Dating ourselves with LISP
System
Posts: 45
in Propeller 2
This discussion was created from comments split from: P2-ES Board Support.
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I will be 63 this month. I first started programming in high school on a teletype machine with paper tape. Next was on a HP 2000C and an IBM 1130 all we did was mostly spreadsheets and the occasional hack of the machine by writing "early viruses" THAT would erase every thing down to the last four word of the rope core memory.
Later was the IBM 360/370 with a hasp unit. My professor in virology who's father had two nobel prizes gave me computer time on his budget to let me play. Wow!!!
He told me "never let anyone tell you that your are stupid!" I never forgot that.
I stopped coding due to life and time in the navy.
Much later in years I took an electronic course at a local JC for fun. I was introduced to the basic stamp. When I called Parallax and gave them my background it was suggested that I purchase the P1. To which I did. That led me to not only getting back to coding but I was elated by the fact that technicians at the company spent many hours with me to get me up to speed. WOW! This experience sent me on a myriad of adventures. I learned to etch boards, design pcb's and many other things. Using sensors that we did not have in the 1130 days and on and on.
THEY DID NOT EQUIP MY GENIUS, THEY MADE ME A GENIUS!!!!!!!!!!!
I was able also to design pending patent a range finder with interesting characteristics, that I will not describe, using Parallax's toys, "euphamism" pending patent and IT WORKS!!
Parallax stimulated my mind and thoughts. THANKS TO THEM!!
I have a P2. I am elated that I have it!!!!!!!
I am happy that I am in an exclusive group on the ground floor.
I thank the following who have helped me in the very steep learning curve in asm language, Prop C, and Spin2:
@msrobots
@Cluso99
@"Peter Jakacki"
@"Dave Hein"
@"Dave Hein"
@localroger
@msrobots
and several others who have assisted me as I am not a coding engineer Just a guy who has a passion to THINK.
So for those who did not like spending money on a prototype I will GIVE YOU 10 BUCKS FOR YOUR SILICON SEND IT TO ME AND I WILL SEND TO THOSE WHO ARE REALLY KOOL PEOPLE.
I hope I did not forget others who were so nice to me THANK YOU.
SO FOR THE PEOPLE WHO ARE ANNOYED WITH SHELLING OUT A COUPLE OF HUNDRED BUCKS. GET OVER IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I am writing this because Parallax has done me good.
Thanks to all of the Gracey's and all of the past and present employees.
6502, z80, 6809 ASM on computers, that same era electronics.
[Big gap]
Hello Chip and Propeller!
This forum and Parallax are a very helpful environment to learn things. But sadly quite addictive.
Enjoy!
Mike
We are dating ourselves.
There is a place in the san fernando valley that has mainframes in the yard. WOW! If we could get one we could do wonders. Would be so much fun.; I will contact them to see if they have a disc drive from the old days. FIVE LEVEL. I want one . I miss the thunk thunk of the read head!!!!!!!!!!!!
I am slower on the uptake on asm language. But here is some of my code that is for P2 based on P1 for basic math.
Thanks to
@ersmith
for the jump start.
I am having a problem uploading the code
But it works thanks to all
@Cluso99
@Peter Jakacki
@Dave Hein
@Dave Hein
@localroger
@msrobots
I really want to than you all for your patience in helping me in MY QUEST FOR KNOWLEDGE.
I would as a flight instructor would hope to give you all the pleasure of your first take off and landing.
That is something that I I enjoy. Because It is not easy but so wonderful to make a person an astronaut. Meaning if you leave the ground you are in the air. therefore you are an astronaut.
BECAUSE YOU LEFT THE EARTH GROUND BEHIND REGARDLESS OF THE ALTITUDE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
AND ALL OTHERS WHO I DID NOT MENTION!!!!!!!!!!!!
SORRY.
BUT YOU ALL ARE APPRECIATED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
https://obsolescence.wixsite.com/obsolescence
I've done a fair amount of assembly language programming on lots of different processors but I'm really looking forward to porting my P1 byte code interpreter to the P2 using the XBYTE and SKIPF features of P2. I didn't really like the SKIP instructions when Chip first proposed them but I'm warming up to them now that I see how people are using them.
Thanks for the link. Cool stuff. I will be shortly attempting to refurbish a couple of old tube o'scopes. I will send pictures. And looking for suggestions.
hi David
reading your posts over the years I saw you know LISP etc.
but having a Symbolics - great. You worked with it?
After my Ph.D. on a Symbolics 3620 nobody wanted to use it any more.
All wanted to have a SUN workstation at that time
so I took it home for a 'symbolic' 1 DM ($0.5)
But after some years the huge 160 MB disk crashed :-((
MJB (Germany / Spain)
It is amazing the similarities of this mini to the P1.
I had my own System Ten mini from 1977-2000. It was fully operational all that time.
