Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!nih-csl!lhc!ncifcrf!haven!udel!wuarchive!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!att!att!cbnewsi!cbnewsj!davet
From: davet@cbnewsj.att.com (Dave Tutelman)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: In defence of *Real* programming  - was Re: MEL - A *Real* Programmer
Summary: antique
Message-ID: <1990Oct29.125923.6151@cbnewsj.att.com>
Date: 29 Oct 90 12:59:23 GMT
References: <7380.271c3129@ccvax.ucd.ie> <1990Oct23.235720.16178@nas.nasa.gov> <URO61N8@xds13.ferranti.com>
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs - Lincroft, NJ
Lines: 23

In article <URO61N8@xds13.ferranti.com>, peter@ficc.ferranti.com (Peter da Silva) writes:
> In article <7386.2726d343@ccvax.ucd.ie> b_haughey@ccvax.ucd.ie (Brian J Haughey) writes:
> > First of all, when I write code I make no apologies for its succintness
> > or cleverness. The project I am working on involves writing code in
> > assembler for the 1802 microprocessor.
> 
> (hey folks, 16 16-bit registers in 1976 or so is nothing to sneeze at. If
>  only iNTEL had deigned to notice it!)
> IMHO, if you can't appreciate the 1802 you're not a Real Programmer.

Let's see; 1990 - 1976 = 14 years.  Go back another 14 years and it's 1962.
And you're STILL not back to the inception of the Royal McBee LGP30 (the
machine Mel hacked on - check the story).  In 1961, it became the CCNY
engineering school's first computer.

So Mel was indeed a REAL PROGRAMMER.  He didn't do what he did to be
obscure; he really needed to if he wanted performance/function out
of the machine.  Take it from me, the LGP30 was NOT a powerful box
unless your alternative was slide rule and pencil.

Shouldn't this thread be moved to alt.folklore.computers?

Dave