9 Feb
2021
9 Feb
'21
4:58 a.m.
In HS COBOL was the only programming class offered. We punched the cards and got overnight
service from the data center for the district. When I was a senior we got an ASR-33 that
talked to a Honeywell at a local uni. With it we could login and run Basic programs.
Real programming (APL, FORTRAN, UCSD Pascal, IBM 360 Assembly) awaited for me at UCSD.
David
On Feb 8, 2021, at 2:20 PM, Dave Horsfall
<dave(a)horsfall.org> wrote:
On Sat, 6 Feb 2021, John Cowan wrote:
> I'm probably a youngster in this crowd
(no, I'm not calling you old > farts, more like people with a long history I
respect and am willing > to learn from).
In computer circles, that is what "old
fart" means.
I know that I'm gonna be outclassed here, but I taught myself BASIC, ALGOL, and
FORTRAN (ugh! well, it was WATFOR then WATFIV) from my school days in the late 60s
onwards.
COBOL tried to be drilled into me, but I firmly rejected it (but for some odd reason I
still know it, but deny all knowledge of it).
-- Dave