In article <[log in to unmask]>, Bruce Senn
<[log in to unmask]> writes
> In <[log in to unmask]> [log in to unmask] writes:
>
>> Today, when lots of people buy 300MHz, 32MB home computers just to play
>> games and write homework assignments, it may be difficult to understand
>> the limitations that software engineers faced 30 years ago.
>>
>
In '67, the airline I worked for was hooking up some of the first 80x24
VDUs to its Univac 494s. There were 48 VDUs, which went in via 4
Ferranti Argus Terminal Processors (the DTC of its day, I suppose, but
very much a computer in its own right).

They expected to need 8k processors, but a clever programmer got the
control software down into 4k, saving 4 x 4k. They sent him on an all-
expenses paid holiday in the Bahamas as a reward.

Imagine that today. But of course, memory is no longer #1.00 per bit
(and yes, that's bit, not byte...)


Hell, when we were writing programs in the 60's and 70's, two bytes of
storage per date was well worth saving. And we confidently expected that
by 1985, the computers themselves would be rewriting that old code for
us. We never dreamed that all the ingenuity would be going into ensuring
that we could see those restricted old dates in a wide range of point
sizes in Bodoni Antique Peculiar, or whatever font you love, instead....


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