12 May
2005
12 May
'05
8:22 a.m.
On Thu, 12 May 2005, Paul Koning wrote:
Ditto the IBM 1620, where all I/O instructions on all
the devices
would stall the CPU while the I/O was in progress. In that case, the
input might terminate by one of several rules -- always a card for the
card reader, terminated by CR on the typewriter, or terminated by a
"record mark" (a distinct character) on the paper tape reader if I
remember right.
On the other hand, this approach did make I/O very easy -- a "card to
printer" program would take only three instructions and fit easily on
one machine language (decimal, not binary) card.
I recently learned of "Koan" programs, which are one card programs, i.e.
one card card-to-tape or card-to-printer, etc. It's sort of like the 1-
or 2-line BASIC programming contests that Nibble magazine used to run (I
loved those) or the more recent 1K coding contests.
Does anyone know where the term "Koan" originates?
--
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
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