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Re: on cut edges and bonds, graph theory

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I've trimmed the algebra group since this is all programming.

Daniel Bastos <dbastos@toledo.com> writes:
<snip>
> I've got probably a lot more questions, if that's okay.

Sure.

> How was the
> programming cycle in details?  Say you wrote Fortran back then.  (What
> were you writing?)

Yes, FORTRAN IV (which was almost exactly the 1966 standard).  Fortran
77 had just come out but compilers were either nonexistent or very
expensive.  I also wrote toy programs in Lisp, B (a precursor to C),
SASL (a precursor to Haskell) and a very nice teaching Algol variant
called S-Algol.

The B compiler was on a Honeywell mainframe and that was accessed via a
terminal.  SASL and S-Algol ran on a Unix machine in other room, again
access via a terminal.  At the time there was no full-screen editor,
though these were, technically, just about feasible on the hardware.
You edited programs using the "ed".  Still available on Linux if you
want to know how that was done.

> You'd write Fortran maybe on paper.  You think you
> have you program right.  Now what?  Was there a compiler to help?  You
> had no video to echo back what you were working on?

For the IBM 360 (and for remote jobs to the 370) you'd write the program
on paper and then punch cards.  You also punched a few Job Control
Language cards.  IBM JCL was baroque in the extreme -- I remember none
of it.  After all, once you'd punched the cards to request the FORTRAN
compiler, link in whatever libraries you were using (almost all my code
used NAG numerical routines), and set up data sources and sinks, you
never typed them again; you just took them off one card deck and put
them on another.  Sometimes, if there was a run-time error, you'd
replace one card with another that requested a link map (a table showing
where code was placed in memory) so you could decode the cryptic error
message.

Once you had this card deck, you'd normally hand it to an operator, but
I was an operator so I just added it the stack that were going though
the machine's reader.  The operators (i.e. me!) picked up the fan-fold
paper output, "burst" it into separate jobs (each had a banner to
indicate the username of the job) and you put the output with the card
deck into a set of pigeon holes.

Every now and then, the job would request some resource like a magnetic
tape.  The operator would then have to go and find the right one and put
it in the tape drive.  There was some disc memory which also came in
replaceable packs, and some jobs needed to have a disc pack changed.

Sadly, it was not uncommon to wait half a day to get a print-out back
that just identified a syntax error one line 987!

This was at a university computing facility, so there were many users
running all sorts of different jobs.  Commercial set-ups were very
different.  For example, at the University it was almost never worth
saving your compiled program.  In a commercial environment the common
program would be stored, pre-compiled, on disc or tape.

I am sure there are many others here who remember this sort of
computing.  Terminals were around at the time, but they were just a
little too expensive (in terms of the computing resource they used) to
be made generally available to all university staff and students.

-- 
Ben.

