5 ms·

I was using objdump and cordumps to debug a kernel crash just last week. Not tedious at all. More like working a difficult puzzle. And very rewarding if you fi

• p_l 4y ago
  objdump and coredumps today are way less tedious than getting a compiler error the next day (if not few days out!). At least with punched cards if you kept them sorted (line numbers in front a'la BASIC really helped with that) you could easily edit in place - just replace that one card that was incorrect, because each card = one line. TECO (which begat EMACS) started out because paper tape which was preferred storage on DEC machines was harder to edit in place than card stacks and instead of retyping whole program you'd summarise your changes (that you dutifully copied on fanfold greenbar printout - or suffered) into few complex commands then used the resulting 4 tapes (TECO load tape, TECO commands tape, incorrect program, fresh unpunched tape) to get one corrected. For maximum efficiency, the OS/360 team had to work 24h - the programmers would write their changes on first shift, then teams had to prepare cards, submit them for compilation, night shift reprinted modified documentation, and when you'd arrive at work you'd have fresh documentation and results of your compile (unless you had the luck to work on-line that day with more immediate feedback)
• tomcam 4y ago
  Yeah, depending on deadlines that sounds fun to me