BIRTH OF BASIC

[+TheBF]

You Tube just served this up to me.

I thought the gang 'round these parts might enjoy it. 

 

I didn't realize how special it was at the time, but my first experience with a computer was on a time-share BASIC system on 300bps teletype terminals at the University of Western Ontario.

It was the high-school computer club and I was 14 years old!  

 

 

 

[+Ksarul]

Scary is that I used to work on a lot of those Teletypes and the IBM Keypunch machines starting in my late teens. . .

[+OLD CS1]

"Boomers" get a bad rap about technology and computers.  I remind kids of all ages that "Boomers" built the stuff upon which our modern technology is built.

[RXB]

Yea my first computer was a K43 Teletype:

k43 teletype machine - Google Search

 

 

Was so proud I laid upside down soldering in all the magnetic loops to the underside of that keyboard for more memory.

I think it was 48 loops.

[+OLD CS1]

6 minutes ago, RXB said:

I think it was 48 loops.

How much memory did that provide?  I am guessing one bit per loop, for six bytes?

[RXB]

43 minutes ago, OLD CS1 said:

How much memory did that provide?  I am guessing one bit per loop, for six bytes?

Yea it had like 96 total I think.

[+FarmerPotato]

8 hours ago, OLD CS1 said:

How much memory did that provide?  I am guessing one bit per loop, for six bytes?

Teletypes didn't need bytes. Six bits was enough. So, 48 = 8 characters. You think bits grew on trees?
 

Fred Brooks: "The most consequential decision I ever made was that a byte should be eight bits." (IBM OS/360)

 

[+OLD CS1]

7 minutes ago, FarmerPotato said:

Teletypes didn't need bytes. Six bits was enough. So, 48 = 8 characters. You think bits grew on trees?
 

Fred Brooks: "The most consequential decision I ever made was that a byte should be eight bits." (IBM OS/360)

Honestly glad I missed that era.

[+Ksarul]

4 hours ago, FarmerPotato said:

Teletypes didn't need bytes. Six bits was enough. So, 48 = 8 characters. You think bits grew on trees?
 

Fred Brooks: "The most consequential decision I ever made was that a byte should be eight bits." (IBM OS/360)

 

Actually, that's only true for BAUDOT machines like the Model 28, and a lot of those actually used 1.47 to two stop bits, so reality is closer to seven. The Model 33/35/37 Teletypes used to talk to computers were all ASCII machines, so they needed at least nine bits per character, but often 10, for the same reasons as the earlier machines: it took a discrete amount of time for the mechanical parts of a teletype to return to the quiescent state after receipt of a character. The number of stop bits gave it the necessary time to do so. One the weird 1.47 stop bit length, that was partly due to the mechanical parts of the teletype and partly because of ancillary equipment between it and the transmission line. 1.47 stop bits was the sweet spot. . .

 

Another fun note: to change the speed of a lot of these machines, you actually had to change out the gearing between the driving motor and the mechanical bits of the machine. There was a whole booklet of gearing options for this purpose, but its existence wasn't common knowledge, as most folks never had to make changes like that to their systems--they just used the part numbers stamped into the sides of their gears to order replacements.