From grog at lemis.com Wed Jun 16 10:35:39 2021 From: grog at lemis.com (Greg 'groggy' Lehey) Date: Wed, 16 Jun 2021 10:35:39 +1000 Subject: [COFF] 70 years of commercial computing Message-ID: <20210616003539.GJ23809@eureka.lemis.com> Seen in my calendar yesterday: Jun 15 UNIVAC I delivered to the Census Bureau, 1951 70 years! And Unix has been around for nearly 52 of those years. Amusingly, though, the next entry is: Jun 16 First publicized programming error at Census Bureau, 1951 Which suggests that they were able to install the machine and getting it running in only one day. Greg -- Sent from my desktop computer. Finger grog at lemis.com for PGP public key. See complete headers for address and phone numbers. This message is digitally signed. If your Microsoft mail program reports problems, please read http://lemis.com/broken-MUA.php -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: signature.asc Type: application/pgp-signature Size: 163 bytes Desc: not available URL: From peter at rulingia.com Wed Jun 16 11:54:45 2021 From: peter at rulingia.com (Peter Jeremy) Date: Wed, 16 Jun 2021 11:54:45 +1000 Subject: [COFF] 70 years of commercial computing In-Reply-To: <20210616003539.GJ23809@eureka.lemis.com> References: <20210616003539.GJ23809@eureka.lemis.com> Message-ID: On 2021-Jun-16 10:35:39 +1000, Greg 'groggy' Lehey wrote: >Seen in my calendar yesterday: > > Jun 15 UNIVAC I delivered to the Census Bureau, 1951 > >70 years! And Unix has been around for nearly 52 of those years. > >Amusingly, though, the next entry is: > > Jun 16 First publicized programming error at Census Bureau, 1951 > >Which suggests that they were able to install the machine and getting >it running in only one day. The one day difference strikes me as extremely unlikely. It might be useful to look into references to verify those dates. For an alternative view, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LEO_(computer) says LEO 1 carried out "a simple test program" on 1951-02-15, though it didn't start running the intended business applications until September. -- Peter Jeremy -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: signature.asc Type: application/pgp-signature Size: 963 bytes Desc: not available URL: From rudi.j.blom at gmail.com Wed Jun 16 12:57:10 2021 From: rudi.j.blom at gmail.com (Rudi Blom) Date: Wed, 16 Jun 2021 09:57:10 +0700 Subject: [COFF] 70 years of commercial computing (Greg 'groggy' Lehey) Message-ID: >From wiki "The first Univac was accepted by the United States Census Bureau on March 31, 1951, and was dedicated on June 14 that year.[3][4] " https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNIVAC_I -- The more I learn the better I understand I know nothing. From athornton at gmail.com Wed Jun 16 12:58:13 2021 From: athornton at gmail.com (Adam Thornton) Date: Tue, 15 Jun 2021 19:58:13 -0700 Subject: [COFF] 70 years of commercial computing In-Reply-To: References: <20210616003539.GJ23809@eureka.lemis.com> Message-ID: <4D715033-0AF4-4AC9-93E7-298340F19F35@gmail.com> I would suspect that “delivered” means, in this context, “powered up and passed diagnostics” and that it might well have been on-site for months prior to that. > On Jun 15, 2021, at 6:54 PM, Peter Jeremy via COFF wrote: > > On 2021-Jun-16 10:35:39 +1000, Greg 'groggy' Lehey wrote: >> Seen in my calendar yesterday: >> >> Jun 15 UNIVAC I delivered to the Census Bureau, 1951 From dot at dotat.at Thu Jun 17 23:44:59 2021 From: dot at dotat.at (Tony Finch) Date: Thu, 17 Jun 2021 14:44:59 +0100 Subject: [COFF] 70 years of commercial computing In-Reply-To: <20210616003539.GJ23809@eureka.lemis.com> References: <20210616003539.GJ23809@eureka.lemis.com> Message-ID: <9c318234-35f6-c3a5-ac1d-d9b32555cb7e@dotat.at> Greg 'groggy' Lehey wrote: > Seen in my calendar yesterday: > > Jun 15 UNIVAC I delivered to the Census Bureau, 1951 > > 70 years! And Unix has been around for nearly 52 of those years. And the LEO computer based on EDSAC ran its first demo program on 15th Feb 1951: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LEO_(computer) Tony. -- f.anthony.n.finch https://dotat.at/ Tyne, Dogger: Variable 2 to 4, becoming north or northeast 4 or 5. Slight, occasionally smooth at first. Thundery showers. Good occasionally poor. From pbirkel at gmail.com Fri Jun 18 01:12:28 2021 From: pbirkel at gmail.com (Paul Birkel) Date: Thu, 17 Jun 2021 11:12:28 -0400 Subject: [COFF] Early Programming Books Message-ID: <026001d7638b$3014ea40$903ebec0$@gmail.com> I know of two early computer (in the stored program sense) programming books. 1951: Preparation of Programs for an Electronic Digital Computer (Wilkes, Wheeler, & Gill) 1957: Digital Computer Programming (McCracken) What others were published prior to the McCracken text? Excluded are lecture compendia and symposia proceedings, such as: 1946: Moore School Lectures 1947: Proceedings of a Symposium on Large-Scale Digital Calculating Machinery 1951: Proceedings of a Second Symposium on Large-Scale Digital Calculating Machinery 1953: Faster Than Thought, A Symposium On Digital Computing Machines These were principally about designs for, and experience with, new hardware. I'm curious about texts specifically focused on the act of programming. Were there others prior to McCracken? paul -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From dave at horsfall.org Wed Jun 23 08:16:56 2021 From: dave at horsfall.org (Dave Horsfall) Date: Wed, 23 Jun 2021 08:16:56 +1000 (EST) Subject: [COFF] Happy birthday, Alan Turing! Message-ID: On this day in 1912. Were it not for him, you would not be reading this message; he was the father of Computer Science. -- Dave From rudi.j.blom at gmail.com Wed Jun 23 13:04:18 2021 From: rudi.j.blom at gmail.com (Rudi Blom) Date: Wed, 23 Jun 2021 10:04:18 +0700 Subject: [COFF] Happy birthday, Alan Turing! Message-ID: >From yesterday: "New British 50 pound note with WW2 codebreaker Turing enters circulation" https://news.yahoo.com/british-50-pound-note-ww2-231442699.html -- The more I learn the better I understand I know nothing.