mikkel@cg-d.UUCP (03/23/87)
Of course, we (of my generation) were exposed to our share of
IBM 1620's, 1130's, and 360/30-E's. What I first learned to
"program", was none of there. Prior to learning PDP-6/10 allembly
language at MIT, most of my programming was on an Ollivetti-Underwood
Programma 101.
My heart still yearns for the flashing red and green lights ...
the internal delay line ... the program cards ... the precision wheel ...
and the "Gen Reset" button.
Sigh ...
Anyone know where I can find one for a fix?
-- Carl
+--------------------------+-----------------------+
| Carl Mikkelsen | ..!decvax!cg-d!mikkel |
| Compugraphic Corporation | (617) 658-5600 x 5220 |
| 200 Ballardvale St. | {Not responsible for} |
| Wilmington, Ma. 01887 | {much except myself.} |
+--------------------------+-----------------------+perkins@bnrmtv.UUCP (03/24/87)
> Of course, we (of my generation) were exposed to our share of > IBM 1620's, 1130's, and 360/30-E's. What I first learned to > "program", was none of there. Prior to learning PDP-6/10 allembly > language at MIT, most of my programming was on an Ollivetti-Underwood > Programma 101. > > My heart still yearns for the flashing red and green lights ... > the internal delay line ... the program cards ... the precision wheel ... > and the "Gen Reset" button. > > | Carl Mikkelsen | ..!decvax!cg-d!mikkel | Ah, yes. Simple, straightforward instructions like "B split downarrow". I remember what satisfaction it gave me to write a program to compute sines and cosines. Programs could be up to 120 steps, but anything that long used up all your registers for program storage. Those were the good old days. -- {hplabs,amdahl,3comvax}!bnrmtv!perkins --Henry Perkins It is better never to have been born. But who among us has such luck? One in a million, perhaps.
dean@hyper.UUCP (03/27/87)
in article <310@cg-d.UUCP>, mikkel@cg-d.UUCP (Carl Mikkelsen X5220) says: > Prior to learning PDP-6/10 allembly > language at MIT, most of my programming was on an Ollivetti-Underwood > Programma 101. > > My heart still yearns for the flashing red and green lights ... > the internal delay line ... the program cards ... the precision wheel ... > and the "Gen Reset" button. > > Sigh ... > > Anyone know where I can find one for a fix? > > -- Carl Ah yes; the Programma 101. I've got one in my basement, but the last time I tried it, the printer didn't work (it just sat there and hummed to itself). One of these days, I should really try getting it fixed, just to be able to run the "free coffee" program again... (I bought it at the local Goodwill store. It had apparently been owned by the engineering department at Honeywell, and it came with a number of programs on the program cards, one of which was a number-guessing game which would print out "free coffee" down the page when the number was finally guessed) They don't make 'em like that any more... Dean C. Gahlon ...ihnp4!umn-cs!hyper!dean
kent@xanth.UUCP (03/27/87)
In article <1540@bnrmtv.UUCP> perkins@bnrmtv.UUCP (Henry Perkins) writes: >> Of course, we (of my generation) were exposed to our share of >> IBM 1620's, 1130's, and 360/30-E's. What I first learned to >> "program", was none of there. Prior to learning PDP-6/10 allembly >> language at MIT, most of my programming was on an Ollivetti-Underwood >> Programma 101. >> >> | Carl Mikkelsen | ..!decvax!cg-d!mikkel | > > Ah, yes. Simple, straightforward instructions like "B split >downarrow". I remember what satisfaction it gave me to write a >program to compute sines and cosines. Programs could be up to >120 steps, but anything that long used up all your registers for >program storage. Those were the good old days. >-- >{hplabs,amdahl,3comvax}!bnrmtv!perkins --Henry Perkins While I got my start on the IBM 1620 in 1961, and glory in having programmed a machine in decimal absolute machine language, I remember 13 years later using a Wang Programmable desk calculator (paper tape, Nixie tube readout, about 200 memory locations) to do a geodetic resection calculation (smirk; translation: finding the location of a point on the earth's surface by measuring angles to a surround of objects with known locations; much harder than the corresponding geodetic intersection problem, where you stand on the know locations). The satisfaction I got from doing such a complex calculation with such simple equipment (although it carried something like 15 or 18 decimal digits) has rarely been equaled since. Only time I ever published a piece of software, too (NOAA had a lot of those old paperweights on survey vessels). -- Kent Paul Dolan, "The Contradictor", 25 years as a programmer, CS MS Student at ODU, Norfolk, Virginia, to find out how I was supposed to be doing this stuff all these years. 3D dynamic motion graphics a specialty. Work wanted. Unemployment is soooo nice though...I never have to disclaim anything! UUCP : kent@xanth.UUCP or ...seismo!decuac!edison!xanth!kent CSNET : kent@odu.csnet ARPA : kent@xanth.cs.odu.edu Voice : (804) 587-7760 USnail: P.O. Box 1559, Norfolk, Va 23501-1559 Copyright 1987 Kent Paul Dolan. All Rights Reserved. Incorporation of this material in a collective retransmission constitutes permission from the intermediary to all recipients to freely retransmit the entire collection. Use on any other basis is prohibited by the author.