Man! I am happy to live in 2007!

[PeteJ]

Programming a drum card on a keypunch machine...didn't everyone do that? How about wiring a board to run a program on a 1401?

And what did we do on those computers?

I don't know about you, but I made my living (still do) writing programs that ran on IBM mainframes and sold as complete accounting packages to many of the Fortune 500 companies.

Ah, the good old days. On a plane from Boston to Chicago and writing a program that my salesman had said was part of our system, but only existed in his imagination. The client was a little suspicious when I had to spend the first 6 hours I was onsite keypunching.

Funny (and true) story...

Three of us from my company were at a client's location on Long Island to install a "package" that didn't really exist. We'd go out after work (6:00 AM to 8:00 PM) and have a few drinks and something to eat.

One night, when we finally got back to the motel we were staying at, one of the guys (okay, he'd had more than a few drinks) walked through the wrong door at the motel. He didn't go into a motel room, but into a storage area and, lo and behold, 2 keypunch machines.

After that, it was either Burger King or McDonalds, and then back to the motel to keypunch the programs we needed for the installation. It must have saved us a month's time overall.

[GGD]

[quote PeteJ]Programming a drum card on a keypunch machine...didn't everyone do that? How about wiring a board to run a program on a 1401?
I programmed plugboards on an IBM 407 and 519, but I don't think the 1401 used them, it was designed to replace those plugboard based unit record machines.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_record_equipment

"With the 1401, manual control panel wiring is eliminated, and transfer of cards or paper between machine units is greatly reduced."

http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibi...P1401.html

[Z]

[quote bilb]
Gas was 29 cents/gal, coffee a dime , minimum wage was $1.90 - I think.
At least the minimum wage is still at the same ratio to fuel... something like $18, right?

{/waaaay off topic}

[GGD]

[quote Z][quote bilb]
Gas was 29 cents/gal, coffee a dime , minimum wage was $1.90 - I think.
At least the minimum wage is still at the same ratio to fuel... something like $18, right?

{/waaaay off topic}
Maybe gas was around $0.29 at the beginning of the 1970s, but by the end of the 70s it was around $1.00.

Remember this... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1973_oil_crisis

[Bill in NC]

I had that Commodore PET as a kid (obsoleted from someone's office)

All in one - and that case isn't plastic, it's steel.

I strained my arm moving it.

[JoeH]

[quote billb]Gas was 29 cents/gal, coffee a dime , minimum wage was $1.90 - I think.
Close, it was $1.85 an hour. Could get regular gas for 26.9 cents a gallon a few places too.

As for programming, did my first punch cards for Fortran to be used on a 1401 in high school. First university I went to had an IBM 360 system the first year, upgraded to a 370 the second year. But still punch cards, Fortran and Pl/I. Next school I went to had converted to interactive video terminals connecting to CDC Cybers. Bt more Fortran coding. Though I did get to also do some Pascal.