Klarinet Archive - Posting 000035.txt from 2012/02

From: "Daniel Leeson" <leesondaniel899@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] IBM 1620
Date: Thu, 02 Feb 2012 10:14:06 -0500

If you studied the IBM 1620, then you must have
used my book, the title of which was "BASIC
PROGRAMMING CONCEPTS AND THE IBM 1620."

And the first computer course that Steve Jobs took
used my book so I have often thought that I taught
Steve Jobs how to use a computer.

I still get letters from people in rather high
places in computer science academia who used my
book in their first computer learning experience.

Dan Leeson
email: dnleeson@-----.net
alternate email: leesondaniel899@-----.net

-----Original Message-----
From: Fred [mailto:vze2bsbs@-----.net]
Sent: Thursday, February 02, 2012 6:00 AM
To: The Klarinet Mailing List
Subject: Re: [kl] IBM 1620

WOW - I started at age 20 in 1968 on an IBM 1130
and vividly remember
exactly the same programming experience you
describe. It was
wonderful!!! However, by this time I did not have
to also load the
compiler deck, so I guess things were advanced to
the point where the
computer itself was storing the essential
operating software. But I
can say this got me totally hooked on computers
and
programming! Then I would go to my class in
whatever and before
anyone arrived practiced clarinet for a while!
Really. I never
stopped doing either.

Fred

At 08:23 AM 2/2/2012, you wrote:
>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/FORT
R
> >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.
> >_______________________________________________
> >Klarinet mailing list
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go
> >to:
> >http://klarinet-list.serve-music.com
> >
> >_______________________________________________
> >Klarinet mailing list
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> >To do darn near anything to your subscription,
go to:
> >http://klarinet-list.serve-music.com
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>Klarinet mailing list
>Klarinet@-----.com
>To do darn near anything to your subscription, go
to:
>http://klarinet-list.serve-music.com

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