Subj : Re: RIP Niklaus Wirth
To   : Dr. What
From : poindexter FORTRAN
Date : Fri Jan 12 2024 06:25:00

-=> Dr. What wrote to Bob Worm <=-

 DW> My first real IT job was working on the FORTRAN IV code that processes
 DW> data from a car crash test.  All written by engineers (not computer
 DW> scientists).  It got the job done with the resources that they had
 DW> (which at the time it was written was a 8K core RAM IBM mainframe), but
 DW> it was not nice to change.

That reminds me of one of my first gigs, working on a PICK system, using
BASIC, their batch language and a version of SQL. This was at a
bookstore, and my predecessor apparently thought that obfuscated code
equaled job security. He left, and I was hired and tasked with updating
one of this little progs - this one looked up a SKU and gave you an
inventory listing (how many, how many on the shelves, how many in the
back, and how long they'd been there).

His version was something like 450 lines. I started trying to update it,
gave up and re-wrote the prog in something like 160 lines. That was a
nice way to prove myself coming into a new gig.

That was a great job, it was at my college bookstore, so I could drop in
between classes. I got to work with a midrange computer with all of the
dressings -- Enclosed server room with glass walls, raised floor,
blinkenlights, line printers, 9-track tape backups, serial terminals.
They'd moved from a completely paper-based iunventory system to this in
under 12 months.




.... All of my certifications are self-signed.
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