At 10:19 PM 2/12/2004 -0600, you wrote: When my father was writing software at IBM (he programmed on the 650) he tells me that coding involved: 1. Punching in your program on cards. 2. Loading the compiler/assembler program into the machine off punched cards. 3. Running the compiler/assembler. 4. The compiler/assembler reads in your program card deck as data. 5. The compiler outputs your object code as a deck of punched cards. 6. You load in the punched cards (the object deck) to test your program. This cycle is repeated, churning out a new deck of object cards, for each iteration of your program. We sure have it easy these days. He speaks of the drum memory as having been a big improvement at the time, when it could be used. These days Dad will dabble once in awhile in Lotus 123 but mostly Mom has the Thinkpad (their only computer) to herself. Her heritage is the years she spent before computers, typing right and left justified text on memeograph stencils for church bulletins. I'm sure she can still center text of arbitrary length on a typed page with a Selectric.