For the *real* computer guys

[widebody911]

I was hunting for something in my 'storage bedroom' this weekend and found this oldie but godie: (click to enlarge)

[BlueSkyJaunte]

Sweet! I predate Java, though, and never bought any books on it. I still have a Motif 1.2-ish style guide lying around somewhere though, so do I still qualify?

Or, how about this one: I wrote a web browser for an employer, once, because they were too cheap to purchase Netscape.

Those of you who can remember when Netscape cost money, raise your hand(s).

[widebody911]

Originally posted by BlueSkyJaunte
Those of you who can remember when Netscape cost money, raise your hand(s).

Netscape? Luxury!

How about before Netscape existed, and you had to build NCSA Mosaic from scratch on whatever platform you wanted to run. And to build it, I had to bootstrap gcc first, because my employer was too cheep to pay for the OEM compilers. To get a clean build of gcc and then a build of mosaic took about 18 hours. I even tried to build lynx for MVS once, but without a proper TCP/IP stack, it was like pi55ing in the wind.

Or when search engines cost money - they'd give you n searches for free, and then you had to pay.

And if you tell kids that today, they won't believe you.

[BlueSkyJaunte]

Yeah, my browser was based on the Mosaic HTML widget. I was lucky enough to compile on an RS/6000, though. Such luxury. I got to take a LOT of coffee breaks waiting for that thing, often only to come back and find it had crashed in mid-compile. I'm not sure if it was our sysadmin or AIX, but something really sucked in that place!

BlueSky: You obviously are familiar with the saying, then.. "Whip me. Beat me. Make me maintain AIX..."

I can't talk, though, I maintain SCO!

[IMONBOOST]

Does that mean 911s are code once run anywhere?
I am pretty sure 911s are object oriented at least.

[cstreit]

Guys...

I used to CODE ASSEMBLER.... (really)

UNIX itself is a luxury...

(just a little oneupmanship, sorry )

[dhoward]

Assembler?
"You lucky, lucky, Bast@rd!"
I used to write 370 channel simulation programs in machine code.
Oh! And load registers with toggle switches!
So there.
Dan

[AirCooledExcellence]

Anyone remember punch cards??

Cheers

[cstreit]

Someones been watching Monty Python... "You luh-ee luh-ee bast@rd!"

You win. I played with one of those once. I think I would've end up being a plumber if I had to do that, or punch cards...

[billwagnon]

The barrier to entry has really dropped...

my first programming was on a TI 99/4a with the tape recorder storage - only I didn't have a tape recorder so I had to retype my program in every time!

It wasn't 'til I started working with Office and VBA that I programmed again, and the tools now have plenty of crutches.

Anybody who can code assembler or use punch cards must've really been into it!

[dhoward]

"...barrier to entry..."
Not to take anything away from the new kids, but it sure seems like the older guys who had to be more intimate with thier environment i.e., 4K core, wrote code a lot more efficiently and paid more attention to expensive operations like file opens and such. So often anymore we just throw hardware at poor coding practices...

[VincentVega]

I remember getting into an argument with a grad school prof about efficient memory manangement. My opnion, at the time, was that memory was so cheap it wasnt cost effective to pay us to code efficiently. Ah, that might have been the case for my little c++ school projects, but a little dose of life in the real world straightened me up rather quickly.

[DonDavis]

Shoot! You guys all talk about "Back in the day". Using punch cards and switches, and tape reels.....Up until last summer I STILL USED THAT STUFF!

About 5 months ago I moved over from X-Ray to MRI. There are old X-Ray systems still out there that use Hex toggle read/write switches to program and calibrate the generator. The new systems are fun to work on and calibrate but they last so darn long and there a tons of the old stuff still plunkin' along. It's like going from working on a newer car to working on an old 1960's lawn mower back to the nwer car all in the same day. I got tired of the old junk and went to MRI. It's a much better environment to work in and the oldest system in town was de-installed a few months back. I believe it was 8-9 years old.

[dhoward]

Didja' ever x-ray some wierd stuff, just to see what it would look like?

[BlueSkyJaunte]

Originally posted by dhoward
"...barrier to entry..."
Not to take anything away from the new kids, but it sure seems like the older guys who had to be more intimate with thier environment i.e., 4K core, wrote code a lot more efficiently and paid more attention to expensive operations like file opens and such. So often anymore we just throw hardware at poor coding practices...

"640K ought to be enough for ANYBODY!"

[widebody911]

Originally posted by dhoward
"...barrier to entry..."
Not to take anything away from the new kids, but it sure seems like the older guys who had to be more intimate with thier environment i.e., 4K core, wrote code a lot more efficiently and paid more attention to expensive operations like file opens and such. So often anymore we just throw hardware at poor coding practices...

That's why executables today are larger than the disk arrays we had back then! When I was a C programmer, I would profile my programs (10:1 you kiddies don't even know what a profiler is) and then hand-code the busy bits in x86 or m88k assembler and put then inline it. I even had a table of the 'expenses' of various instructions so I knew to avoid them if possible.

For us, "drag and drop" was a 20-hour coding day - drag your a55 and drop into bed.

[dhoward]

Just had the profiler discussion the other day, and you're right, blank stares. Oh well, it's just 'puters anyways...

[boyo]

Don't forget Borland's Turbo C++, prominently featuring the Turbo 911 on their posters and boxes.

My first hard drive was 1MB. It was larger than a collapsable spare tire in a 1972 Porsche 911T, and sounded like a 747 warming up when running.

-Boyo

[BlueSkyJaunte]

I still have to profile my code TODAY just to tweak that last bit of speed out of it. No, I don't write embedded software. But inefficient code can be the difference between 24-hour runtime and 2-hour runtime.

I think we've established this: we're all older than we think and the kids today have it damn easy!