23 Sep
2015
23 Sep
'15
6:25 a.m.
On 9/23/2015 1:23 AM, Chuck Guzis wrote:
On 09/22/2015 09:06 PM, Jay Jaeger wrote:
Because ???
(As far as that goes, just about *anything* would be ill-suited to
solving numeric problems on a 1401 (or a 1410 for that matter - that
wasn't a typo). The *machines* just weren't well suited for it, with or
without the floating point accelerator. If you wanted that, you got a
7000 series machine).
That is just because they are so old that, aside
from collectors or
those interested in a particular old machine, nobody ever *bothered*.
By the time C came along, those machines were well on their way to their
eventual demise.
I am 100% certain, for example, that it would be possible to come up
with a C compiler for a 40K IBM 1410, which is in the set you describe.
But even I, as one of the few denizens that are "into" that particular
machine, would not bother with a C compiler for it.
Look, I can probably implement a C compiler (or FORTRAN or GPSS or
JOVIAL or...) in Brainf*ck. But a 1401 C would very likely be
ill-suited to solving numeric problems compared to FORTRAN on the same
platform.