From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: "Pascal J. Bourguignon" Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: editor and word processor history Date: Fri, 30 May 2014 06:06:09 +0200 Organization: Informatimago Message-ID: <87wqd37vwu.fsf@kuiper.lan.informatimago.com> References: <8738fsatxy.fsf@debian.uxu> NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1401423026 11817 80.91.229.3 (30 May 2014 04:10:26 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 30 May 2014 04:10:26 +0000 (UTC) To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Fri May 30 06:10:21 2014 Return-path: Envelope-to: geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([208.118.235.17]) by plane.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1WqE96-0002Xm-8E for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Fri, 30 May 2014 06:10:20 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:51277 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1WqE95-0007bf-KS for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Fri, 30 May 2014 00:10:19 -0400 Original-Path: usenet.stanford.edu!fu-berlin.de!uni-berlin.de!individual.net!not-for-mail Original-Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help Original-Lines: 55 Original-X-Trace: individual.net evlpJAHxmAsoPfed1MWAPQSkr3zxchziy9hNi9tLmBB97wJXeF Cancel-Lock: sha1:YmQ4N2Y5ZDVkNzEzOTlhNDk5MTk4MjllOGMyM2VjNjBlNDU5NTM4OA== sha1:JStt4AW12JVeAQGaKn9n7EsocvU= Face: iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAADAAAAAwAQMAAABtzGvEAAAABlBMVEUAAAD///+l2Z/dAAAA oElEQVR4nK3OsRHCMAwF0O8YQufUNIQRGIAja9CxSA55AxZgFO4coMgYrEDDQZWPIlNAjwq9 033pbOBPtbXuB6PKNBn5gZkhGa86Z4x2wE67O+06WxGD/HCOGR0deY3f9Ijwwt7rNGNf6Oac l/GuZTF1wFGKiYYHKSFAkjIo1b6sCYS1sVmFhhhahKQssRjRT90ITWUk6vvK3RsPGs+M1RuR mV+hO/VvFAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg== X-Accept-Language: fr, es, en User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/24.3 (gnu/linux) Original-Xref: usenet.stanford.edu gnu.emacs.help:205692 X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 Precedence: list List-Id: Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:97962 Archived-At: Emanuel Berg writes: > Robert Thorpe 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 !"