[Info-vax] New VSI Roadmap (yipee!)

[Paul Sture]

On 2015-03-02, David Froble <davef at tsoft-inc.com> wrote:
> Scott Dorsey wrote:
>> David Froble  <davef at tsoft-inc.com> wrote:
>>> lists at openmailbox.org wrote:
>>>>> I can't imagine ever using floating point in a new money handling
>>>>> application these days given all the other options available.
>>>> It was *never* acceptable!
>>>>
>>> Even when there was no other options?
>> 
>> There have always been other options.
>> 
>> This is one of the things we learned in my first Fortran class...
>
> Ok, in 1974, what were the affordable options.  For small companies, a 
> multi-million dollar IBM system was not feasible.  A quarter million 
> dollar PDP-11 system was one of the better options.

Things were moving quite swiftly back then as well.  By the end of 1977
we had a PDP using Dibol which with hardware assist in the form of the
Commercial Instruction Set (CIS) module could handle string integers up
to something like 15 digits.  Possibly not as fast as your solution and
the base software was limited to something like 7* terminals/printers
plus console. We got a separate 11/04 for accounts.  These were running
RT-11, which was pretty basic in its offerings for this kind of work
when contrasted with RSTS.

I reckon you did well with the tools available at the time.  The
fact you didn't need to do a major rework somewhere along the way
(e.g, with the port to VMS) means that you did a good job.

* that limit got expanded later but by that time we were moving to a
mainframe

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