I'm new to SFF, but definitely not to computers.
I started working professionally in computers way back in 1966. So far back in fact, that I once made the mistake of describing what 'computers' were like when I first started. After that, I'm sure she thought I must have come out of the primordial ooze.
For you see, back then, despite being in the aerospace industry our 'computer' did not have a stored program, so was not really a computer - in the modern sense. It was a Punched Card Tabulator, whose only means of storing data was in 80 column punched cards any 'Programming' as such was done with a plug board.
Believe me that's quite a constraint on systems design and hysterically SLOW! Every record was limited to 80 characters long. All files had to be kept in usually numeric order. To update a master file, you had to sort the incoming cards to the same sequence in a punched card sorter - one column at a time. These were then fed into a Gang Punch, with the Master File Cards in one hopper and the Transaction File Cards in another. When the Gang Punch found a match, it would read the Master Record through one set of wires into an accumulator and the Value of the Transaction through another set of wires, update the value and spit out an updated Master File Record into an output hopper. These then had to be merged back into the Master File and the old records removed.
We did eventually start using a 'real' computer that had Master Files on magnetic tape and programs that had to be read in on punched cards before every run. So, everything still had to be kept sequentially. Transactions were still on 80 column cards and had to be punched and verified by another operator, before they were input. The only output, at that stage, were line printers.
I did see one of the original Xerox machines in the early seventies, I think. It had a Visual Display Unit or VDU (monitor to you), a keyboard and mouse. But they were so expensive that they were never brought to market.
It wasn't until the mid-seventies that I started working with a Digital PDP-11 Minicomputer which had a pair of 2.8MB Hard Drives (one for Backup), a VDU, matrix printer and 48K of Core Memory - and a shoehorn to make programs fit! It was about the size of two filing cabinets on top of each other! After about ten years of being constrained by card in and line printer out, I can remember thinking when I first saw the VDU "Now, I’ll be able to see what is going on whilst a program is running, but what am I going to do with that?".
It did have an implementation of interactive BASIC that enabled interactive debugging – what a revolution in productivity that was! However, when it was first delivered, I was distressed to learn that it did not have a visual editor. (You know the sort of thing that everyone uses every day now, where you can place the cursor anywhere on the screen and add or change anything you like.) So, I spent the first three months developing one. As you can image that was not easy, with only one screen that had to be used for running and debugging at the same time. For, once anything went wrong you had to stop and start again.
Come to think of it, I can remember:
So why am I interested in SFF Builds? Well, I built my first 286 in 1986 and my first Server in 2010. I have had a laptop since they first came out. But my last laptop has just died. I have also realised that in all that time, I hardly ever operated one without plugging it in. My mobile needs are now satisfied with a Samsung Tablet and a Nokia phone. So, what I really need is a portable computer that I can carry with me, whenever I need more power. Hence my interest in SFF – but more of that later.
I started working professionally in computers way back in 1966. So far back in fact, that I once made the mistake of describing what 'computers' were like when I first started. After that, I'm sure she thought I must have come out of the primordial ooze.
For you see, back then, despite being in the aerospace industry our 'computer' did not have a stored program, so was not really a computer - in the modern sense. It was a Punched Card Tabulator, whose only means of storing data was in 80 column punched cards any 'Programming' as such was done with a plug board.
Believe me that's quite a constraint on systems design and hysterically SLOW! Every record was limited to 80 characters long. All files had to be kept in usually numeric order. To update a master file, you had to sort the incoming cards to the same sequence in a punched card sorter - one column at a time. These were then fed into a Gang Punch, with the Master File Cards in one hopper and the Transaction File Cards in another. When the Gang Punch found a match, it would read the Master Record through one set of wires into an accumulator and the Value of the Transaction through another set of wires, update the value and spit out an updated Master File Record into an output hopper. These then had to be merged back into the Master File and the old records removed.
We did eventually start using a 'real' computer that had Master Files on magnetic tape and programs that had to be read in on punched cards before every run. So, everything still had to be kept sequentially. Transactions were still on 80 column cards and had to be punched and verified by another operator, before they were input. The only output, at that stage, were line printers.
I did see one of the original Xerox machines in the early seventies, I think. It had a Visual Display Unit or VDU (monitor to you), a keyboard and mouse. But they were so expensive that they were never brought to market.
It wasn't until the mid-seventies that I started working with a Digital PDP-11 Minicomputer which had a pair of 2.8MB Hard Drives (one for Backup), a VDU, matrix printer and 48K of Core Memory - and a shoehorn to make programs fit! It was about the size of two filing cabinets on top of each other! After about ten years of being constrained by card in and line printer out, I can remember thinking when I first saw the VDU "Now, I’ll be able to see what is going on whilst a program is running, but what am I going to do with that?".
It did have an implementation of interactive BASIC that enabled interactive debugging – what a revolution in productivity that was! However, when it was first delivered, I was distressed to learn that it did not have a visual editor. (You know the sort of thing that everyone uses every day now, where you can place the cursor anywhere on the screen and add or change anything you like.) So, I spent the first three months developing one. As you can image that was not easy, with only one screen that had to be used for running and debugging at the same time. For, once anything went wrong you had to stop and start again.
Come to think of it, I can remember:
- Programmers being relieved when assembler first came out, as they no-longer had to program in binary.
- Programmers not being able to use Disks properly, when they first came out, because operating systems had no direct-access mechanism - they just used them as fast mag tapes.
- Not being impressed by early colour VDUs. I couldn’t see what use, coloured characters would be.
- Using an Acoustic Coupler from home in the mid-seventies, at 50 characters per second, when I got the mumps. This was before Telecoms Companies allowed you to connect anything to their network – in case you blew it up!
- Chasing a mouse (one with a tail), into a fan inside an early mode – in an effort to get it out.
- Being a telecommuter four days a week from 1984 onwards.
- De-bugging linear programming optimisation software from home on a remote computer and sharing screens with someone on the other side of the World – before the Internet was invented.
So why am I interested in SFF Builds? Well, I built my first 286 in 1986 and my first Server in 2010. I have had a laptop since they first came out. But my last laptop has just died. I have also realised that in all that time, I hardly ever operated one without plugging it in. My mobile needs are now satisfied with a Samsung Tablet and a Nokia phone. So, what I really need is a portable computer that I can carry with me, whenever I need more power. Hence my interest in SFF – but more of that later.
