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My first computing experience was on the MIT-AI KA-10 (which was the first one ever installed). It was already semi-obsolete by then, with CADR lispms in use a

by gumby 2y ago

My first computing experience was on the MIT-AI KA-10 (which was the first one ever installed). It was already semi-obsolete by then, with CADR lispms in use as well. Having the debugger always available (no need for the old fashioned idea of core dumps) and the tight integration of the the PDP-10 instruction set and MACLISP (the ‘6 and then ‘10 were explicitly designed by Gordon Bell to run Lisp) was the perfect introduction to the power and fun of computing, as was the early state of Emacs.

GeorgeTirebiter 2y ago
My first experience was when I was a coop student at DEC/Marlboro. First summer, I learned the -10 and wrote sysdpy in BLISS-10. Next summer, I wrote the KL-10 spooler - in assembly language. Folks these days don't appreciate that early OSs were all written in assembler because - efficiency! TOPS-20 was a well-curated set of JRSTs and Macros -- building blocks to build code quickly. Great, well-written assembly is an existential joy to read. During my 2nd summer, I wrote a memo to Gordon Bell, suggesting we (DEC) not burn effort on the LSI-11; I suggested to him that we build the LSI-10 and take over the 'microcomputer' market since there was so much -10 software. He wrote back "Do it!" but, I had to go back to school in the fall, so I didn't get that done. sorry, everybody, everywhere.