Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2012/12/26
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Small world. I also went to IC in 1983. Joseph On Thu, Dec 27, 2012 at 7:39 AM, John McMaster <john at mcmaster.co.nz> wrote: > Punched cards were still in use at IC Mech Eng in 1982 (the year before I > went there)...... > > John - catching up > > > -----Original Message----- > > > > Hi Piers, > > your software could have been running alongside mine then, since I was at > > IC! > > Your card punching was much more onerous than ours though, at Imperial > > there was a room with half a dozen punch machines we could use (as long > as > > there was one free). > > Frank > > > > > > > >1970-71? > > > > > >Me too, but in my last year at (high) school, taking an elective > > >course. The school had something like 30 minutes each month on the > > >Imperial College mainframe in London, which involved gathering together > > >the punched cards from the class, sending down to London by Royal Mail, > > >receiving back the print out which was then split out to each user. I > > >should clarify that the cards were pre-semi-punched, meaning that the > > >user had to use a pin to push out the chads from each row/column by hand > > to code the desired character. > > > > > >It took a while to do one line of code, even after the time it took to > > >learn the fundamentals of Fortran IV programming! > > > > > >And then it took a while to get the response back from the mainframe. > > > > > >By post. > > > > > >Two ways. > > > > > >(I guess that was half-duplex transmission!). > > > > > >I remember the impatient waiting for the print-out to come back, but my > > >memory of reading it is very clear... > > > > > >XXX SYNTAX ERROR LINE 100 XXX > > > > > >The school later graduated to having its own ICL1900 (if memory serves) > > >on site, long after I had left. Wouldn't have made any difference to my > > >skill-level! > > > > > >Piers > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information >