On a potentially dangerous topic, not least because of: http://www.phespirit.info/montypython/four_yorkshiremen.htm
(especially because this is a Ruby list!)
as part of my BA Maths degree: a one term course in computer
programming in 1970 in Algol 60 (or maybe 68) using punched cards. And
in 1974: actuarial exams using slide rules and log tables; calculating
premium tables using using Facit hand calculators and electric (not
electronic) calculators! (We started using the first - mains electric
powered - electronic calculators not long afterwards.) Facit - Wikipedia File:Calculator facit hg.jpg - Wikipedia
One thing I liked about Algol (in retrospect - I didn’t know enough to
appreciate it in 1970) was that instead of:
if v < 0 then x = -v else x = v
you could do something like:
x := if v < 0 then -v else v
and something I liked very much about Ruby when I found out about it
in 2002 or 2003 was you could do that in Ruby.
Some full example Algol code: http://www.engin.umd.umich.edu/CIS/course.des/cis400/algol/average.html
Really off-topic
One thing (just before my time) people used to do with electric
calculators like the Marchant was to set the digits spinning and then
switch it off with the aim that when the digits finally stopped
spinning it would be all "9"s! Of course, one could simulate that
game, but would the simulation be the same? (Maybe at least less
resource intensive: those old calculators were heavy.)
 initgraph(&gdriver, &gmode, “C:\Progra~1\BORLANDC\BGI”); errorcode
}
library by opening up a window and drawing in that window. (I programmed
the like.
[1] FWIW, Linux has this too, but you only think about it that way if
you’re writing an X server or programming in svgalib. For the most part
that view of the world is obsolete by about 20 years.
Well, actually this is not that obsolete. If you open an X window you
can use it exactly the same way (as long as the kind user does not
resize it for you). There is the Linux framebuffer console which works
pretty much the same (which is being obsoleted for some/most
chipsets). Yet as it is being thrown out through the door it climbs
back through the window in the form of KMS.
Writing X servers is not that uncommon, too. Linux/BSD ports on some
obscure platforms are in need of X server implementation/improvement
(ie. Nintendo DS - anyone would finish it?)
And since we will have KMS it should be much easier to throw away
Xfree86 and finally get some decent GUI system which is not patch on
patch of decades old cruft.
GRUB is currently in the process of implementing a graphics menu
system for eye candy, non-Latin language support, and non-VGA platform
support which (surprise!) has to deal with this 20 years old direct
memory access approach.
In fact, there is a windowing system (EWS) that is completely based
around emulated video memory bufffers and has no pre-made buttons,
canvases, pixmaps or anything like that. It’s dead simple, fast
enough, end even has decent security.
well-designed library indeed. I missed it when I first moved to linux.
martin
I liked it too. The only problem I had with it was that it only used
VGA
page 1 (in its TurboC incarnation). But a disassembler and few changes
and it worked for both…
