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Happy birthday, modern computing.

Started by trdsf, June 21, 2018, 10:51:13 AM

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trdsf

Quote from: Cavebear on June 25, 2018, 09:01:00 AM
"JJ" from Doonesbury?

My point was that Fortran made positive sense in equation terms and Cobol was so highly structured and didn't make any specific sense reading it.  You could look at Fortran and understand in real terms what was going on.  Cobol needed so much structure that you couldn't follow the logic without a lot of work.  A comma out of place in Cobol didn't stand out.  Any symbol error in Fortran just jumped out at you.
Well, the whole idea behind COBOL was that it should approximate "natural" language and would have greater portability between machines; of course, since it was designed by a US DoD committee, it's exactly as clunky as you think something designed by a DoD committee would be.

I'd still kind of like to learn FORTRAN or ALGOL or one of the old hoary ones (other than LISP, which I picked up in college).
"My faith in the Constitution is whole, it is complete, it is total, and I am not going to sit here and be an idle spectator to the diminution, the subversion, the destruction of the Constitution." -- Barbara Jordan

Gawdzilla Sama

COBOL got businesses around the world into computing.
We 'new atheists' have a reputation for being militant, but make no mistake  we didn't start this war. If you want to place blame put it on the the religious zealots who have been poisoning the minds of the  young for a long long time."
PZ Myers

Baruch

Quote from: Gawdzilla Sama on June 25, 2018, 05:08:02 PM
COBOL got businesses around the world into computing.

Business majors did COBOL.  Engineers did Fortran.

trdsf - so you did Lisp in school?  So sorry for you.  Pascal was a really nice educational computer language.  Algol is almost a predecessor of Pascal.
Ha’át’íísh baa naniná?
Azee’ Å,a’ish nanídį́į́h?
Táadoo ánít’iní.
What are you doing?
Are you taking any medications?
Don't do that.

Baruch

What programmers are like today ...

https://medium.freecodecamp.org/coding-explained-in-25-profound-comics-8847ea03819c

I thought the comic version would be at the right level for most of you ;-)
Ha’át’íísh baa naniná?
Azee’ Å,a’ish nanídį́į́h?
Táadoo ánít’iní.
What are you doing?
Are you taking any medications?
Don't do that.

Cavebear

Quote from: Gawdzilla Sama on June 25, 2018, 10:21:46 AM
Never did Fortran, so I can't comment on relatives.

Fortran is entirely equational.  You write a line and it either works or it doesn't.  And I loved the GOTO subroutines where repeated operations were used. 

Atheist born, atheist bred.  And when I die, atheist dead!

Jason78

Winner of WitchSabrinas Best Advice Award 2012


We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real
tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light. -Plato

Unbeliever

Babbage couldn't've done it at all without the help of Ada Lovelace.
God Not Found
"There is a sucker born-again every minute." - C. Spellman

Gawdzilla Sama

Quote from: Unbeliever on June 29, 2018, 04:45:41 PM
Babbage couldn't've done it at all without the help of Ada Lovelace.
Ada done better with a computer. Honestly.
We 'new atheists' have a reputation for being militant, but make no mistake  we didn't start this war. If you want to place blame put it on the the religious zealots who have been poisoning the minds of the  young for a long long time."
PZ Myers

Baruch

http://www.computerhistory.org/babbage/engines/

Why did the British government fund this?  Babbage had successfully broken ciphers during the Crimean War ... something kept secret a long time.

Of course this is why modern electronic computers were developed in WW II.  That and calculating artillery firing tables.
Ha’át’íísh baa naniná?
Azee’ Å,a’ish nanídį́į́h?
Táadoo ánít’iní.
What are you doing?
Are you taking any medications?
Don't do that.

Cavebear

Quote from: Unbeliever on June 29, 2018, 04:45:41 PM
Babbage couldn't've done it at all without the help of Ada Lovelace.

The women who contributed and didn't get the recognition should be recognized posthumously. 
Atheist born, atheist bred.  And when I die, atheist dead!

Gawdzilla Sama

Introduction to Computing at Purdue included all relevant people and their contributions. Not the first time I'd heard of her, but it was news to some younger people.
We 'new atheists' have a reputation for being militant, but make no mistake  we didn't start this war. If you want to place blame put it on the the religious zealots who have been poisoning the minds of the  young for a long long time."
PZ Myers

Cavebear

Quote from: Gawdzilla Sama on July 02, 2018, 05:55:31 AM
Introduction to Computing at Purdue included all relevant people and their contributions. Not the first time I'd heard of her, but it was news to some younger people.

I learned of her and other ladies from Cosmos.
Atheist born, atheist bred.  And when I die, atheist dead!

Baruch

Quote from: Cavebear on July 02, 2018, 03:02:27 AM
The women who contributed and didn't get the recognition should be recognized posthumously.

They are ... or nobody would know about them.  The movie about Nasa though, was a bit ... distorted.  Men also did Fortran on mainframes.  Why when a woman gives a shit, does anyone else care?  Guys trying to pick up girls by complementing their hair, or their IBM cards?
Ha’át’íísh baa naniná?
Azee’ Å,a’ish nanídį́į́h?
Táadoo ánít’iní.
What are you doing?
Are you taking any medications?
Don't do that.

Baruch

Quote from: Gawdzilla Sama on July 02, 2018, 05:55:31 AM
Introduction to Computing at Purdue included all relevant people and their contributions. Not the first time I'd heard of her, but it was news to some younger people.

Young people, by definition, are immature, inexperienced and ignorant.  But they are the hope of the world.

Bet you didn't hear about Enigma, or Babbage's secret agent work.  The reason for all the computing power really is spam email and video porn.
Ha’át’íísh baa naniná?
Azee’ Å,a’ish nanídį́į́h?
Táadoo ánít’iní.
What are you doing?
Are you taking any medications?
Don't do that.

Cavebear

Quote from: Gawdzilla Sama on July 02, 2018, 05:55:31 AM
Introduction to Computing at Purdue included all relevant people and their contributions. Not the first time I'd heard of her, but it was news to some younger people.

Were you older than the other students?  I took some college classes where I was twice the age of most of the other students.  It was "interesting".
Atheist born, atheist bred.  And when I die, atheist dead!