wrote:
On Wed, 11 Apr 2012 11:31:11 -0500, Vic Smith
wrote:

I started all text command line when I got into IT in the 70's.

A mere pup ;-)

If you wanted to talk to a computer in the 60s you were flipping
switches, entering raw hex or BCD, otherwise you were punching
cards/paper tape.

Ah the good old days, when a CPU was twice the size of a sub-zero
refrigerator with a power cord as big around as a banana and had a
thousand cards in it.

Some people entered octal. We had 12 bit computers, and 18 bit, 36 bit.

Greg

gregz writes:

wrote:
On Wed, 11 Apr 2012 11:31:11 -0500, Vic Smith
wrote:

I started all text command line when I got into IT in the 70's.

A mere pup ;-)

If you wanted to talk to a computer in the 60s you were flipping
switches, entering raw hex or BCD, otherwise you were punching
cards/paper tape.

Ah the good old days, when a CPU was twice the size of a sub-zero
refrigerator with a power cord as big around as a banana and had a
thousand cards in it.

Some people entered octal. We had 12 bit computers, and 18 bit, 36 bit.

The first computer I used was an IBM 1401.
You opened a panel and there were 8 switches and dials.
If you wanted to enter data there you flipped on a switch for each bit.
Then pressed a button to set the memory location with the bits.

The 8 switches included a parity bit.
If you felt like it, you could actually enter a character with
bad parity.

The computer would machine check when you tried to access the
bad parity character.

--
Dan Espen

gregz wrote:
wrote:
On Wed, 11 Apr 2012 11:31:11 -0500, Vic Smith
wrote:

I started all text command line when I got into IT in the 70's.

A mere pup ;-)

If you wanted to talk to a computer in the 60s you were flipping
switches, entering raw hex or BCD, otherwise you were punching
cards/paper tape.

Ah the good old days, when a CPU was twice the size of a sub-zero
refrigerator with a power cord as big around as a banana and had a
thousand cards in it.

Some people entered octal. We had 12 bit computers, and 18 bit, 36 bit.

Greg

Hmm,
Way back then there was no term like computer, system, etc.
My career started with vacuum tubes transistor IC micro electonics
with SMT Nano-tech. Now back to tubes fixing vintage guitar amps,
stereo amp, etc.

writes:

On Wed, 11 Apr 2012 23:47:07 +0000 (UTC), gregz
wrote:

wrote:
On Wed, 11 Apr 2012 11:31:11 -0500, Vic Smith
wrote:

I started all text command line when I got into IT in the 70's.

A mere pup ;-)

If you wanted to talk to a computer in the 60s you were flipping
switches, entering raw hex or BCD, otherwise you were punching
cards/paper tape.

Ah the good old days, when a CPU was twice the size of a sub-zero
refrigerator with a power cord as big around as a banana and had a
thousand cards in it.

Some people entered octal. We had 12 bit computers, and 18 bit, 36 bit.

Greg


1401s were 7 bit using BCD notation. (6 data bits and parity)
All of the data paths were 7 bit. That was core storage and discrete
components on cards. It was the first "computer" I worked on. The
other machines I fixed were mechanical (relays and counters) like 402,
407 and 101.

...but I am old ;-)

Old enough to forget the work mark?

8 bits per character:

P B A 8 4 2 1 W

At least I didn't have to walk back and forth to work up hill both
ways in the snow like Vic.
My dad did tho. He told me all the time. ;-)

If you have valleys to cross, you can manage up hill both ways
with selective memory. In 3 feet of snow I walked from Bronx Science
to Baychester.

--
Dan Espen

writes:

On Thu, 12 Apr 2012 11:34:36 -0400, Dan Espen
wrote:

writes:

On Wed, 11 Apr 2012 23:47:07 +0000 (UTC), gregz
wrote:

wrote:
On Wed, 11 Apr 2012 11:31:11 -0500, Vic Smith
wrote:

I started all text command line when I got into IT in the 70's.

A mere pup ;-)

If you wanted to talk to a computer in the 60s you were flipping
switches, entering raw hex or BCD, otherwise you were punching
cards/paper tape.

Ah the good old days, when a CPU was twice the size of a sub-zero
refrigerator with a power cord as big around as a banana and had a
thousand cards in it.

Some people entered octal. We had 12 bit computers, and 18 bit, 36 bit.

Greg


1401s were 7 bit using BCD notation. (6 data bits and parity)
All of the data paths were 7 bit. That was core storage and discrete
components on cards. It was the first "computer" I worked on. The
other machines I fixed were mechanical (relays and counters) like 402,
407 and 101.

...but I am old ;-)

Old enough to forget the work mark?

8 bits per character:

P B A 8 4 2 1 W


Yup
Although I did not consider the wordmark a data bit.

Parity isn't a data bit either.

It was intercepted before the data entered the data path in the "E"
unit. That was what routed the character into the "I" unit or stopped
a data transfer, depending on context.
When you were going through the ALU it was 7 bits and that is all you
wrote out to the tape drives.

There were load mode tapes but if I remember right, they wrote the
work mark as a separate character, not as a bit.

--
Dan Espen