Hi all,
I'm trying to identify the batch setup that I learned programming on.? It was the very
first computer I ever used, at Memphis State University in the math department in 1977 or
so.? The campus mainframe was a Xerox Sigma-9 time sharing system running CP-V.? There was
a computer center in an admin building, and some satellite rooms around campus.? The Math
department had a room full of ASR-33's (or ASR35's?), another room containing
several Hazeltine 2000's and 1500's and two or three LA36's, and there was a
batch room containing several keypunch machines (IBM?), and a batch setup consiting of a
card reader the size of a deep freezer, and a page printer.? To run a job, the attendant
would stick your fortran cards at the end of an "emulator deck", and run the
whole thing through, and the program listing (if requested) and results would print out on
the page printer.
Was there such a setup for the Sigma 9?? Or is it likely they had a whole batch
minicomputer set up in that room?? I don't remember having to learn anything new about
the FORTRAN IV compiler when we graduated to the interactive terminals later in the
semester.? For what it's worth, I vaguely remember the hardware being painted brown,
or some other earthy color, but then, that memory is nearly 40 years old.
I know it's an odd request, but nostalgia makes you wonder the strangest things.
Thanks,
Dave