"However, there was something magical about being able to step through your program one instruction at a time using a switch on the control panel, or being able

"However, there was something magical about being able to step through your program one instruction at a time using a switch on the control panel, or being able to display and modify the memory with lights & toggle switches." Access to the hardware. Would have killed for this as an undergrad, typing up 200 line FORTRAN programs via a IBM card punch type-writer. One mistake and you were back to the comp-centre to re-type of fix the card to resubmit the batch. ~ https://www.flickr.com/photos/bootload/tags/punchcard https://www.flickr.com/photos/bootload/tags/punchcard