Bernd Warken <bwarken@mayn.de> wrote:
> 3) I learned computers on punch-cards and later on huge, loud teletypers
> with a typing speed of 1 character per second and a thrilling ring after
> each line-feed. Believe me there was programming time for all and
> database access for privileged people - but absof*ckinglutely _no_
> text processing.
My introduction to this world of computers included programming by means of
color-coded wires that were plugged into an array: on that machine there
was no such thing as textual programs. Punch-cards came later - even the
multi-finger contortions of the hand-punch (and, of course, correcting
mistakes by pushing little squares into holes) would have been a luxury
compared to the wiring.
The output, on the other hand, was text - mostly invoices and mostly
numeric, but text nonetheless.
Databases, of course, didn't arrive until hard disks: all of this other
stuff was on tape, much of it being of the paper variety as opposed to the
ultra-modern magnetic tapes.
I'm curious - why did you program if there was no textual output?
B=
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