Re: editor and word processor history

["Pascal J. Bourguignon" <pjb@informatimago.com>]

Emanuel Berg <embe8573@student.uu.se> writes:

> Robert Thorpe <rt@robertthorpeconsulting.com> writes:
>
>> Programs were typed in using keypunches which wrote
>> to punched cards or using devices that wrote to paper
>> tape.  The program was then submitted as a stack of
>> cards or a tape to the sysadmins who ran the
>> computer.  The computer would then "SPOOL" copying
>> the paper information to magnetic tape where it could
>> be accessed later.  Once that happened the user could
>> do various things like edit the code, compile it and
>> so on.
>>
>> This meant there was a delay between the user's
>> information being sent and the program execution.
>> Often in that time errors could be found.  In that
>> case the user could run an editor from a teletype and
>> fix the errors.  Doing that wouldn't necessarily
>> require the teletype to print out each line of code
>> being changed.  That's why in early editors there
>> were commands to print out lines of code, but things
>> could be done without them.
>>
>> This was all high technology compared to the early
>> days when everything submitted on cards was compiled
>> and executed without question.  In those early days
>> there were no editors.  Everything depended on
>> punched cards and there were special machines to deal
>> with them which were a partial substitute.  (Even in
>> the 1970s most small IBM computers were only sold
>> with peripheral for reading and punching cards.)
>
> I suppose this would be a lot easier to understand if
> you could actually see (and touch) the machines. I have
> heard that in the US (Boston and San Francisco) there
> are computer museum, sometimes associated with the
> companies themselves.

You can always use simulators:

http://www.masswerk.at/google60/


Otherwise, it wouldn't be too hard to configure emacs to reproduce the
feel and constraints of software development in the 60s or 70s.

M-x caps-mode RET
M-x computer-paper RET  (https://gitorious.org/com-informatimago/emacs/source/master:pjb-computer-paper.el)


-- 
__Pascal Bourguignon__
http://www.informatimago.com/
"Le mercure monte ?  C'est le moment d'acheter !"