7 Dec
2020
7 Dec
'20
11:21 a.m.
On 12/7/20 10:32 AM, Van Snyder via cctalk wrote:
The first computer I was paid to write software for
didn't require me
to toggle in a boot loader: The IBM 1401 in 1966.
All I had to do was push the load key on the card reader, or the tape
load key on the operator console. And it didn't even have a teletype
console.
The contemporaneous 1620 had it both ways--one could type in the loader
on the console typewriter (hit the Release key when done) or by pressing
the console LOAD key, could read a record from either card or paper tape
into 00000-00079. On the CADET, one of the first things that most
loaders did was to have a small routine to read in the addition and
multiplication tables. If you're going to do any arithmetic at all,
you'd better have those!
--Chuck