Was said:
> Fortran was the first high level language, and as such it was a
> brilliant idea and a major breakthru. 
>   

Not sure of that, what was the year?? In 1960 MAD (Michigan Algorithm 
Decoder) was used at the University of Michigan (USA). The main frame 
was an IBM 650, followed a year later by a 790, both vacuum tube 
machines. Before fall of 1963 a transistor IBM 7090 was used. The MAD 
manual had a picture of Alfred E. Newman of MAD magazine fame on the 
cover. Back then it was suggested that Wednesday evening you attend an 
evening computer lecture. As a civil engineering student, we had to 
punch our own cards, submit them for processing, a day or 2 later pick 
them up and fix the usual typo's. The output was handed in as homework. 
Problems included solving structural trusses, hydraulic flow, etc. (not 
just plugging numbers in software). :)
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