[quote1199600437=44 Magnum [S|R]]
Went to work for Digital Equipment Corp (DEC)
right out of college as a Field Service Engineer for 14 years.
[/quote1199600437]
With all the computers I worked with both as a computer operator and programmer, DEC has got to be in the top two (Burroughs is #1). It used to freak me out that even running a program with cards, the OS still thought it was a tty logging on with a PPN. Using TECO was kind of cool and it kind of reminds me of GREP, in a lot of ways.
...and of course in terms of operations, the awesome power of logging on as [1,2].
Where IBM used hex, DEC used octal, if I remember right. Looked cryptic as hell, but was ok once you got the hang of it.
Not sure if you ever touched it, but I used to be a programmer/analyst for a Canadian company called GEAC. We had our own computers and proprietary languages (ZOPL, ABL, HUGO, etc.). Geac wrote software and provided hardware for banks and financial institutions, library systems, etc. all over the world. Even the Vatican Library used GEAC's software.
ZOPL (stands for "Z, Our Programming Language), was cross between a low level assembly langauage and a mixture of others. For instance:
bufvar_^(textstring+12)
It means, the variable "bufvar" is assigned the value of the contents of the address of the buffer called "textstring", offset 12 bits.
The GEAC architecture used sixbit, using one and a half bits. They used Huffman code as a basis of storage.
Jeeze, I haven't thought of that since the mid 80's.......weird how memory locks that stuff in. ZOPL was used to write the operating system as well as any software that was needed.
ABL was originally called Advanced Banking Language and was exceptionally cool. It was a little more English like than ZOPL. One of its strengths was how it read a banking transaction. using commands RETRA, BATRA. It used them to read down a transaction tree, and read back up a transaction tree. Very useful in the loan and mortgage calculator procedures, where you could RETRA down a transaction chain, then BATRA to recalculate the values using the loan applier.
.....anyway, I'm descending back into ultra geekdom here, so I'll let it go
I could probably even still program in BAL if I had to. Now that's scary....
Went to work for Digital Equipment Corp (DEC)
right out of college as a Field Service Engineer for 14 years.
[/quote1199600437]
With all the computers I worked with both as a computer operator and programmer, DEC has got to be in the top two (Burroughs is #1). It used to freak me out that even running a program with cards, the OS still thought it was a tty logging on with a PPN. Using TECO was kind of cool and it kind of reminds me of GREP, in a lot of ways.
...and of course in terms of operations, the awesome power of logging on as [1,2].
Where IBM used hex, DEC used octal, if I remember right. Looked cryptic as hell, but was ok once you got the hang of it.
Not sure if you ever touched it, but I used to be a programmer/analyst for a Canadian company called GEAC. We had our own computers and proprietary languages (ZOPL, ABL, HUGO, etc.). Geac wrote software and provided hardware for banks and financial institutions, library systems, etc. all over the world. Even the Vatican Library used GEAC's software.
ZOPL (stands for "Z, Our Programming Language), was cross between a low level assembly langauage and a mixture of others. For instance:
bufvar_^(textstring+12)
It means, the variable "bufvar" is assigned the value of the contents of the address of the buffer called "textstring", offset 12 bits.
The GEAC architecture used sixbit, using one and a half bits. They used Huffman code as a basis of storage.
Jeeze, I haven't thought of that since the mid 80's.......weird how memory locks that stuff in. ZOPL was used to write the operating system as well as any software that was needed.
ABL was originally called Advanced Banking Language and was exceptionally cool. It was a little more English like than ZOPL. One of its strengths was how it read a banking transaction. using commands RETRA, BATRA. It used them to read down a transaction tree, and read back up a transaction tree. Very useful in the loan and mortgage calculator procedures, where you could RETRA down a transaction chain, then BATRA to recalculate the values using the loan applier.
.....anyway, I'm descending back into ultra geekdom here, so I'll let it go
I could probably even still program in BAL if I had to. Now that's scary....
