Path: csiph.com!eternal-september.org!feeder3.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Lynn Wheeler Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,comp.os.linux.misc Subject: Re: The joy of FORTRAN Date: Fri, 28 Feb 2025 13:08:14 -1000 Organization: Wheeler&Wheeler Lines: 22 Message-ID: <877c59hdlt.fsf@localhost> References: <1976765442.762208809.808387.peter_flass-yahoo.com@news.eternal-september.org> <20250225130315.00004e34@gmail.com> <87y0xtjts3.fsf@localhost> <878qptjrh4.fsf@localhost> <1235219340.762291923.105673.peter_flass-yahoo.com@news.eternal-september.org> <20250227211154.db2ee6d13e852ff817d6fd56@127.0.0.1> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain Injection-Date: Sat, 01 Mar 2025 00:08:25 +0100 (CET) Injection-Info: dont-email.me; posting-host="bebe8c8bb32ca14a55900774625970a1"; logging-data="4075114"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX18PtnsEUWf1B6hYGdpCdLwDE0/vamqWUG0=" User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Cancel-Lock: sha1:knva9qqMXPgtps8QQONx9O6jsdM= sha1:1Fbk+NhmpXqhk1+sqKe1F2RL05U= Xref: csiph.com alt.folklore.computers:230212 comp.os.linux.misc:65881 "Kerr-Mudd, John" writes: > EBCDIC text (+control codes) saved on a PC floppy! trivia: 360s were originally going to be ASCII ... but the ASCII unit record gear wasn't ready ... so they were going to use BCD unit record gear with EBCDIC temporarily ... but it didn't quite turn out that way; "biggest computer goof ever" (gone 404, but lives on at wayback) https://web.archive.org/web/20180513184025/http://www.bobbemer.com/P-BIT.HTM other refs: https://web.archive.org/web/20180402200149/http://www.bobbemer.com/HISTORY.HTM also Cobol trivia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Bemer He served on the committee which amalgamated the design for his COMTRAN language with Grace Hopper's FLOW-MATIC and thus produced the specifications for COBOL. and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COMTRAN -- virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970