4 ms·

As a historical note, I'll point out that 1975 computers weren't as primitive as the article implies. Virtual memory was introduced commercially in 1961 with th

by kens 5y ago

As a historical note, I'll point out that 1975 computers weren't as primitive as the article implies. Virtual memory was introduced commercially in 1961 with the Burroughs B5000. Cache memory was introduced on the IBM System/360 Model 85 in 1969.

phkamp 5y ago
Absolutely, but did you ever try to use any of that ? Back then /everything/ was a special case and everything needed to be programmed as such. This is literally why JCL is a nightmare. The genius of Ken & Dennis was to boil all the special cases down to one simple abstraction. (Look at the socket API to if you want an example what happens when people dont understand the importance of sticking with the dominant abstraction.)
- ithkuil 5y ago
  Any good examples of how the socket API could have been better if they did stick to the dominant abstraction?
  - alexshendi 5y ago
    https://9p.io/plan9/ https://9p.io/plan9/ SCNR
graycat 5y ago
On what design features came to market when, two examples: (1) In 1972, I was at Georgetown U., and IBM was proposing that we buy a 370/135 with virtual memory. (2) In 1973 there was the IBM 360/67 with 31 bit addressing, virtual memory, and virtual machine.The virtual machine software was CP/67 (Control Program 67), and the user interface was from CMS (Conversational Monitor System). I programmed it in PL/I to schedule the fleet at FedEx.
jleyank 5y ago
RCA/Sperry Univac had reasonably large scale time sharing systems running basic, FORTRAN, apl, algol and 360-compatible assembly language. They had both physical and logical I/O APIs and supported vm to both disks and drums. Fill in the rest of the old time computer room as you’d like. Did a chess program and various other things in assembly, wrote the required Star Trek game in basic etc. As they provided the source code to the OS, even messed around with changing things like adding 2-step logins and other hacks. Basically, that decade saw the continuation and growth of the hacker culture that started in the early 60’s on trivially small machines (google spacewar). As there were no small machines, things were more social / collaborative than now out of necessity. And yeah, the hardware is bazillion times faster but the software less so as code bloat is real.

by kens 5y ago

phkamp 5y ago

Absolutely, but did you ever try to use any of that ? Back then /everything/ was a special case and everything needed to be programmed as such. This is literally why JCL is a nightmare. The genius of Ken & Dennis was to boil all the special cases down to one simple abstraction. (Look at the socket API to if you want an example what happens when people dont understand the importance of sticking with the dominant abstraction.)

ithkuil 5y ago
Any good examples of how the socket API could have been better if they did stick to the dominant abstraction?
- alexshendi 5y ago
  https://9p.io/plan9/ https://9p.io/plan9/ SCNR

graycat 5y ago

On what design features came to market when, two examples: (1) In 1972, I was at Georgetown U., and IBM was proposing that we buy a 370/135 with virtual memory. (2) In 1973 there was the IBM 360/67 with 31 bit addressing, virtual memory, and virtual machine.The virtual machine software was CP/67 (Control Program 67), and the user interface was from CMS (Conversational Monitor System). I programmed it in PL/I to schedule the fleet at FedEx.

jleyank 5y ago

RCA/Sperry Univac had reasonably large scale time sharing systems running basic, FORTRAN, apl, algol and 360-compatible assembly language. They had both physical and logical I/O APIs and supported vm to both disks and drums. Fill in the rest of the old time computer room as you’d like. Did a chess program and various other things in assembly, wrote the required Star Trek game in basic etc. As they provided the source code to the OS, even messed around with changing things like adding 2-step logins and other hacks. Basically, that decade saw the continuation and growth of the hacker culture that started in the early 60’s on trivially small machines (google spacewar). As there were no small machines, things were more social / collaborative than now out of necessity. And yeah, the hardware is bazillion times faster but the software less so as code bloat is real.