Klarinet Archive - Posting 000033.txt from 2012/02

From: George Kidder <gkidder@-----.org>
Subj: [kl] IBM 1620
Date: Thu, 02 Feb 2012 08:23:05 -0500

My goodness, yourself! That sure does take me back. I first started into
computers at the old Biophysics Laboratory at Harvard Med. School as a
young post-doc in (I think) 1963, and remember that beast well.

For the benefit of those who missed this experience: To write a program,
you first cut a bunch of key-punch cards, and loaded them into the card
reader along with the first-pass compiler. This produced a stack of
intermediate cards, which were loaded into the reader along with the
second-stage compiler deck. Then, and only then, would it cough and say
"mixed mode", a common error caused (simplified version) by using a
variable name beginning with i, j, k, l, m, or n for a real (as opposed to
an integer) number. Or vice-versa. The amount of hard language this
produced had to be experienced!

I don't remember using Leeson's material, but it's been a long time now. I
never stopped using computers as aids to my work, but it sure got easier
and cheaper.

George

At 06:46 PM 2/1/2012, you wrote:
>My goodness. How did you ever get hold of that
>film? I was the producer and it was made for the
>25th anniversary of the introduction of FORTRAN
>somewhere around 1980. If anything can be credited
>for bringing about the beginning of the computer
>revolution, it was FORTRAN. I don't know if
>anyone uses it today, but it was a cash cow in the
>1950s, 60s, and early 70s, and without it, the
>introduction of large scale computers (which led
>Jobs to the personal computers) would have been
>delayed enormously.
>
>Dan Leeson
>email: dnleeson@-----.net
>alternate email: leesondaniel899@-----.net
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Mark Charette [mailto:charette@-----.org]
>
>Sent: Wednesday, February 01, 2012 1:23 PM
>To: The Klarinet Mailing List
>Subject: Re: [kl] Saying goodbye
>
>I never met Dan, yet I had read some of his early
>work ...
>
>Basic programming concepts and the IBM 1620
>computer
>
>and seen his movie
>
>http://www.softwarepreservation.org/projects/FORTR
>AN/video/FORTRAN-1982.wmv
>
>way before I knew he was interested in clarinets.
>
>Software programming, movies, and the clarinet.
>
>What a guy!
>
>Mark C.
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