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From: rbowman <bowman@montana.com>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,comp.os.linux.misc
Subject: Re: The joy of FORTRAN
Date: 28 Sep 2024 19:36:45 GMT
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On Sat, 28 Sep 2024 07:07:40 -0400, Chris Ahlstrom wrote:

> I got my start in high school with BASIC, keyed into a teletype and
> saved to paper tape.  (Later, I learned how to toggle code into the
> front panel of the PDP-8.)

I had a couple of brushes with BASIC. The IBM 5120 offered a choice of 
BASIC or APL so that was a no-brainer. Later I did a follow-up with an 
environmental test system. I had originally done the software for the AT 
which was the master controller of a number of slaved XTs. (Sorry DEI). 
The XTs had been programmed in BASIC by someone else. About 8 months after 
I left I cog a phone call asking if I could return to sort the XTs out so 
it was back to Ft. Wayne. 

I also wrote a preprocessor to convert BASIC to sort of  an IL and the 
necessary run time but I was working in assembler rather than BASIC. 
Interpreted BASIC wasn't exactly speedy. Not being a 'computer scientist' 
I was fairly naive at the time and was working from a directive 'speed 
this stuff up'.