[inforoots] Fwd: Re: Fortran creator John Backus dies

[Curtis A. Jones]

A note an office mate passed on when I mentioned John
Backus's death -
...
>   From: John Judy Turner
> [mailto:jnjturner at sbcglobal.net] 
> Sent: Tuesday, March 20, 2007 1:25 PM
> Subject: Re: Fortran creator John Backus dies - Tech
> News & Reviews - MSNBC.com
> ...
> 
>   Oh boy, when all these guys start dying it means
> I'm getting older.  I remember when FORTRAN was such
> a great invention...I worked in the computer center
> at San Jose State in the Engineering Department from
> 1962-1966; it was the only dept with a computer in
> those days--an IBM 1620. All the engineers were in
> seventh heaven with this new language.  Of course,
> first I had to load the FORTRAN compiler (feed the
> tray full of punched cards into the card reader) and
> then read the students' program cards through twice
> (once for pass 1 of the compiler and then again for
> pass 2!!).  The "answers" were on punched cards that
> had to be read into an IBM 407 so that they would be
> printed.  FORTRAN programs were "batched" three
> times a day; students spent a lot of time "desk
> checking" their work because they only got three
> chances a day to try to get it to work.  Ah, those
> were the good old days.
>   -Judy
>