re: choice of languages: since they were hand machine coding, the choice of high-level language was immaterial, and was a meta-language only since no compiler was used. Probably the authors were fluent MAC programmers. Maybe they had MAC OS/360 emulators/interpreters. In hindsight some things appear odd (read-only core must be physically assembled with 1's and 0's!, instead of disabling/modifying drive currents) but embedded control -- with human beings at .25M miles! -- never mind the mass-media effect of failure -- was utterly without precedent. Hell embedded digital control was novel. So -- Extreme conservatism of an kind UNKNOWABLE to COMMERCIAL programmers was always foremost is space applications. http://www.unt.edu/UNT/departments/CC/Benchmarks/benchmarks_html/sepoct95/l…