Winsteps
Sunday, September 18, 2005
40 years of computer programming: ugly, but it works!
It was about March 1965 when I wrote my first computer program. It was in EDSAC II autocode, intended to run on the University of Cambridge computer. But computer time was much too valuable to waste on us students, so the instructor merely glanced at our code and pronounced it satisfactory or unsatisfactory.
About June 1965 I constructed my first operational computer program. I got a vacation job as a programmer at Electronic Associates (a computer manufacturer) working on their analog and hybrid computers. Programs were "written" with wiring on plug boards. We coded real-time differential equations. Programming involved integrators, summers and feedback loops. We simulated oil wells, chemical factories, rockets in flight and such like. Analog computers have since vanished.
In 1968, I was programming accounting systems on IBM 360 computers in RPG. Everything was on 80-column punch cards. Then came magnetic tape drives and, a huge innovation, the Winchester disk drives. (Anyone remember the "datacell" - a direct-access magnetic-tape contraption?)
Around 1980, us old-time programmers started getting worried. Apple and CPM personal computers were becoming available. We thought our days were numbered as all the teenage whiz-kid programmers (who learned programming from their cradles) would soon render us obsolete. Now its 25 years later. Computers are everywhere. But finding a competent, productive programmer is still a challenge - except, perhaps, in India! Good programming requires careful planning, logic and patience - no matter how fast the computer is.
At the University of Chicago, around 1987, I did a computer programming course. It was taught by Professors who had never programmed in a pressure production environment. They were concerned about beautiful code and state-of-the-art algorithms. My concern was fast coding (not fast code), easy maintainability (not beauty) and robust code (which still works when there are errors in the data). Those Professors gave me a barely passing grade. They said "Your code is ugly, but it works!".
Are there any more "ugly" programmers out there with an interest in clients (of all types) with projects (of all types) needing statistics (of all types) implemented in computer programs (of all types)? If so, how about contacting me about joining the Winsteps team .....
About June 1965 I constructed my first operational computer program. I got a vacation job as a programmer at Electronic Associates (a computer manufacturer) working on their analog and hybrid computers. Programs were "written" with wiring on plug boards. We coded real-time differential equations. Programming involved integrators, summers and feedback loops. We simulated oil wells, chemical factories, rockets in flight and such like. Analog computers have since vanished.
In 1968, I was programming accounting systems on IBM 360 computers in RPG. Everything was on 80-column punch cards. Then came magnetic tape drives and, a huge innovation, the Winchester disk drives. (Anyone remember the "datacell" - a direct-access magnetic-tape contraption?)
Around 1980, us old-time programmers started getting worried. Apple and CPM personal computers were becoming available. We thought our days were numbered as all the teenage whiz-kid programmers (who learned programming from their cradles) would soon render us obsolete. Now its 25 years later. Computers are everywhere. But finding a competent, productive programmer is still a challenge - except, perhaps, in India! Good programming requires careful planning, logic and patience - no matter how fast the computer is.
At the University of Chicago, around 1987, I did a computer programming course. It was taught by Professors who had never programmed in a pressure production environment. They were concerned about beautiful code and state-of-the-art algorithms. My concern was fast coding (not fast code), easy maintainability (not beauty) and robust code (which still works when there are errors in the data). Those Professors gave me a barely passing grade. They said "Your code is ugly, but it works!".
Are there any more "ugly" programmers out there with an interest in clients (of all types) with projects (of all types) needing statistics (of all types) implemented in computer programs (of all types)? If so, how about contacting me about joining the Winsteps team .....
