> This is how we used to debug: The machine we used was the IBM1620 > at UPLB. There is no hard disk and no bootstrap rom. You typed the > bootstrap program on the IBM-typewriter-console, and the bootstrap > program loaded the "OS+FortranIIcompiler" from a deck of punch cards. > The computer is really "alive" only after the FortranIIcompiler > is loaded.
> You had to punch your source code on cards, one line per card. > You threw the card away if you mispunch a character. You were lucky > if the card punch machine also typed the character on top of the card > so you can read the character. With a non-interpreting card punch, > you read the holes that are punched. We quickly became experts at > hole reading. > The Fortran compiler will ask you to load your source deck and then push > the "read" button on the IBM 1443 card read/punch. Your source deck was > read in and if there are no syntax errors, an "object deck" was punched. > Optionally, you can get a printout of your source code. The Fortran > compiler now asked you to load the object deck (but you need to > transfer the "symbol table" cards from the back of the deck to the front > of the deck), which the machine reads in and executes. If there are > no runtime errors, then you have a big celebration. Otherwise you have > to go through the entire tedious and long process. > > There was no debugger, whether commandline or gui. If there was an error > (syntax or runtime) you had to read your code and find out what's wrong > with it. So we learned to do paper debugging. We wrote (handwritten) > a clean version of our program on paper and manually simulated / walked- > through our code, testing it with sample data and computing by hand. > By the time we were done with this paper debugging, our program on paper > was guaranteed error-free. We could actually boast that our programs > ran on first typing and first compile. He... one programmer's wistful memory is another one's nightmare environment... =) My earliest memories were of juggling all 3 6502 processor registers A, X, Y (only one of which could do arithmetic) in an attempt to get a fast 2D scrolling text field (ala Ultima). My high-school mind found that pretty mind-bending. _ Philippine Linux Users Group. Web site and archives at http://plug.linux.org.ph To leave: send "unsubscribe" in the body to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe to the Linux Newbies' List: send "subscribe" in the body to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
