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| I took a FORTRAN class as a senior at the U. of Missouri-Columbia in 1978, running those punched card decks. (Biggest problem: I wasn't a very accurate typist, so I think I spoiled about 1/3 of the cards I typed.)
While I was taking that class, my advisor learned that one of the An. Husbandry labs had just finished a research project involving a microcomputer (a North Star computer running CP/M and North Star BASIC). They had leased it through the end of the semester, so it was just sitting there not being used. He got me authorization to use it, and several evenings a week I'd go over there to the lab, knock on a window, and one of the workaholic professors (a guy who stayed there every evening until 10:00 or so) would let me in to the lab.
I was in *heaven*. Compared to waiting in line to punch my cards, then waiting in line to feed them into the card reader, then waiting 1/2 to 2 hours for printed output (student jobs had low priority), that micro let me type in my programs (saved to a 5.25" floppy disk), run them immediately, get immediate feedback, and continue the cycle of edit-run-edit-run to my heart's content. Within 2 weeks I had zoomed past everything we were doing in the FORTRAN class. It was in fact a bit irritating to have to use those punched cards for class projects, when I had just been shown that they were quickly going the way of the dinosaur.
Edited by Flagship 2/13/2010 16:32
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NDSU Fargo Computer 1977 Picture
