Re: backup archive format saved to disk
On Fri, Dec 08, 2006 at 11:26:19AM -0500, hendrik@topoi.pooq.com wrote:
> On Thu, Dec 07, 2006 at 05:23:16PM -0600, Ron Johnson wrote:
> > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> > Hash: SHA1
> >
> > On 12/07/06 11:26, hendrik@topoi.pooq.com wrote:
> >
> > > Did you ever write any code in the 1970's that can't be run any more?
> > > I did.
> >
> > Shame on you for not writing in a portable language. Go COBOL!!!
>
> I actually did my non-surviving code in assembler for the IBM 1620, a
> decimal machine. I believe I had a Fortran II compiler available --
> that was in the days before Fortran had been standardized.
>
> In the 70's I wrote most of an Algol 68 compiler in Algol W. The intent
> was to rewrite it in Algol 68 when it was done. Conversion would
> probably be done (mostly) mechanically, but funding ran out shortly
> before the first comnpiler was quite finished.
I wish there was an interactive museum where old-tech guys like me could
go play with the old stuff. My sense is that programmers of your
generation wrote tighter code than is common today since you had such
limited (compared to now) memory, processing, etc, into which to
shoe-horn things.
I'm glad you guys are taking the time to share your wisdom and
experience here. Thank you.
Doug.
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