Re: Debian Support for IBM xSeries 360

[rlharris@broadcaster.org (Russell L. Harris)]

John Hasler <jhasler@debian.org> writes:

> hendrik writes:
>> Before that, an IBM 1620...
>
> Someone else who started out on a 1620.  I never got to do anything with it
> but submit FORTRAN decks, though.
>
> -- 
> John Hasler

Most of the people who complain loudest about the difficulties of
printing in Linux never had to depend upon an IBM line printer, the
input to which was in the form of 80-column punched cards. ;-) And most
of them never knew the utter rapture of owing your very own Epson MX-80,
and the frustration of the variety of handshaking schemes used with the
RS-232 serial interface.

Walking across campus to an 8 o'clock class, you often would encounter a
bleary-eyed undergrad staggering back to his dorm after an all-night
session with the IBM 1620.  He was easy to spot, being the one carrying
a box or two of punch cards.  Among those cards typically was a copy of
the Fortran-II compiler for the 1620.  The compiler deck which was kept
in the computer always was getting corrupted, so many students made a
copy for themselves, just to be safe.

If I recall correctly, until about the mid-1960's it was necessary to
load the 1620 compiler with each job.  Finally someone patched the
compiler so it would remain resident in memory, and called it "FLAG",
for "Fortran Load and Go".

RLH