Path: csiph.com!weretis.net!feeder9.news.weretis.net!panix!.POSTED.2602:f977:0:1::5!not-for-mail From: Rich Alderson Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,comp.os.linux.misc Subject: Re: The joy of FORTRAN-like languages Followup-To: alt.folklore.computers Date: 01 Oct 2024 16:53:57 -0400 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and UNIX, NYC Lines: 41 Sender: alderson+news@panix5.panix.com Message-ID: References: Injection-Info: reader1.panix.com; posting-host="2602:f977:0:1::5"; logging-data="27970"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@panix.com" X-Newsreader: Gnus v5.7/Emacs 22.3 Xref: csiph.com alt.folklore.computers:227360 comp.os.linux.misc:58867 Lars Poulsen writes: > On 30/09/2024 14:33, Lawrence D'Oliveiro wrote: >> On 30 Sep 2024 16:51:33 -0400, Rich Alderson wrote: >>> [PDP-6/PDP-10:] Lovely machines to program. >> Bit before my time (the main campus machine was a PDP-11/70 when I started >> first year Comp Sci). But I know they had a very loyal community, who were >> very upset when DEC cancelled its "Jupiter" project in favour of going >> all-in on VAX. > "Venus is much smaller than Jupiter, but it is also a lot closer!" That's an incorrect quote. The real quote, from Fred Wright II, is Mars may be smaller than Jupiter, but it is a lot closer. This was in reference to the Systems Concepts SC-30M, code named "Mars", a PDP-10 architecture system created by Stewart Nelson and Mike Leavitt (who should be familiar to readers of Levy's _Hackers_). Fred was one of the operating systems programmers for their box; he said it after the announcement of the Jupiter cancellation (May, 1983). I still have my button, courtesy of Fred. We took first customer shipment[1] at LOTS (the Stanford academic computing facility) at All Hallows' Eve, 1986, and placed it next to the 3 KL-10 based DEC-20s. Stu Grossman, best known for his work at Cygwin, worked in our computer room for a couple of months to get their CI channels to work with the actual DEC CI/HSC50 hardware. Stu got fired by Mike for being at lunch with me when Mike called the computer room. [1] The box we got was actually their prototype unit, because they had to deliver *something* or refund the deposit. That's why some of the work was done in our computer room. -- Rich Alderson news@alderson.users.panix.com Audendum est, et veritas investiganda; quam etiamsi non assequamur, omnino tamen proprius, quam nunc sumus, ad eam perveniemus. --Galen