[inforoots] [Fwd: Re: The IBM 1401 at the Computer Restore.]

[Lougreer797 at cs.com]

I was one of the worst Autocoder programmers known to man.  As an IBM sales 
trainee, I had to learn Autocoder and actually support 1401 customers as a 
programmer.  I could never get the hang of "store the B register" in order to call 
in standard routines like Multiply, so I repeated the routines whenever they 
were needed, wasting the very scarce and valuable memory ... in most cases 2K 
BITS.

I helped replace a Univac 2 with Singer (the sewing machine folks) on Long 
Island, New York.  The Univac 2 was one of the last tube-type systems with a 
door so you could walk inside it to perform maintenance.  I managed to "wrap 
core" with a payroll program that calculated net pay from gross pay (not including 
deductions).  Singer kept the card deck as an example of the most amusing and 
inept programming that they had ever seen.  Wrapping core, by the way, 
happened when you exceeded the amount of core memory available; the system just 
stopped dead, since there was no auxiliary accessible storage.

It's a good thing that I live in South Carolina.  I would want to be part of 
the restoration project ... and I would probably set your progress back by 
months or more.

I'm excited that you're undertaking the project.

Lou

Lou Greer
Phone:     864-675-9219
Cell:         864-640-9188
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