A place to discuss the world of Wapsi Square
https://forum.wapsisquare.com/
Almost sounds like a programming joke.NOTDilbert wrote:I took Programming in the late 70's - I learned FORTRAN, WATFOR, and WATFIV.
You young whippersnappers! Luxuriating in all those newfangled Hollerith cards! In my day we saved our BASIC code on paper tape that we had to roll up, uphill both ways! And we were glad of it!NOTDilbert wrote:I took Programming in the late 70's - I learned FORTRAN, WATFOR, and WATFIV. And punched unending stacks of Hollerith Cards.....
I haven't understood how computer programs work since BASIC Compiler....
You had paper tape? and BASIC?Haylo wrote:You young whippersnappers! Luxuriating in all those newfangled Hollerith cards! In my day we saved our BASIC code on paper tape that we had to roll up, uphill both ways! And we were glad of it!
In the day of programming CNC lathes and mills, i used punched rolls. Now the really harcore ones were able to read the ISO code directly from the band without bothering to use a readerHaylo wrote:You young whippersnappers! Luxuriating in all those newfangled Hollerith cards! In my day we saved our BASIC code on paper tape that we had to roll up, uphill both ways! And we were glad of it!NOTDilbert wrote:I took Programming in the late 70's - I learned FORTRAN, WATFOR, and WATFIV. And punched unending stacks of Hollerith Cards.....
I haven't understood how computer programs work since BASIC Compiler....
Heh. My former boss, Shankar Subramonian, could write 386 machine code straight (out of his head, no references) ... and it ran.alj_ws wrote:In the day of programming CNC lathes and mills, i used punched rolls. Now the really harcore ones were able to read the ISO code directly from the band without bothering to use a readerHaylo wrote:You young whippersnappers! Luxuriating in all those newfangled Hollerith cards! In my day we saved our BASIC code on paper tape that we had to roll up, uphill both ways! And we were glad of it!NOTDilbert wrote:I took Programming in the late 70's - I learned FORTRAN, WATFOR, and WATFIV. And punched unending stacks of Hollerith Cards.....
I haven't understood how computer programs work since BASIC Compiler....
At least you will have a useful skill when the lights go out permanently.Atomic wrote: I'm sooo glad I no longer have to carve my electrons by hand, too. Those days are long gone! I still know how to card and spin cotton/wool for thread/yarn if need be, though. Weaving is another thing entirely.
Thanks for the tip. Found it online for free: http://www.forth.com/starting-forth/index.htmlAtomic wrote:Of all the garbage language programming languages and structures I've had to work with, the two most valuable weren't languages, but concepts. The book Starting Forth, and understanding Arrays.
Starting Forth taught me about Inside Out vs Outside In programming, by way of a marvelous cartoon. One side showed a wolf slavering at a baby in a baby crib, the other showed the baby laughing at the wolf in a cage. There are many ways of doing things!
Could you be more specific about the book title?Atomic wrote:Understanding Array structures (tables, etc) and the use of Rational Expressions pointed my way to everything from simplifying program structures and understanding database design.
You wouldn't want to see what my friend's database looked like, before I normalized it for him... and even now, I'm not always convinced I did it all properly, but I still continue to program it for him... (At first, it was for his own use, for a gymnastics club, but he has since sold a version of it to some kind of school, for which I am currently busy making modifications to adapt to their needs... keeping me busy, I tell ya!)Atomic wrote:3rd Normal Form, anyone?
Yep. But even that still takes time, which is something I do not have much to spare...Atomic wrote:Once you have the structural concepts down, it's just a case of learning the vocabulary (language) and grammar to apply those concepts.
Reminds me of the demonic computer in Riddle of the Seven Realms by Lyndon Hardy.Dave wrote:You had paper tape? and BASIC?Haylo wrote:You young whippersnappers! Luxuriating in all those newfangled Hollerith cards! In my day we saved our BASIC code on paper tape that we had to roll up, uphill both ways! And we were glad of it!
Luxury.
Back in my day, we had to scrape the machine-code bits directly into clay tablets with our fingernails, and drag the tablets to the computer room on a platform of logs while fending off attacks by sabretooth tigers. And nobody ever bothered to empty the bit bucket, so all the clay dust we scraped off blew around everywhere and got into everything, and we all died of silicosis before our programs finished running.
And we liked it!
Was PASCAL the language where every program was actually a subroutine?jwhouk wrote:Ah, Turbo PASCAL. Good times. Completely useless, but good times.
My bad -- I meant to say Regular Expressions. The O'Reily series has it covered, for example, and I'm sure there are plenty of online resources to poke at.lake_wrangler wrote:Could you be more specific about the book title?Atomic wrote:Understanding Array structures (tables, etc) and the use of Rational Expressions pointed my way to everything from simplifying program structures and understanding database design.
Basically, yes, which was a break from GOTO programming by line numbers. GOSUB programming always intended a return, forcing you to consider handlers for them. By quitting the line number structure, you could build by function and not fuss about lines at all. Stylistically, you really need to keep a Subroutine down to 100 lines or less if you can, because it makes for easier documentation and maintenance. Also, if forces you to look for common code, which you can then generalize and make one Sub with 20 calls instead of 20 variations of the nearly same function scattered through the program.bmonk wrote:Was PASCAL the language where every program was actually a subroutine?jwhouk wrote:Ah, Turbo PASCAL. Good times. Completely useless, but good times.
