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Date:	Fri, 7 Jan 2005 12:32:52 PST8
From:	Peter Skye <pskye@peterskye.com >
Reply-To:	scoug-programming@scoug.com
To:	scoug-programming@scoug.com
Subject:	SCOUG-Programming: A bit too much to byte

Content Type: text/plain

Zdenek Jizba wrote:
>
> with the IBM 1401 we used wordmarks to delimit words

You betcha. Remember ",008015,022029," . . . ? It was the first loader
card ("," was "set wordmark"). And you could easily flummox the tape
controller by coding a groupmark in the middle of a record before
writing it to tape. The entire record would be written, but the
controller wouldn't read past the groupmark. What fun it was to hack
the hardware.

See? I'm just as old as _you_ are!

> Today your comments about bits, words and word boundaries
> (I am not even sure anymore of the terminology) go over
> the head of most computer users. Why learn programming
> languages since most applications that one might want to
> use are available as commercial software.

I'll agree with you on this, Jizba. But what you, Lynn and I want to do
is challenge the future. (Well, actually, I get a lot of satisfaction
out of challenging Lynn.) So we write algorithms in our preferred
language. Personally I write in English and I think in machine code,
and thus I sit at both extremes of the bell shaped curve at the same
time. This may explain why the world thinks I'm a very different duck
indeed.

> So when I hear about programming SIG, my attitude leans
> toward having features where I tell the computer what I
> want done, and I don't care how the computer works out
> the process as long as I get the right answers. We are
> a long way from that situation now but I pay attention
> to any discussion aiming in that direction.

Lynn wants the same and I applaud him for it. I look forward to the
next SIG meeting.

- Peter

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