Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2012/12/26
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Electronic engineering. Then off to UCL in 1986. On Thu, Dec 27, 2012 at 11:00 AM, John McMaster <john at mcmaster.co.nz> wrote: > 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 > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information >