🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <pf6p3h$g5u$1...@dont-email.me>,
Sarr Blumson  <sarr.blumson@alum.dartmouth.orgq> wrote:
>John Levine <jo...@taugh.com> Wrote in message:
>> In article <r1c6hd9alvtcdvjo0...@4ax.com>,
>> Gene Wirchenko  <ge...@telus.net> wrote:
>>>     To get specific, a tiny BASIC (interpreted) could be implemented
>>>in 2K.  A compiler needs a lot more.
>> 
>> I don't think the Dartmouth compiler was much bigger than that since
>mainframe memory
>> in the 1960s was very expensive, but they did have fast disks.
>
>The 225/235 had 16k 20 bit words. By convention the upper 8k was
> read only system code, roughly 2k for the OS and 6k for the
> "system program" eg the compiler and runtime library. The lower
> 8k was similarly divided into 2k of data for the OS and 6k for
> the program. The user program was compiled into the 6k data
> space.
>
>BASIC was small enough to fit the compiler and runtime into one 6k
> load but ALGOL, for example was not. The scheduler was smart
> enough to put user jobs that used the same "high segment"
> together to save having to reload it, because the disks weren't
> actually all that fast by modern standards. 100 msec seeks. And
> you could see the data transfer in the lights.
>
>Far more than you wanted to know.

[smw] But it brings back lots of good memories.

[smw] The first system I was paid to use was a GE-265 run
by Pillsbury's Call-A-Computer division.

[smw] In Fortran (II as I recall) there was a trick of
using a negative index into an array to get various pieces
of system information from the OS area.

[smw] In addition to BASIC, ALGOL, and Fortran, there was
also LISP 1.5 available.

[smw] What was more fun than watching the disk lights was
watching the arms move.  The disk drive on the system I used
was in a big box with windows so you could see this happen.

[smw] On a different branch of this topic, in high school for
my junior year, we handed in coding sheets which were punched
by the school department's key punchers and taken by our
teacher to first Harvard (7094) and later a defense contractor
(360/20 IIRC.)  We usually got the cards and printout a week later.
The next year's class got to use a TTY33 to access the GE-265.

Sam