Well You beat me in the antiquity stakes - my first stab at computers was much later - programming a "good 'ole" traffic light sim in machine code using a university dev kit based on intel 8008 microprocessor ( might have beem 4004 - cant remember - it was 1980 after all...) using switches for each bit of the byte...
Tedious in todays terms but the best way to learn if u ask me.. I always remember feelng sorry for the computer science students: while us Electronic engineering lads got to program in basic,C and unix using terminals and a PDP11, the comp sci boys were learning fortran by punching out paper cards and traipsing up 5 flights of stairs to feed them into the computer and then traipsing down to the ground florr for the printout - only to be followed by numerous more iterations of course. From what I gathered they hated their comp sci practicals while we generally enjoyed ours... Well I did - anyway On 15/9/06 02:20, "Joseph Nastasi" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > On Sep 14, 2006, at 9:01 PM, Joseph Nastasi wrote: > >> >> On Sep 14, 2006, at 8:22 PM, Daniel Stenning wrote: >> >>> >>> They even a working mechanical "analogue" computer - >>> >>> We have it all so easy these days. >> >> When I was a young lad of 11, I got a small plastic mechanical >> computer called the DigiComp I: >> >> http://www.computermuseum.li/Testpage/Digicomp-Kit-1963.htm >> >> You could program it to count up and down and demonstrate simple >> boolean logic - based games. Not a bad deal for $10 bucks a the >> time (mid - 60's) >> >> Memories... >> >> :-) > > And a couple of years later (God, I HATE when I get on these tech > nostalgia trips), I received a Geniac computer kit (about $20) This > was introduced in 1955 and was basically allowed you to have switched > based logic that lit lamps for output. You actually created these > rotating switches with masonite discs on a masonite base and wired > them to produce various logic combinations. It was a pain (then > again so was the Digicomp) but I thought it was very cool. The first > program I wired was a "Spacecraft Airlock Controller." Little did I > know how long that theme would last... > > http://mysite.verizon.net/vze1re4o/geniac.html _______________________________________________ Unsubscribe or switch delivery mode: <http://www.realsoftware.com/support/listmanager/> Search the archives of this list here: <http://support.realsoftware.com/listarchives/lists.html>
