On 7 Apr 2013 14:55:23 -0700, in bit.listserv.ibm-main Charles Mills wrote:
>Culture is a key here. > >IBM's background was in punched cards. IBM's strength in punched card >tabulating is what transferred over to their success in computer data >processing. They never forgot that. > >Many other computer systems' analog of the punched card was punched paper tape. > >We see that legacy today. z/OS's model of a file is one of discrete records >with "hard" boundaries. UNIX's model of a file is a continuous >undifferentiated stream of characters. > >BASIC and FORTRAN both used sequence numbers as "labels" but they were on the >left, not the right, correct? > >Speaking of not portable program formats, didn't Symbolic Optimal Assembly >Program (SOAP) optimize code speed by scattering instructions around a drum >such that the next instruction to be executed was just coming under the read >head? SOAP II definitely did that. I believe it actually calculated the drum position, and that it wasn't a random value. I used an IBM 650 for a course in Numerical Analysis and Programming for Digital Computers at Rutgers University in 1960 - 1961. The 650 was in the basement of Hegeman Dormitory. Clark Morris > >Charles > >> rest snipped ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
