I Hate Computers

GlueGuy · Aug 22, 2001

On my second computer job, I used to work on "systems" that we sold to schools & colleges. The were DG Nova, had 16KB of memory, and ran a multi-user (4 consoles) Basic OS. Imagine that. We could get 4 simultaneous users, and the total amount of memory was 16KB for the OS, and all 4 users.

Kinda dating ourselves aren't we? /w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif

At the present time, I'm the only user on this system, and I'm sucking down 291MB of memory (8,127 handles, 418 threads, and 43 processes).

The GlueGuy

looch · Aug 22, 2001

I used to mess around with a Sinclair ZX81. 2k of memory and a cassette deck. I never managed to scrape together enough of my allowance to purchase that 16K add on module. I remember being so proud when I managed to create a program that selected random numbers for the 6/36 (our lottery back then) - I was only 10!
I remember in grade 3 of elementary school we used Apple II+'s and some kind of drawing application called LOGO.

StoneHeartFarm · Aug 23, 2001

RPM

Punched Cards? They WERE a pain. In high school, I hopefully signed up for "Data Processing". I bet with a little work I could still read those stupid cards (if there was any reason to.) Only good thing about it is that some of those "in your mailbox" contests included a punch card that they wanted returned. After the class I could at least read them to see what they said /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif.

I remember the sinclair machines, the commodore 64, the Tandy's, Texas instruments and the slew of others. Owned an Atari 800 and learned to program it in assembler and eventually straight into machine code. I actually liked the straight machine code better because I could integrate it into a basic program to speed up lengthy processes.

When the Y2K scare was going on, people were gaping in eye popping disbelief that anyone would write a program without the 19 in the date, or use their initials to designate data. I thought it was pretty funny. What else do they expect when you're working with 32k? As the guy who taught the BASIC class I took said: "Programs are changing so fast that you don't have to worry about the 19, your program will be gone LONG before it becomes a problem." (Actually, he was right, mine were gone.)

It's the new languages I don't understand. Windows programming is a mystery, and html is confusing. (Not even sure what html stands for). Now, I rely on somebody else to do the work and I just use the stuff and learn to work around the bugs. /w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif

Just got a business software upgrade and I'm still trying to stabilize the system after installing it. Actually, it seems to be a lot less buggy than previous editions. (If slower) Maybe I'll have to build that new machine sooner than I thought.

SHF

GlueGuy · Aug 23, 2001

<font color=blue>Not even sure what HTML stands for</font color=blue>

Hyper Text Markup Language

Now you know what it stands for, just have to figure out what it means. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

The GlueGuy

TerryinMD · Aug 23, 2001

HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language). It is actually very simple. Just tedious!! Now if you're talking about making a Web page fancy, then you have to get into graphics applications, PERL, Java, etc. A little more complex, but still programming. What I have noticed is that the newer languages have changed the terminology more than the programming. Also, have implemented some differences in semantics (the language). Now, ask these hotshots to program in assembly language and they begin to convulse and foam at the mouth. If they only new the fun.......

When I started in programming you had a finite amount of memory and system resources (stuff cost too much!!!), now the sky's the limit and the programmers have gotten lazy with resources. Just add more stuff, it's cheap! Since they're lazy and the machines have more cheap resources, the code is not optimized and, well, look at the problems we have maintaining our home computers.... The subject line of the this thread says it all...... /w3tcompact/icons/cool.gif

Wingnut · Aug 23, 2001

HTML is a superset of SGML .... does that help? Ha! All of the "ML"s or Markup languages are a way of passing the instructions on what to do with text along with the text. When you use M$Word or some memory leaker like that, all the coding is hidden from you. But in the markup languages, starting with SGML or GML, the instructions are coded with the text. So you see lines like <header>Top of the World</header> ... which tells a program conversant with HTML that it should present the sentaence Top of the World to you as a header. There's a beginning tag and an ending tag. You can stack a whole bunch of these together so that you could also say that the header should be bold, blue and flashing.
Not really a programming language ... just a really really simple form of the old TeX printing language (IMHO).
Now if you want to get fancier ... you need to get into XML (or eXtensible Markup Language) which is what I am having to diddle with ... switching over from EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) on a lot of the Purchase Orders I send out.

Speaking of hard drives (I think Bird started that one too?) ... my first real hard drives were for my Amiga 1000. The first thing I did when I got the puppy home was to oipen her up and solder more memory to brting the tottal up to an awesome 1.5 Meg!! Then I bought 2 Miniscribe 40mb harddrives and a ribbon cable and some breadboards and an enclosure ... and ended up with an 80mb Amiga .... I was the envy of the users club .... for a couple of months until some company started making Amiga specific memory boards and harddrives.
My "museum" includes a Compucolor 8 circo 1978/79; a VIC20, a C64, a portable C64, a Trash80 c/w 18" printer that's never been turned on, an Amiga 1000 (still in operation) and a 2000 and a 3000. Still think that AmigaDOS (modeled after the VAX operating languages) has not yet been equaled by BillyGates and his merry band of bugbuilders.
And one day real soon now, I'll retire the bottom of the lpile (the P-133) and build a new 2GB screamer ... just to see how fast I can recompile my breeding records (1 colt so far ... hahahaha)

too bad that common sense ain't

GlueGuy · Aug 23, 2001

<font color=blue>HTML is a superset of SGML</font color=blue>

I think you mean the other way around. /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

HTML is a subset of SGML, and XML is (sort of) in between.

The GlueGuy

StoneHeartFarm · Aug 24, 2001

HTML, SGML, XML? Okay, that answers what the ML tag stands for. What launguage are they using to write Windows programs now? Its sure not assembler or machine code, the programs are way too long and involved. Writing a several megabyte assembler job-- what a nightmare!

You guys are right, the programs are wasting the machine's resources. When I was still working the DOS version of my business programming on the old 486, it was QUICK. Then they switched to windows only. Significant difference in speed. Lets just say I could go get a cup of coffee while I waited for a command to be performed. So, it occurs to me that the language they are using for windows must have a lot of lengthy subroutines built in. Back when I was still trying to learn this stuff, BASIC and Assembler were the home computer's friend, with a few people playing with C and something called Turtle. At the time, I was told that all higher level languages were basically icons for machine code subroutines. In other words, if I type "PRINT", it calls a machine code subroutine or two to execute the print command. Is this still true?

SHF