyao at gmail.com (Joseph Yao) ([Leica] Some artifacts at the Computer History Museum IMG:)