[Info-vax] x86 Update 4/22/19

[Kerry Main]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Info-vax <info-vax-bounces at rbnsn.com> On Behalf Of Bill
> Gunshannon via Info-vax
> Sent: April 27, 2019 8:02 AM
> To: info-vax at rbnsn.com
> Cc: Bill Gunshannon <bill.gunshannon at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [Info-vax] x86 Update 4/22/19
> 
> On 4/26/19 10:19 PM, Michael Moroney wrote:
> > Dave Froble <davef at tsoft-inc.com> writes:
> >
> >>> My understanding is that it does both co-routines (modifies saved
> >>> return addresses on the VAX stack) and JSBs that return condition
> >>> codes.  Both of these are not supported by the Macro compiler.
> > ...
> >> Docha just hate "too smart" programmers?
> >
> > oh, the stories I could tell from my last job...dealing with about
> > 150,000+ lines of ancient VAX Macro, with loads of "too smart"
> > programmers using every trick in the book over the years, including a co-
> routine instance...
> >
> 
> There was a time when programmers actually gave consideration to size and
> efficiency and bloat was not the desired result.
> Resources were not what most today are used to.  I was once asked to
> program an LSI-11 because my co-workers all said it was impossible to do
> anything useful with only 28KWords of memory.
> 
> bill

In a previous lifetime when carrying a tool kit with microfiche and an oscilloscope were always part of what you would find in a Field Support tech's trunk, a colleague and myself installed a DF32 disk on a PDP8-I (might have been an 8-E). DF32 was able to store 32K words on disk (hence, its name). It had big disk platter of about 18" in diameter.

The joke at the time was "who in the world would need this much extra storage for a computer program? It will only result in programmers getting lazy in the way they write their code!"

As they say .. and the rest is history ..

😊


Regards,

Kerry Main
Kerry dot main at starkgaming dot com