Re: IBM Maintenance Withdrawal

Peter Klyne wrote:

> Without dating myself, faint hope, I used the 010 to punch my early
> programmes in SPS (Symbolic Programming System) for the 1401 with a
> truly massive 4000 characters of Memory (Including the physical IO
> buffers)  Autocoder came soon after.
>

Just to contribute to the "distance and accuracy" contest going on, I left High
School and a quarter of Fortran IV on a S/360 running (shudder!! DOS) to
"graduate" to a 1403? and "Absolute"?  Somewhere in the cob webs I recall the
opcodes were the hex values 41 to read 42 to write and variables were memory
addresses.  The only reason I have ANY memory of this is that 10 years after the
fact I coded a programmable 3741 (with a 4k processor..I think my Dick Tracy PDA
watch has more..) in maybe APL (A programming language) for an explosives
manufacturer that wanted shipping the FULL 5000 cable feet from their S/34!!.

A part of the "higher" education curriculum was wiring 407(9) boards and 
learning
"unit record" equipment.  Someone had the presence of mind to ask: "How many
employers in the area are using this equipment?"  Answer: two.  And I had to PAY
for this "higher" education! The S/3 had just became the newest fish in the
bigger pond.

The reason I love my career is that given a machine with a CPU and some manuals 
I
could make someone productive and the check signer happy.  Truly all things are
relative.  (Now if you want the fertalizer/diesel fuel formula private email me,
no postal workers allowed  q:-b)

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