[OT] Re: Real Men
Jon 'maddog' Hall
maddog at li.org
Fri Jan 19 19:20:36 EST 2007
On Fri, 2007-01-19 at 18:40 -0500, Dan Jenkins wrote:
> Bruce Dawson wrote:
>
> > Jon 'maddog' Hall wrote:
> > >>> No, No, No....I much prefer arguing issues around arcane
> > >>> languages.
> > >>>
> > >>> What about using SNOBOL? :-)
> > >>
> > >> Ha! Real men write right down on the metal in Assembler...
> > >
> > > You use an assembler??
> > >
> > > Real men program directly in '1's and '0's, and the ones that have
> > > been doing it a long time only use write-once ROMs.....
> >
> > And I bet they use switches! Now, wire-wrap and diodes...
>
> Wirewrap? Paugh, just solder directly to the tubes... (Not the Internet
> tubes, the vacuum ones. :-D )
> Or cut the teeth in those gears and cams for Mr. Babbage's engine.
> Unless we go back to the Antikythera Mechanism, I think that's as low as
> we can go.
> (Please correct me if I'm wrong, as I know y'all will.) :-)
So far Dan seems to be winning the definition of "real men", but people
hardly ever soldered directly to the tube, they soldered to a socket
(no, not that type of socket).
There were plug boards, though, and they would take a wire that
represented an action of the Arithmetic Logic Unit (WHOA! There is a
term I have not used in a while!) attached to a step in time, thus
giving a "program". These computers came before "stored program"
computers. But since you could remove the wire and replace it, it still
was not as "permanent" (IMHO) as blowing those ROMS.
Of course we are being really sexist with this talk of "real men", and
we should probably change it to "real programmers" to take into account
both sexes. On the other hand, probably women are smart enough to make
use of good tools to create good programs, and not join in this folly.
md
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