Following this morning's first post, I remembered a "warning" that was often found in the coffee room used by mainframe computer operators back in the 1960's and 1970's. It was very apt at the time, because it warned of something that many visitors actually did when they were allowed into those hallowed portals. I was a computer operator way back when, and remember it well. I think you can translate it without assistance.
Achtung! Alles Lookenspeepers!
Das computermaschine ist nicht für gefingerpoken und mittengrabben. Ist easy schnappen der springenwerk, blowenfusen und poppencorken mit spitzundsparken. Ist nicht für gewerken bei das dummkopfen. Das rubbernecken sightseeren keepen das cottenpicken hans in das pockets muss; relaxen und watchen das blinkenlights.
The term "blinkenlights" became computer shorthand for quite a while, until computers progressed to the point that flashing lights on the console were replaced by lines of text on a monitor. Example, courtesy of Wikipedia:
Those were the days when a computer program might contain several thousand lines of code, each entered onto its own punched card. They were carried in boxes, and careful programmers made sure to number each card in numerical sequence, in case accidents happened - which they did, from time to time. If you want to see a computer programmer cry, tell him the operator dropped his boxes of program cards on the stairs while running down to the computer room, and he's going to have to sort seven thousand-odd cards back into the correct order before you can run his program. If he'd failed to number the cards, you might need to call the suicide prevention team and have them on standby before you told him the good (?) news . . .
Ah, yes. Memories!
Peter
18 comments:
Numbering the cards worked until you modified your code enough. The method I learned was to get your cards nicely in a box or tray then make a reference mark across the top at an angle so you marked the order. Much faster to sort if they got shuffled than reading card numbers.
Moving to punched paper tape then floppies made life a lot simplier.
Dropping a stack of punch cards was known as a "floor sort."
We put a diagonal line across the card deck, so out of order cards showed up easily.
Also note the English version of blinkenlights at the link.
Steve
I remember seeing, from a portal on a Convair 580, a complete box of punch cards blowing across the runway after the tech dropped it while boarding. He tried running after them, then stopped and hopped up and down and started screaming. He never did bet on the plane.
Off topic, but I thought you might like this Peter - check out the 3 minute mark.
https://militarywar.whatfinger.com/allied-power-play-down-under-40k-troops-and-the-carrier-strike-group/
The days just after that time still had their similar problems. When programming on-line using the TECO text editor, one simple (and common) typo could erase all of the work you had done to that point, and TECO didn't have any form of auto-save or undo.
TECO didn't show your work as you did it, since it was designed to work on teletype terminals. So, it was common after doing a sequence of editing commands in the blind to do a reprint of the file to make sure you hadn't messed anything up. The command to type the whole file was "0LT" - go to the 0th line and type everything after that. Now look at your keyboard, and note that the 'T' and 'Y' keys are right next to each other. The command "0LY" was "go to the zeroth line and delete (Yank) everything after that". All of us computer lab attendants got to recognize the scream from a student when that happened.
I remember loading disc
packs into an IBM 360 mod 4 at a local college for grades and payroll.
Mother saw on posting for a new position of computer programmer for Gov. It strongly suggested a 4 year degree. All she had was high school graduation. This in 1959 so she inquired as to if you needed a degree. No, was the answer she wanted. Went to library and for a year she studied math books. We had a dining room full of end rolls of paper from local printers. She rolled this out on top of table and worked every math equation in those books all the way to trig. Eight hour test of math. She passed and was on her way. Have a file folder of her awards in that field.
Ah the memories. My last Navy job was managing a PDP-11 system for the training command. It was a new concept in managing the aircraft and pilot scheduling across the entire gamut of squadrons at three different bases. To get the end users comfortable with the equipment and interface we made D&D available to users for a limited time and monitored their usage. System access was via 300 Baud phone modem. As I did some system maintenance from home via modem I well remember my teenage daughter's screams "Are you on the phone again???"
I used to work on a petrochemical plant in England. When something was "forbidden" it meant something like "We'd rather you didn't do it." If something was genuinely forbidden the word used was "verboten".
A quick google suggests the same distinction is known in Scotland: "bank fishing is verboten on Strathbeg".
Then there was slipping a blank punch card into somebody's program stack. It would lock up an IBM 360 which waisted about a half hour while it was run through the boot procedure.
Never mind punched cards - I remember learning to enter a boot loader in binary machine code on the switch register on one of those PDP8s
I ran a VAST test bench in the Navy. We entered commands in octal. I got very good at the three-finger button-mashing. Programs were on magnetic tape.
When I reported aboard, we had just got rid of the tape units for the A-7 test programs.
--Tennessee Budd
I remember using the PDP-8. So much better than card decks. Then on to PDP-11s ... and then my favorite, a Sun workstation with "windows" (SunWindows) before Windows.
I learned to code in BASIC on a PDP-8 with attached tape punch/reader in high school.
Lunar Lander, Hammurabi, etc.
College was an upgrade to computers that used IBM punch cards.
Filled out tons of punch cards. 1ilIl0oO in pencil, oh what a pain when the guy next to me couldn't make the proper form.
Radio Shack TRS-80. I remember sitting my Minot AFB basement soldering in the upgrade kit (CPU in the keyboard). Heh. Upgrade TOTAL memory from 2K to 4K. Yes, K.
A little over 500 is the biggest I dropped. And waiting forever for your output was fun!
As a non-computer nerd at the time, my favorite memory is the little box underneath the table of the punch machine where all the little punched chads accumulated. Just waiting to be dumped into the desk of an unsuspecting victim. Good times.
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