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IBM's resources (OT)

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Tony Estep

IBM's resources (OT)

On Thu, Apr 3, 2014 at 7:47 PM, Don Wilhelm <[hidden email]> wrote:

> ...Elecraft is nowhere the size of IBM and does not have those huge
> resources....

=============
Don's comment reminded me of one of the great hacker stories of all time.
When IBM launched the 360, it obsoleted all its customers' code, because in
those days the machines all ran assembly language and the 360 had a
different instruction set. The clients screamed for an emulator, but none
was forthcoming. (Parenthetical note: at that time IBM was the world's most
profitable company and by far the largest by market capitalization.)

A couple of months later, 2 guys who worked for Boise Cascade (yes, the
plywood company) published a 360-based emulator that would run 1401 code,
and gave it away free. They wrote it in the evenings after work. It worked
fine, and shamed IBM into writing their own version. When the spokesman for
IBM was asked why IBM didn't provide one in the first place, his answer was
classic: "IBM does not have unlimited resources."

Tony KT0NY
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Phil Kane-2

Re: IBM's resources (OT)

On 4/3/2014 8:32 PM, Tony Estep wrote:

> Don's comment reminded me of one of the great hacker stories of all time.
> When IBM launched the 360, it obsoleted all its customers' code, because in
> those days the machines all ran assembly language and the 360 had a
> different instruction set. The clients screamed for an emulator, but none
> was forthcoming. (Parenthetical note: at that time IBM was the world's most
> profitable company and by far the largest by market capitalization.)

Ah yes - the good old days of "big iron". In that era, my kid brother
KU2P/4X1AK was deeply involved in the data processing programming end of
the securities trading industry, and when an IBM client wanted something
that they could not provide, IBM would go through the same routine of
"we don't have anything like that, go see Andy Kane at =======..."

My exposure to "big iron" in that era was on a military project where a
special compiler for the JOVIAL language (look it up on Wiki and follow
all the trails) was contracted for with a specific "name" company - one
of the Air Force's "favorites" - but to the annoyance of the rest of the
project managers they couldn't deliver on time and when they finally did
it didn't work (I had to deal with that "up close and personal"). The
Air Force finally took it away from them and the Blue-Suiters did the
work in-house. Reminds me of all the problems that Oregon's Health Care
Signup system is going through. Only the names have been changed to
protect the guilty.

Enough on that - contact me off line if there's any interest in all the
published leads on the 50-year old project that is now on public display
in the Strategic Air Command's museum.
-- --
73 de K2ASP - Phil Kane
Elecraft K2/100 s/n 5402

From a Clearing in the Silicon Forest
Beaverton (Washington County) Oregon
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k6dgw

Re: IBM's resources (OT)

Hmmm ... In the days of "Big Blue Iron," I don't think I ever saw a
computer room that didn't have some card boxes on top of a file cabinet
near the doors with a sign, "FOR 1401 EMULATION ON MIDS."

Regarding JOVIAL, said to be an acronym from, "Jules' Own Version of the
International Algorithmic Language," its syntax is rampant with dollar
sign characters. "Jules" was Dr. Jules Schwartz. Statements end with
them, subscripts are surrounded by them, they're everywhere.

JOVIAL was for many years the official USAF language for operational
software [may still be for all I know, Ada never seemed to get enough
airspeed for takeoff]. It was a good definition of "cash cow" for him
and his company. I met Dr. Schwartz at a conference once, and asked him
if there was any significance to the prevalence of the dollar sign in
JOVIAL syntax. He just grinned at me.

I've occasionally wondered if Eric and Jules were related, however it's
a pretty common name.

73,

Fred K6DGW
- Northern California Contest Club
- CU in the 2014 Cal QSO Party 4-5 Oct 2014
- www.cqp.org

On 4/4/2014 10:35 AM, Phil Kane wrote:
> On 4/3/2014 8:32 PM, Tony Estep wrote:
>
>> Don's comment reminded me of one of the great hacker stories of all time.
>> When IBM launched the 360, it obsoleted all its customers' code, because in
>> those days the machines all ran assembly language and the 360 had a
>> different instruction set. The clients screamed for an emulator, but none
>> was forthcoming. (Parenthetical note: at that time IBM was the world's most
>> profitable company and by far the largest by market capitalization.)

>
> My exposure to "big iron" in that era was on a military project where a
> special compiler for the JOVIAL language (look it up on Wiki and follow
> all the trails) was contracted for with a specific "name" company - one
> of the Air Force's "favorites" - but to the annoyance of the rest of the
> project managers they couldn't deliver on time and when they finally did
> it didn't work (I had to deal with that "up close and personal"). The
> Air Force finally took it away from them and the Blue-Suiters did the
> work in-house. Reminds me of all the problems that Oregon's Health Care
> Signup system is going through. Only the names have been changed to
> protect the guilty.

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Jim Campbell

Re: IBM's resources (OT)

I heard the same story about JOVIAL being an acronym for "Jules' Own ...
". Also heard that Jules designed it while walking the beach (forgot
which beach). Santa Monica, perhaps?

I did some programming in JOVIAL while working on some software for the
central computer on the AWACS aircraft. IBM's Federal Systems Division
had the contract for the central processor and its operating system. Got
to fly many hours on the first AWACS. Got my IBM Flight Test Wings award
for flying more than 50 hours flight testing IBM hardware/software. Also
got flight (hazardous duty) pay.

The most peculiar thing to me about JOVIAL was there was no provision
for I/O. You had to use the DIRECT function which dropped you into
Assembler Language. You performed the I/O in assembler and returned to
JOVIAL until the next need for I/O.

73,

Jim - W4BQP
K2 #2268, KX3 #2875
First licensed in 1953

On 4/4/2014 5:39 PM, Fred Jensen wrote:

> Hmmm ... In the days of "Big Blue Iron," I don't think I ever saw a
> computer room that didn't have some card boxes on top of a file
> cabinet near the doors with a sign, "FOR 1401 EMULATION ON MIDS."
>
> Regarding JOVIAL, said to be an acronym from, "Jules' Own Version of
> the International Algorithmic Language," its syntax is rampant with
> dollar sign characters. "Jules" was Dr. Jules Schwartz. Statements
> end with them, subscripts are surrounded by them, they're everywhere.
>
> JOVIAL was for many years the official USAF language for operational
> software [may still be for all I know, Ada never seemed to get enough
> airspeed for takeoff]. It was a good definition of "cash cow" for him
> and his company. I met Dr. Schwartz at a conference once, and asked
> him if there was any significance to the prevalence of the dollar sign
> in JOVIAL syntax. He just grinned at me.
>
> I've occasionally wondered if Eric and Jules were related, however
> it's a pretty common name.
>
> 73,
>
> Fred K6DGW
> - Northern California Contest Club
> - CU in the 2014 Cal QSO Party 4-5 Oct 2014
> - www.cqp.org
>