In the mid-seventies at Swarthmore College, we were mired in punched card Fortran programming on a single IBM 1130. The horror, a machine less powerful than the

In the mid-seventies at Swarthmore College, we were mired in punched card Fortran programming on a single IBM 1130. The horror, a machine less powerful than the first Apple II. My job six hours a week was to reboot after each crash. People waited hours for their turn to crash the machine. I let a line form once people had their printouts. I'd find the single pair of brackets in a ten line listing, and I'd explain how their index was out of bounds. They thought I was a genius. Late one Saturday night, I made a misguided visit to the computer center while high, smelled sweat and fear, and spun to leave. Too late, a woman's voice: "Dave! I told Professor Pryor he needed you!" We didn't know that Fred Pryor was the economics graduate student freed in the 1962 "Bridge of Spies" prisoner exchange. Later he’d learn that I was his beagle’s favorite human, and I’d dog-sit to find steaks for me I couldn’t afford, but for now I feared him. So busted! Then I heard this voice “See these square brackets? See where you initialize this index?” He was spectacularly grateful.