On 19/9/21 1:02 pm, Antony Barry wrote: > [In 1961], also at Sydney University I wrote my first program (No > historical significance except for me!). It was on Silliac which was Sydney > University's version of Illiac 1, the University of Illinois first > computer. The program was an assignment to sum an arithmetic sequence.
At least that was a comprehensible problem to solve (maybe not all that useful, but not at all nonsensical). In May 1967, in Maths I at UNSW, an incomprehensible lecturer set an incomprehensible problem that did some kind of sideways-folding of n-dimensional matrices (n>3). The Fortran compiler on the IBM 360/50? was at that stage without a version-number in the name, and was famously poorly-formed. And the incomprehensible lecturer compounded that by using a poorly-selected sub-set of the language called iiTran. Or so understood at the time. This says "its syntax resembled that of PL/I": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IITRAN (If the author means what the world mostly calls PL/1, then it's a grossly defamatory comment, because PL/1 was well-formed, whereas iiTran in 1967 was a basket-case). I got the program to run, but, in accordance with Ada Lovelace's dictum (*), 'it did whatever I instructed it to do', as distinct from 'what I wanted it to do'. (Moreover, given that we never found out what it was supposed to deliver, we had no particular expectations). * http://www.rogerclarke.com/SOS/Drones-I-131214.html#CRD > Turing (1950) includes a quotation from Hartree (1949), which attributes an expression of the problem to the very first programmer - who was also arguably the first commentator on the limitations of computing - Ada Lovelace, in 1842: "The Analytical Engine has no pretensions to *originate* anything. It can do *whatever we know how to order it* to perform" (*italics* in the original). ______________________ > On Sat, Sep 18, 2021 at 3:45 PM Marghanita da Cruz <[email protected]> > wrote: > >>> Computer science born in Australia 70 years ago >>> >>> On The Science Show with Robyn Williams >>> >>> >>> Download Computer science born in Australia 70 years ago (23.80 MB) >>> Download 23.80 MB >>> >>> It was 1951 when the first conference was held in Australia dedicated >>> to computers. In the Department of Electrical Engineering at Sydney >>> University, > > > And 10 years later, also at Sydney University I wrote my first program (No > historical significance except for me!). It was on Silliac which was Sydney > University's version of Illiac 1, the University of Illinois first > computer. The program was an assignment to sum an arithmetic sequence. > > Tony > _______________________________________________ > Link mailing list > [email protected] > https://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link > -- Roger Clarke mailto:[email protected] T: +61 2 6288 6916 http://www.xamax.com.au http://www.rogerclarke.com Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd 78 Sidaway St, Chapman ACT 2611 AUSTRALIA Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Law University of N.S.W. Visiting Professor in Computer Science Australian National University _______________________________________________ Link mailing list [email protected] https://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
