🚀 go-pugleaf

<hanc...@bbs.cpcn.com> wrote:
> On Friday, February 16, 2018 at 9:45:13 AM UTC-5, Charles Richmond wrote:
> 
>> Sometimes people can get a lot more done... when they realize that they 
>> have to work harder with primitive tools and knowledge...
> 
> True.
> 
> Yes, computers could do a massive amount of calculations very
> quickly.  It really sped up accounting, payrolls, etc.
> 
> But on the flip side, the early computers had very little core
> and peripheral memory.  As a result, messages had to be very
> austere*, often coded and abbreviated.  Even a person's name
> and address were abbreviated.  This austerity made computers
> hard to use, especially for lay people not used to the 
> coding requirements.  For large companies, instead of referring
> to a customer's hard copy paper file, they referred to a computer
> generated report or terse online screen.  The available information
> was very limited.
> 
> Comedians and social critics of the 1960s and 1970s often
> made mention of the austere all-caps printouts consumers
> received, such as a computer generated letter or a punch
> card.  The 'DO NOT SPINDLE FOLD OR MULTILATE' warning on
> punch cards was frequently criticized as impersonal.
> 
> In the 1980s, computers had more memory (both core and disk).
> However, that memory was used for more applications, not more
> sophistication or user-friendly-ness.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> * Previously posted was a link to a computerized reservation
> system.  One letter codes, and two letter responses, fixed
> position.   Very, very terse.  I'll post the link again if
> there is interest.
> 

I've got an early book by James Martin on "man-computer-interfaces" (I
guess no women need apply) that covers such things as of the early 70s.
Martin has a chapter covering Sabre.

-- 
Pete