7 Jul
2011
7 Jul
'11
1:45 p.m.
-----Original Message-----
From: cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org [mailto:cctalk-
bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Fred Cisin
Sent: Thursday, July 07, 2011 9:22 AM
To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts
Subject: RE: Photographing fiche (Was: DEC RD53 Manual
A great anecdote, and a familiar story. Rather than relate my version of the experience,
I'll offer a quote attributed to Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren:
"Everything I did in my life that was worthwhile I caught hell for." -- Ian
I would think that everything available on fiche
was originally, and
more commonly, available on paper.
ALMOST.
A long boring anecdote:
In 1970, I worked for an on-site contractor at GSFC SSDC (Goddard Space
Flight Center, Space Sciences Data Center, Bldg#26). One of the tasks that I
was assigned was to rewrite a dozen CABINETS of punched cards of calcomp
plotter (570?, 790?) programs to run on the Stromberg Carlson 4020 and
Stromberg Data 4060.
The Stromberg machines (in a building for which I didn't have clearance, and
which I never physically saw) did direct output to 16mm and 35mm
microfilm. I have no idea whether they had a fiche capability - my output
arrived on 100 ft rolls of 16mm and 35mm B&W film.
I was so lazy that instead of rewriting the software, I looked at the
primitives that it called, and the primitives that that called, and the
primitives that that called. When I got to the "bottom-most turtle" of the
Calcomp library, I wrote a trivial SC/SD subroutine to do THAT (line segment,
IIRC?). With the help of some of the other coders, I put together a small
handful of 360 JCL to call the calcomp library AND the SC/SD library, but to
call my subroutine instead of the Calcomp primitive subroutine.
The entire room full of calcomp calling programs were working in weeks,
instead of years.
Since I was an on-site contractor, I received simultaneous commendations
and reprimands. Nearly got a raise AND termination! Combined with many
other "brownie points" from other peoples' work, the company was given a
large bonus to distribute to the employees as they saw fit. If it were to have
been equally distributed, it would have been almost a grand per employee.
The company's algorithm for who got how much, netted me a frozen turkey
for XMAS. I decided that disunirregardless of the current job situation, that
it was time to move back to California.