In article . com, Des
Higgins says...
Tape?? Tape?? Luxury; in my day we had to take the hot valves from
the glass blowing department and design our own circuits and invent
computers and keep the operating system in our heads (backwards
because that was how you loaded it). We had to wait 40 years before
tape was invented. We had wax tablets and small boys as back up.

:-)

I've still got backups of some Fortran software I wrote on punched paper
rolls. There is probably no equipment left on the planet to load the
software now (unless it is in a museum).

More recently I've got stacks of backups on 5.25" disks but no hardware
to read them any more. My archive on 3.5" disks are also heading the
same way with only one computer left in my possession capable of reading
them.

Makes you wonder just how recoverable various important National
archives are? We take it for granted that various paper based records
can go back several hundred years, but what of digitally stored records?
--
David in Normandy.
(The free MicroPlanet Gravity newsreader is great for eliminating
rubbish and cross-posts)

"David in Normandy" wrote in message
...
In article . com, Des
Higgins says...
Tape?? Tape?? Luxury; in my day we had to take the hot valves from
the glass blowing department and design our own circuits and invent
computers and keep the operating system in our heads (backwards
because that was how you loaded it). We had to wait 40 years before
tape was invented. We had wax tablets and small boys as back up.

:-)

I've still got backups of some Fortran software I wrote on punched paper
rolls. There is probably no equipment left on the planet to load the
software now (unless it is in a museum).

I never did get a Fortran prgram to run, but I did once enter a very brief
program into a 16 bit GEC computer using the instruction keys on the front
panel.

"CWatters" wrote

I never did get a Fortran prgram to run, but I did once enter a very brief
program into a 16 bit GEC computer using the instruction keys on the front
panel.

I know someone who used to hard wire programs with soldering
iron............
Jenny

In article ,
"JennyC" writes:
| "CWatters" wrote
|
| I never did get a Fortran prgram to run, but I did once enter a very brief
| program into a 16 bit GEC computer using the instruction keys on the front
| panel.
|
| I know someone who used to hard wire programs with soldering
| iron............

I know several, but am a bit young to have done that myself. I have
written a program using jack plugs (on an analogue computer).

I like the references to Fortran! I am currently revising a
course to teach Fortran to (graduate) students. Anyone who
needs help with that sort of thing is welcome to contact me :-)


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

On Oct 9, 9:29 am, (Nick Maclaren) wrote:
In article ,"JennyC" writes:

| "CWatters" wrote
|
| I never did get a Fortran prgram to run, but I did once enter a very brief
| program into a 16 bit GEC computer using the instruction keys on the front
| panel.
|
| I know someone who used to hard wire programs with soldering
| iron............

I know several, but am a bit young to have done that myself. I have
written a program using jack plugs (on an analogue computer).

I like the references to Fortran! I am currently revising a
course to teach Fortran to (graduate) students. Anyone who
needs help with that sort of thing is welcome to contact me :-)



this is from memory and is not accurate but have not written Fortran
since 1993:

IF(HELPFLAG.EQ.1) THEN
GOTO 10
ELSE
GOTO 11987
ENF IF
10 WRITE(5,10836) 'Help Nick'
10836 FORMAT('*')
11987 CONTINUE
STOP





Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

On Oct 8, 6:50 pm, David in Normandy wrote:
In article . com, Des
Higgins says...

Tape?? Tape?? Luxury; in my day we had to take the hot valves from
the glass blowing department and design our own circuits and invent
computers and keep the operating system in our heads (backwards
because that was how you loaded it). We had to wait 40 years before
tape was invented. We had wax tablets and small boys as back up.

:-)

I've still got backups of some Fortran software I wrote on punched paper
rolls. There is probably no equipment left on the planet to load the
software now (unless it is in a museum).

More recently I've got stacks of backups on 5.25" disks but no hardware
to read them any more. My archive on 3.5" disks are also heading the
same way with only one computer left in my possession capable of reading
them.

Makes you wonder just how recoverable various important National
archives are? We take it for granted that various paper based records
can go back several hundred years, but what of digitally stored records?

Rough rule of thumb for determining storage media:

Data to be kept for one year: magnetic/electronic
Data to be kept for ten years: Optical
Data to be kept for one century: ordinary ink on paper
Data to be kept for one millenium: Papyrus, Vellum, or similar

If you want longer than that, you are probably going to need baked
clay tablets (or arrange for regular transcription).