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on cut edges and bonds, graph theory Daniel Bastos <dbastos@toledo.com> - 2017-09-18 12:51 -0300
  Re: on cut edges and bonds, graph theory Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2017-09-18 20:40 +0100
    Re: on cut edges and bonds, graph theory William Elliot <marsh@panix.com> - 2017-09-18 21:39 -0700
      Re: on cut edges and bonds, graph theory Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2017-09-19 13:05 +0100
        Re: on cut edges and bonds, graph theory William Elliot <marsh@panix.com> - 2017-09-19 19:47 -0700
          Re: on cut edges and bonds, graph theory Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2017-09-20 14:28 +0100
            Re: on cut edges and bonds, graph theory William Elliot <marsh@panix.com> - 2017-09-20 21:06 -0700
              Re: on cut edges and bonds, graph theory Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2017-09-21 17:03 +0100
                Re: on cut edges and bonds, graph theory Daniel Bastos <dbastos@toledo.com> - 2017-09-21 15:06 -0300
                Re: on cut edges and bonds, graph theory Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2017-09-21 21:24 +0100
                Re: on cut edges and bonds, graph theory Daniel Bastos <dbastos@toledo.com> - 2017-09-21 17:57 -0300
                Re: on cut edges and bonds, graph theory Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2017-09-21 23:40 +0100
                Re: on cut edges and bonds, graph theory William Elliot <marsh@panix.com> - 2017-09-21 20:45 -0700
                Re: on cut edges and bonds, graph theory Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2017-09-23 02:27 +0100
                Re: on cut edges and bonds, graph theory William Elliot <marsh@panix.com> - 2017-09-22 19:49 -0700
                Re: on cut edges and bonds, graph theory Richard Heathfield <rjh@cpax.org.uk> - 2017-09-23 08:04 +0100
                Re: on cut edges and bonds, graph theory Daniel Bastos <dbastos@toledo.com> - 2017-09-23 08:41 -0300
                Re: on cut edges and bonds, graph theory Paul N <gw7rib@aol.com> - 2017-09-24 14:00 -0700
                Re: on cut edges and bonds, graph theory Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2017-09-23 14:50 +0100
                Re: on cut edges and bonds, graph theory William Elliot <marsh@panix.com> - 2017-09-23 22:04 -0700
                Re: on cut edges and bonds, graph theory Richard Heathfield <rjh@cpax.org.uk> - 2017-09-24 07:39 +0100
                Re: on cut edges and bonds, graph theory William Elliot <marsh@panix.com> - 2017-09-25 01:13 -0700
                Re: on cut edges and bonds, graph theory Richard Heathfield <rjh@cpax.org.uk> - 2017-09-25 09:46 +0100
                Re: on cut edges and bonds, graph theory William Elliot <marsh@panix.com> - 2017-09-25 21:38 -0700
                Re: on cut edges and bonds, graph theory Richard Heathfield <rjh@cpax.org.uk> - 2017-09-26 10:19 +0100
                Modern Trash William Elliot <marsh@panix.com> - 2017-09-26 03:37 -0700
                Re: Modern Trash David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2017-09-26 12:52 +0200
                Re: Modern Trash Richard Heathfield <rjh@cpax.org.uk> - 2017-09-26 23:10 +0100
                Re: on cut edges and bonds, graph theory Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2017-09-24 22:33 +0100
                Re: on cut edges and bonds, graph theory William Elliot <marsh@panix.com> - 2017-09-25 01:08 -0700
                Re: on cut edges and bonds, graph theory Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2017-09-25 20:44 +0100
                Re: on cut edges and bonds, graph theory William Elliot <marsh@panix.com> - 2017-09-25 21:36 -0700
                Re: on cut edges and bonds, graph theory Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2017-09-26 12:04 +0100
                Re: on cut edges and bonds, graph theory William Elliot <marsh@panix.com> - 2017-09-26 23:15 -0700
                Re: on cut edges and bonds, graph theory Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2017-09-27 12:52 +0100
                Re: on cut edges and bonds, graph theory William Elliot <marsh@panix.com> - 2017-09-27 19:55 -0700
                Re: on cut edges and bonds, graph theory Ike Naar <ike@iceland.freeshell.org> - 2017-09-24 16:55 +0000
        Re: on cut edges and bonds, graph theory David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2017-09-22 10:23 +0200
          Re: on cut edges and bonds, graph theory Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2017-09-22 21:18 +0100
            Re: on cut edges and bonds, graph theory Daniel Bastos <dbastos@toledo.com> - 2017-09-23 08:48 -0300
            Re: on cut edges and bonds, graph theory David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2017-09-25 10:17 +0200
              Re: on cut edges and bonds, graph theory Daniel Bastos <dbastos@toledo.com> - 2017-09-25 07:31 -0300
                Re: on cut edges and bonds, graph theory David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2017-09-25 13:30 +0200
              Re: on cut edges and bonds, graph theory Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2017-09-25 20:32 +0100
                Re: on cut edges and bonds, graph theory David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2017-09-26 10:12 +0200
                Re: on cut edges and bonds, graph theory Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2017-09-26 11:53 +0100
                Re: on cut edges and bonds, graph theory David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2017-09-26 13:24 +0200
    Re: on cut edges and bonds, graph theory Daniel Bastos <dbastos@toledo.com> - 2017-09-19 16:21 -0300
      Re: on cut edges and bonds, graph theory Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2017-09-20 17:43 +0100
        Re: on cut edges and bonds, graph theory Daniel Bastos <dbastos@toledo.com> - 2017-09-21 16:20 -0300
          Re: on cut edges and bonds, graph theory Daniel Bastos <dbastos@toledo.com> - 2017-09-21 17:52 -0300
          Re: on cut edges and bonds, graph theory Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2017-09-21 22:02 +0100
            Re: on cut edges and bonds, graph theory Daniel Bastos <dbastos@toledo.com> - 2017-09-23 13:42 -0300

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