The author assumed the 1960s, he didn't quote a date from his aunt. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Mercury
They started designing a human capsule under NACA BEFORE it became NASA on October 1, 1958. On Fri, Feb 27, 2015 at 11:25 AM, Joel Ewing <[email protected]> wrote: > On 02/27/2015 12:04 AM, Elardus Engelbrecht wrote: >> Ed Gould wrote: >> >>> http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/02/26/my_aunt_was_a_human_assembler_at_nasa/ >> >> Wow! Interesting. My jaw also dropped to the floor. >> >> Ok, ok, ok, I give up, we are too spoiled today with all these fancy >> systems, languages and applications and games we today have. >> >> Those people have *nothing*. Just pencil+eraser and paper and references to >> OpCodes. Then they write programs by hand without fancy compilers and syntax >> checkers. >> >> Groete / Greetings >> Elardus Engelbrecht >> >> > > This is weird. The article implies people were doing machine coding for > an IBM 704 by hand in 1960s to evaluate complex mathematical formulas! > But, the SHARE Assembly Program for symbolic coding and FORTRAN compiler > were both available for the IBM 704 by 1956 (Wikipedia even has a > picture of the October 1956 IBM 704 FORTRAN Reference Manual). > > Although "simulation" is mentioned once, this may be a reference to > mathematical flight simulation rather than a reference to simulation of > unavailable computer hardware. The way the article is worded implies > coding by hand of mathematical equations needed for space craft design > for evaluation by an IBM 704, which suggests the generated code was > machine code for the IBM 704. If that were the case, it wouldn't have > made sense to do the assembly translation by hand in the 1960s, unless > IBM 704 run time was harder to come by than human "assemblers". > > On the other hand if simulation of computer hardware for an on-board > flight computer was involved, hand assembly of code for testing on a > simulator running on an IBM 704 would make much sense. > > Perhaps the remembered time line in the article is incorrect. Some of > the on-line articles on NASA history suggest that by 1959 NASA was > already phasing out use of the IBM 704 for IBM 7094s and raises into > question whether an IBM 704 would still be in use by NASA much into the > 1960s. If the IBM 704 work in question started prior to 1956, fewer > software options would have been available. > > -- > Joel C. Ewing, Bentonville, AR [email protected] > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, > send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- Mike A Schwab, Springfield IL USA Where do Forest Rangers go to get away from it all? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