Edit: Oops. Sorry! The Monrobot XI was made by Monroe of course. That's where its name came from.
wang2200.org/systems.html
with 64 kB of memory for 8 terminals.
With a 5 MByte fixed + 5 MByte removable disk the size of a washing machine.
Running BASIC and access to the microcode for really tricky code
then came a CDC6600 with punched cards - and a LISP system ;-) that I wrote code for symbolic mathematics
later a CRAY-XMP for fluid dynamic simulations.
all long before the IBM-PC.
I first used LISP on a DEC PDP-8 although it was a very limited implementation. I later used it on a VAX and a PDP-10. I wrote a LISP interpreter for the DEC PDT-11 (a PDP-11) and later ported it to CP/M, MS-DOS, Mac, Atari 1040ST, Amiga, Unix, etc. Linux came much later.
A pair of Univac 418? with drum memory, and a Univac 1004 line printer with card punch and reader. Those drum discs were huge - guessing 8ft long, 5ft high and 4ft deep ???? It was interesting to see those banks of heads moving sideways.
These computers required real booting with switches to enter the bootstrap which would then read the program from the card deck.
FWIW the flight simulators at Qantas ~1974 (for Boeing 727 ?) were also built by Singer - IIRC they were known as LINK simulators. And they made traffic lights too. Sewing Machines were only about 15-20% of their business around then.
getting old is not easy, but it beats the alternative so far...
Mike
Really glad there isn't a 1c royalty on disk or flash memory
1GB = 8Gbits = 8,589,943,592c = $85,899,435.92 Ooooouch!!!
the technical school (TG) I attended did not have a computer at the time,
but our neighboring business school (WG) had a WANG 2200 8-seat system
so I went there to play in the afternoons ...
local technical college). Upgraded to Data general Eclipse and in subsequent years we were allowed to go and
use the time-sharing system there. Glass TTYs and high speed line printer, and I think still paper tape (but high
speed and under operator control).
Later at university there was IBM3081 time sharing system, and in the computer lab Vaxes, several I think, at least one
Vax 780 I believe.
BTW: I worked around the corner from Singer Link in Sunnyvale, CA in the 70s. The company I worked for, handled Singer's and many other firms (Intel, Magnusen, Fairchild, Four Phase, Stanford Medical, Chevron, etc.) computer output microfilm needs. We used DEC PDP-11/04 minis, running RT-11, hooked-up to Bell & Howell CM3800 Microfilm systems. I got my programming start with BASIC on those minis, while working graveyard shift in the low hours of the night. David Ahl and Creative Computing magazine got me hooked on programming.
dgately
Two mates & I started NetComm (Australia) and built a plugin card for Apple //e and /// that communicated with IBM Mainframes, and sold this to Apple. We needed a modem to go with it so we also built modems.
First modems were 300 baud full duplex and 1200 baud with 75 baud back channel and 1200 baud synchronous half duplex.
I remember 300 baud modems and also even some old-school acoustic couplers when I was a kid. It's funny how slow that is now. Also it's funny that probably sometime around 2001-2003 when I was working in Silicon Valley in optical networking we were building our 1Gbps and 10Gbps metro networking products and back then at that company we started to think 1Gbps Ethernet was slow! LOL. Many years later I've finally just upgraded from ~6Mbps ADSL2+ speed I was stagnating with here to 50Mbps on the NBN in Australia via HFC (an 8x boost after over 16 years!). But 50Mbps is thankfully much better than 300 baud I started out with!
The 70s-90's timeframe saw a speed improvement of about 186x (300baud up to 56k). Then around 2000 we got ADSL and eventually ADSL2+ so things very quickly went from 56k up to 24Mbps or so (428x!), with DOCSIS cable modems even faster again shortly after that. But delivered service speeds have basically stagnated after that over the last couple of decades. That last mile is a killer economically. Let's hope DOCSIS 3.1 gives us some noticeable benefit otherwise so much for gigabit networking without FTTH. VDSL2+ is not going to get you there. Maybe wireless?
They now say that 5G (or maybe 6G) could deliver this.
Meanwhile, I've been totally wireless since 2002 ie no landlines!
BTW I should say back then, it was a little difficult to get landlines to a boat in the ocean
Even tho' we are back on land now, I get pretty good speed with 4G and 200GB/month. Why do I need landlines?
But I've got a 16-bit mini in my basement, at least. From 1987, decom. 1994. It runs, and is in reasonably good shape.
I was always working via a terminal, I'm not dating back to punched cards. Some paper tape though. On the mini I started with Fortran (a bit of FORTRAN 66, but migrated quickly to Fortran 77). The first Fortran program I wrote was a tool to read CP/M 8" floppies on the mini.
Next project: Get a current loop->serial converter connected to the mini console, then either an ESPxxxx wi-fi thingy, or maybe just a Pi connected to get remote access to the console.