appreciate

Seattle and the University of Washington
Dale and I took courses together in computer studies, starting with assembly language
programming for the IBM 7094. For you computer youngsters. here's the
way it worked.
You walk into the keypunch room with your two-foot long cardboard box of FOR­
TRAN STATEMENT cards. Then wait in line to get to a keypunch machine.
Finally, someone tires of typing, and you get a seat.
Each card in that stupid cardboard box is like a single line on your computer screen
today. I don't even want to think about it, because you young guys have it all too
easy. But, my Computer Psychiatrist told me that "eet izz important to get zees feelingks
about der dumbkopf keypunches out in der open." All us oldtimers remember
that the keypunch machine is like a typewriter, but it shuffles cards through its
mechanism and stamps rectangular holes in a column below each character. You
leaf through your box, alter each necessary card, and then relinquish your keypunch
to the next anxious student. Then, take your precious box of cards to the shelf outside
the computer room and wait and wait and wait.
The computer room hides the IBM 7094 with SAC-like security doors. Computer
operators, trained in "Grumbly IO l ," sit behind that door, attending to their work
and throwing down coffee without even their own notice.
I know this because I spent about 1,312,467 hours looking through that little peephole
window to see if the operator would arise from his or her throne to go to the
restroom and possibly retrieve my box of punched cards on the way back into SAC.
If you stayed around very late at night, you might get a "turnaround" of an hour or
so to get the printout. The program usually didn't work, so it was back to the keypunch.
To know what it was like, go back to the heading for this section, "Transition
to Computers," and re-read it until you fall soundly asleep.
Getting into Compilers
Let me start with a short note about why I write about compilers. First, they are my
primary interest in computing. Compilers, when perfected, can be elegant to the
point that you want to paste a printed listing on your wall, like artwork. Ok, so you
have to be into writing compilers to get my meaning, but when your compiler
works, you are very proud and want to show it off.
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Computer Connections