On Fri, Aug 18, 2006 at 07:35:00PM +0000, Andrew M.A. Cater wrote: > On Fri, Aug 18, 2006 at 12:04:23PM -0700, Andrew Sackville-West wrote: > > > > > > > sometime in the far distant future, paleontologists will be debating > > the classic questions like: Which came first? The compiler or the OS? > > > > Pencil and paper was enough to code up the design for the Zuse > computers, the operating system and act as the first assembler. > Compiler, OS and concepts were simultaneous. > > More impressive but more limited technology from the same time frame: > Colossus had teleprinter punch tape readers that are still amongst the > fastest in existence: the tapes are read optically by running at speed > over photocells. In tests, the tape was run at 60 m.p.h (96 k.p.h): > operational speed ran at up to 30 m.p.h (48 k.p.h) - they were frightened > of the yield strength of wartime paper and the consequences of an accident. > > You can solve the Y2K problem and also the leap year problem fairly > straightforwardly on this class of hardware - just run them both in > 1944 :) nice bit of history. thanks. A
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