FORTRAN, IBM360/370, Carnegie-Mellon University (memories)

Back during my freshman and sophomore years at Carnegie-Mellon University (CMU, not to be confused with Central Michigan University), one of the undergraduate requirements was a course called "Introduction to Computing" (or something very close to it) - it was a basic computer course for anyone entering the colleges of engineering (Carnegie Institute of Technology) or science (Mellon Institute of Science).

The computer classes were held in Science Hall (now called Wean Hall) [http://www.flickr.com/photos/coffeelab/9639385/], where the computers were also located. The computer language was FORTRAN-WATFOR. The advanced computer classes that were offered included ALGOL, PL/1, APL, LISP and BASIC, and my local Explorer Club in Forest Hills borough (near Churchill, where I lived) at a Westinghouse payroll processing facility next to Route 376 (on Edgewood Road, off Brinton Road), was teaching COBOL to any junior and high school students who attended the meetings. A "borough" is a municipality in Pennsylvania (and a few other states) somewhat similar to a township. The various boroughs and townships throughout Pittsburgh had somewhat distinct characteristics resulting from the combination of architecture, topography, roadways, culture, cuisine, history, etc., that collectively give this city its own special charm.

Anyway, the IBM 360/370 mainframe computer could be seen behind a large glass window in the computer center from the area where the multipage perforated printouts were delivered with the recipient's computer name on the first page. The computer printouts were placed on shelves next to many Hollerith card punch machines. Each Hollerith card held one FORTRAN statement of up to 80 characters. We used rubber bands for small programs and show boxes for large ones. Once in a while someone would drop a box and find out this it could take almost as long to reorder the cards (especially if they were not numbered sequentially, which was optional at the time of coding) as it was to retype the entire program. That was always an expensive mistake!

Initially there was one card reader, then two, in the printout/card puncher room. After the stack of cards were read, we generally waited about an hour or more for the printout. In the late 1970's, a DEC PDP-10 and/or 11 minicomputer with tape reels was added to the repertoire, which added the programming language CP/M.

Later, in my junior and senior years, 1978-1980, a new room was built to house the new terminals that initially only provided a paper printout, then some terminals with small orange-text-only CRT monitors with no mice, and, after I graduated, large full-color LED monitors.

It took a second computer course (as a technical elective) called "Fundamentals of Computer Design" which used PASCAL. I absolutely loved PASCAL, especially since it used the BEGIN and END statements to make a program block, whereas in FORTRAN, incessant GOTOs and labels were always needed that made the FORTRAN outputs very difficult to read and complicated to debug.

When I took my third computer course, a required chemical engineering problem solving course called "Analysis, Synthesis and Evaluation II", I used PASCAL instead of FORTRAN, which all my classmates used. I used far less time to write and debug my programs, which included using Newton's Approximation Method in differential analysis.

One unique feature the FORTRAN offers, which is not found in other programming languages, even today (yes, FORTRAN is still alive and well!), is the use of the COMPLEX data type. This feature makes many mathematical calculation involving complex equations possible (e.g., optics analysis, alternating circuit analysis, etc.).

Ah, those were the days..

later, more about computing, including supercomputers, software, semiconductor processing, networks, interface devices and systems, and related patents, etc.

Francis "Fran" Lorin
siberkhem.com