I can de-trump that _____

Post #32,082 by Ashton 3/13/02 6:18:24 PM Reply	I can de-trump that ______:-\ufffd PDP-8 !! ASR-33, paper tape (still have one of my Argghhh33 BCD tape-reading programs of a few octal commands = on paper tape, natch). Ahhh... that smoked-grey plastic cover and all those un-coded yellow wires on the backplane. How many fabrication folk had to be committed, after a dozen iterations (?) Yep, these namby pamby CRT-slaves don't know what Reel computing was like.. jes like - they never heard The Shadow or Charlie McCarthy and gots no idea how Much better radio was (for mysteries n'stuff cf. Orson Welles) than Tee Vee. ..buncha pampered dilettantes! Ashton Damn.. my Emerson needs a 35Z5, and a Nixie's out in the NLS counter, too. My utterly biased and incompetent view of 'VB' is - were I to pay any attention to it, I would be constantly reminded of Billy's sordid history; that I was contributing to his continuance.. so then next: I'd be nauseous. I can live with the irrationality. But not with 'VB'. Or .NET or
Post #32,111 by a6l6e6x 3/14/02 12:10:22 AM 3/14/02 12:13:14 AM Reply	Oh Yeh? I did assembler on the PDP-1 in 1961! Really. :) 18-bit word machine. Paper tapes produced on a Flexowriter. [link\|http://www.dbit.com/~greeng3/pdp1/pdp1.html\|PDP-1 Link.] Alex "Never express yourself more clearly than you think." -- Neils Bohr (1885-1962) Edited by a6l6e6x March 14, 2002, 12:13:14 AM EST Expand All History
Post #32,117 by Ashton 3/14/02 1:56:11 AM Reply	{waves whiteflag} .. OK they had a PDP-5 too, but - What was most fun was the process: 1) Write out the code in octal 2) Punch the cards for the CDC-6600 3) Order batch job (CPU time: 1 mS) 4) Fetch and bring back Big 10.5" reel of tape (.0000000001% used) 5) Run local tapedrive and punch paper tape 6) RIM for PDP-8, use switches to load binary for ~12 boot instr. 7) Run tape (!) on ASR-33 8) Now.. you can see if it worked. If not? 9) GoTo 1) ..the exercise alone, running up the hill to CDC territory, pretendin to be a geek - even kept one 'in shape' (the Real hidden cost of CRT coding... is skipping steps 2) thru 8)) A. just not cut out for it..
Post #32,125 by static 3/14/02 5:59:48 AM Reply	I remember... ... programming a kit micro-computer. In machine code. 'Twas a kit for electronics hobbyists featuring a Z80, 2k RAM, 20 button keypad, 6 LED digits and an expansion socket. Programming required copious pencil and paper, and an op-code listing. It was really after I lost interest that I found out that the Z80 op-codes were designed by thinkers in octal, not hexadecimal. Wade. "All around me are nothing but fakes Come with me on the biggest fake of all!"
Post #32,357 by jb4 3/15/02 1:38:29 PM Reply	I'll see yer PDP-8... (..on which I learned the fine art of programming...)...and raise you a Signetics 2650. jb4 (Resistance is not futile...)
Post #32,402 by hnick 3/15/02 5:58:22 PM Reply	Cool... the problem with this kind of thing is... when you forget to take it off your resume. A couple jobs back, ~8 years or so, I neglected to scrape RMX and ISIS off the trailing end of my resume. I had hired on as a contractor with flexible duties, and wouldn't you know, every time there was a problem with the legacy RMX stuff, I got to handle it. There's a lot of stuff that was kinda fun at the time, made you feel shit hot at the time, but you really wouldn't want to have to do it again. For the record, I HATED paper tape and Hollorith (sp?) cards. I threw away the S-100 Z80 machine I built about 10 years ago. Didn't even have a hard drive... imagine... More recently, I pitched my 8 inch floppies, then the 5 1/4 ones. I don't really think that the good old days were good enough to go back to. The fine parts are nice to dwell upon, but most of the experience is better forgotten... (picking through core dumps, brain dead monitor programs, editors that made vi look intuitive... the list can be ghastly.) On the other paw, if this is a version of "mine's bigger than yours", on with the games! Regards, Hugh
Post #32,413 by Ashton 3/15/02 8:38:31 PM Reply	I can romanticize the era a bit since, I escaped --> where it was leading (apparently, as we read today's little entry in Microsoft Guilty forum) to merely and permanently: All Windoze All the Time or, yer a Terrorist and the Home Guard will getcha.. Sorry guy n' gals, but the trend seems to be: any imaginable progress in your field has just about been ceded to - almost any location far enough off-shore. You are all about to retire or become Ballmerized (if not incarcerated too). Ashton nostalgia ain't what it used to be..

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