16 Dec
2015
16 Dec
'15
8:29 p.m.
On Sat, Dec 12, 2015, Mike wrote:
The one question I do have for the older gentlemen on
here is what in the world did the computers without a screen to look at do? Now I know
about the tape, cassette tape's and even the paper with the hole punches in them but
what kind of applications were they use for? Mathematics or? ? ?
---
I started in the IT field way back in 1962 working for a service bureau preparing payroll
cheques, invoices, the usual accounting reports, market research statistics etc. for
clients, and the first time I used a screen-oriented system was when I bought a Commodore
PET in 1977; as a matter of fact none of the systems I worked on professionally at that
time had screens either and used printing 'terminals' to keep an audit trail of
what the operator had entered.
So you can definitely do lots of useful stuff without a screen, although I imagine NetFlix
or YouTube on a Selectric terminal might lose something...
m