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

[William Pechter]

In article <cltsanFstu5U9 at mid.individual.net>,
Bill Gunshannon <billg999 at cs.uofs.edu> wrote:
>In article <mdahjf$fqt$2 at pechter.eternal-september.org>,
>	pechter at S20.pechter.dyndns.org (William Pechter) writes:
>> In article <cllt4nFrc48U1 at mid.individual.net>,
>> Bill Gunshannon <billg999 at cs.uofs.edu> wrote:
>>>In article <md2ssm$kpk$1 at dont-email.me>,
>>>	David Froble <davef at tsoft-inc.com> writes:
>>>> lists at openmailbox.org wrote:
>>>>> On Mon, 02 Mar 2015 12:57:47 -0500
>>>>> David Froble via Info-vax <info-vax at rbnsn.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?
>>>>> 
>>>>> Especially when there was no other option.
>>>>> 
>>>>> Integers with software scaling (i.e. treat all amounts as cents) would have
>>>>> probably been better depending on what calculations and how many
>>>>> calculations were involved and what integer types were available. But if
>>>>> you had no integer type big enough to represent the largest amount as
>>>>> cents that is a real problem and strongly suggests the solution should not
>>>>> be coded on that platform.
>>>> 
>>>> Ok, let me see if I can understand this attitude ..
>>>> 
>>>> If you can't do it the way you consider "proper", then don't do it at 
>>>> all?  Gee, I could have been a man of leisure.  Poor man of leisure.
>>>> 
>>>> Integers, huh?  Let me see, -32768 to 32767, yeah, that's more than 
>>>> enough to show the company's monthly sales.
>>>> 
>>>> I'm wondering about your age, because you don't seem to have much of an 
>>>> idea what type of computing resources was available in the early 1970s.
>>>> 
>>>> I'll say it once more.  We used what we had, and we made it work, and 
>>>> IT'S WORKED WELL FOR OVER 40 YEARS!!!  That's one thing more recent 
>>>> stuff cannot say, and will probably never be able to say.
>>>
>>>My favorite response to this kind of stuff is: "Hindsight is always 20/20."
>>>
>>>Anecdote time!!
>>>
>>>One of my early tasks as an application programmer was to write
>>>a system to emulate the online data entry system for a microcomputer
>>>with the idea that at the end of the day all the data would be
>>>uploaded.  Reasoning being that the serial lines used by the data
>>>entry clerks were a rare and expensive resource.  I got assigned the 
>>>task for one very simple reason.  My peers were all mainframe
>>>programmers, CDC, Honeywell and Univac.  The target microcomputer
>>>was a Terak.  LSI 11/02 with 28K Words of memory (minus the I/O
>>>page of course) and SS/DD 8" floppies.  My peers were unanimous in
>>>the opinion that nothing practical could be done with such limited
>>>resources.  I was already playing with Z80's at home and was quite
>>>experienced at shoehorning programs into small memory spaces.  :-)
>>>I did it all in UCSD-Pascal.
>>>It got to be even more fun when I set up the Terak system on my desk
>>>with 4 8" floppy drives and started doing COBOL under RT-11.
>>>
>>>bill
>>>
>>>-- 
>>>Bill Gunshannon          |  de-moc-ra-cy (di mok' ra see) n.  Three wolves
>>>billg999 at cs.scranton.edu |  and a sheep voting on what's for dinner.
>>>University of Scranton   |
>>>Scranton, Pennsylvania   |         #include <std.disclaimer.h>   
>> 
>> There was an RT11 Cobol... Tell us more 8-).
>> I knew about Dibol... didn't know about Cobol.
>> 
>
>Geeze Bill, why would there not be?  RT-11 supported BATCH (and I think
>RJE although I never did it) and most COBOL in those days would definitely
>have been BATCH.  I know I saw more RT-11 systems running "normal" programs
>rather than "real time" programs.
>
>bill
>
>-- 
>Bill Gunshannon          |  de-moc-ra-cy (di mok' ra see) n.  Three wolves
>billg999 at cs.scranton.edu |  and a sheep voting on what's for dinner.
>University of Scranton   |
>Scranton, Pennsylvania   |         #include <std.disclaimer.h>   

I was collecting the RT11 languages I could find with my PDT11/150.
I had basic, fortran, multi-user basic.  

I was trying to find Dibol and such but I didn't remember a DEC Cobol
for boxes that small.  I knew Cobol existed for RSTS/E -- but never
figured it was available for the systems without memory management.


Bill

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