On 12/7/20 10:32 AM, Van Snyder via cctalk wrote: > The first computer I was paid to write software for didn't require me > to toggle in a boot loader: The IBM 1401 in 1966. > > All I had to do was push the load key on the card reader, or the tape > load key on the operator console. And it didn't even have a teletype > console.
The contemporaneous 1620 had it both ways--one could type in the loader on the console typewriter (hit the Release key when done) or by pressing the console LOAD key, could read a record from either card or paper tape into 00000-00079. On the CADET, one of the first things that most loaders did was to have a small routine to read in the addition and multiplication tables. If you're going to do any arithmetic at all, you'd better have those! --Chuck
