PDP-11: perhaps the most sensible assembly language of its day (and for
quite some time afterward). I wrote 10's (100's?) of thousands of lines of
PDP-11 assembly, including (privileged) code that used the APRs like an 808=
6
uses segment registers.

~ Bob Ammerman
RAm Systems

> -----Original Message-----
> From: piclist-bounces@mit.edu [mailto:piclist-bounces@mit.edu] On Behalf
Of
> BOB
> Sent: Monday, March 02, 2015 8:56 PM
> To: Microcontroller discussion list - Public.
> Subject: Re: [OT] 50 years ago...
>=20
> Ah the VIC 20.  I loved that machine. I would use it for data gathering o=
n
some
> production machines.
> I still have a box of them around.  Back when you c buy them at garage /
> rummage sales for $5 or less I bought up some of them.
>=20
> I think I have just about all the game cartridges for them.  One of these
days
> when a blizzard hits us I might drag them out and see if they still work.
>=20
> I also have a cigar box full of paper tapes.  Tiny basic etc.
>=20
> My son says when I die he is just going to put a dumpster out side the
window
> and throw every thing out.
>=20
> Bob
>=20
> On 3/2/2015 7:11 AM, Richard R. Pope wrote:
> > Joe,
> >       That's ok! This isn't quite 50 years ago. When I was in high
> > school in 1973 we were time sharing across a 300 baud modem that was
> > connected to an IBM 370/70 if I remember the numbers correctly. Our
> > programs were stored on paper tape. I learned how to read the character=
s
on
> the tape.
> > We were learning how to program in BASIC. Some of the students
> > discovered the Star Trek program and used up all of our processor time
> > in one night. They were expelled and the school had to buy some more
> > processor time so that the rest of us could finish our programs. The
> > computer room was locked from then on unless there was an instructor
> > there. Another example of the majority losing some privileges because
> > of what a few did. I don't even remember what program I was writing. I
> > just remember that we were studying BASIC.
> >       We were also learning FORTRAN. That was a lot of fun. We wrote
> > out our program and then transferred the program on to cards. I
> > believe that each card held 80 characters or one line. We then mailed
> > the cards off to UNR were they would try to compile it. We would then
> > get our cards back with a print out telling us where our errors were.
> > We would fix the errors and send the cards back to UNR. The turn
> > around time was about three weeks. None of us ever finished a program.
> > Ten years later the
> > VIC-20 came out and wow I was in heaven.
> > Thanks,
> > rich!
> >
> > On 3/2/2015 7:03 AM, Joe Wronski wrote:
> >> Ooops, looking at the picture, I remember that it was *octal* numbers
> >> we keyed in, not hex.
> >>
> >> On 3/2/2015 7:58 AM, Joe Wronski wrote:
> >>> Sprague Electric (now Allegro) used them as part of a Teradyne test
> >>> system when I started there in 1976.  I didn't know a thing about
> >>> programming then, but there was a series of maybe 20-25 hex numbers
> >>> that needed to be entered in binary on the front panel to get the
> >>> paper tape reader loaded. Later on, I took a PDP8 assembly language
> >>> course and I used a cpm machine connected by 300 baud modem to the
> >>> college's PDP11 which ran a PDP8 emulator.
> >>>
> >>> Joe W
> >>>
> >>> On 3/1/2015 9:54 PM, John Gardner wrote:
> >>>> PC's for everyone !
> >>>>
> >>>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PDP-8
> >>>>
> >>>> Anyone with $20K, that is, in 1965 dollars...  :)
> >>>>
> >>>> A bit of perspective on the meaning of RISC, and perhaps also
> >>>>
> >>>> the meaning of money - Roughly $200 K in today's greenbacks...
>=20
> --
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--=20
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