19 Feb
2008
19 Feb
'08
11:39 p.m.
I tripped across this email link on a Google search.
I was the author of the original PDP-8 * "Introduction to Programming",
published in either late 1968 or early 1969. I hired onto Digital straight out of college
as a tech writer joining a department of four writers for the whole company.
Almost 40 years later I am still with HP.
Dave
Dave Symmes
Solution Alliances Engineering
(978) 777-6157 - Phone
(978) 742-1078 - Fax
20 Feb
20 Feb
11:38 p.m.
Symmes, Dave wrote:
I tripped across this email link on a Google search.
I was the author of the original PDP-8 * "Introduction to
Programming", published in either late 1968 or early 1969. I hired
onto Digital straight out of college as a tech writer joining a
department of four writers for the whole company.
Almost 40 years later I am still with HP.
Wow! Well met, sir! Well met, indeed.
Peace... Sridhar
21 Feb
21 Feb
6:16 a.m.
Symmes, Dave wrote:
I tripped across this email link on a Google search.
I was the author of the original PDP-8 * "Introduction to
Programming", published in either late 1968 or early 1969. I hired
onto Digital straight out of college as a tech writer joining a
department of four writers for the whole company.
Almost 40 years later I am still with HP.
Great to hear from you.
My copy of "Introduction to Programming" shows:
First Printing, January 1969
Second Printing, July 1969
Copyright ? 1968, 1969
I found it a most useful book, though I had been programming PDP-8's
since 1965, even before the first PDP-8's actually appeared.
--
Alec McKenzie
alec at mckenzie.me.uk
25 Jun
25 Jun
10:44 a.m.
Alec McKenzie wrote:
Symmes, Dave wrote:
I've finally dug my copy out (half my books are still boxed up from
moving house over six months ago). It's apparently the Second Edition,
1970, still with the Craigmount Secondary School Library tag in the
inside cover ;-)
My Mum picked it up in a second-hand bookshop in Edinburgh, years ago.
"Thought this would interest you", she said, "I know you like old DEC
stuff"
Based on the wisdom within this book, I wrote a couple of PDP8
emulators. One was even quite good.
Gordon
I tripped across this email link on a Google
search.
I was the author of the original PDP-8 * "Introduction to
Programming", published in either late 1968 or early 1969. I hired
onto Digital straight out of college as a tech writer joining a
department of four writers for the whole company.
Almost 40 years later I am still with HP.
Great to hear from you.
My copy of "Introduction to Programming" shows:
First Printing, January 1969
Second Printing, July 1969
Copyright ? 1968, 1969
I found it a most useful book, though I had been programming PDP-8's
since 1965, even before the first PDP-8's actually appeared. 
3:11 p.m.
On 25/06/2008 18:44, Gordon JC Pearce wrote:
I've finally dug my copy out (half my books are
still boxed up from
moving house over six months ago). It's apparently the Second Edition,
1970, still with the Craigmount Secondary School Library tag in the
inside cover ;-)
I will have used that very copy at some point. I used to work at
Craigmount, and I remember the four -8s they had quite fondly. Andrew
Watt also had an HP2000 system, and later an Apple ][, a very early
Beeb, and after the -8s a couple of -11s. He also personally owned a
Transam Tuscan that never quite got finished, and a ZX80. A few other
things lurked in the region, like my Exidy Sorcerer and someone else's
Tangerine.
--
Pete Peter Turnbull
Network Manager
University of York
3:49 p.m.
On Wed, Jun 25, 2008 at 11:11:12PM +0100, Pete Turnbull wrote:
On 25/06/2008 18:44, Gordon JC Pearce wrote:
Wow! A school with -8s and -11s?!? All we had in the early-80s was
a couple of Trash-80s and an ancient Wang programmable calculator that
nobody knew how to get working (all replaced after I left with a room
full of DEC Rainbows :-/ ). I did get to play with an -8/L in High
School, but it was one I bought myself at Dayton that was just the
CPU - no TTY, no *anything* - just lights and switches - quite educational,
really.
I had some friends who went to a well-funded suburban school that had
their own HP1000, and some other friends had a couple of LA-36s with
acoustic couplers that dialed into a RSTS machine of some unknown sort,
but I think any of us would have been in heaven to have a DEC mini on
the premises.
*Four* -8s... what kind? Any disk or tape, or just TTYs and papertape?
-ethan
--
Ethan Dicks, A-333-S Current South Pole Weather at 25-Jun-2008 at 22:40 Z
South Pole Station
PSC 468 Box 400 Temp -85.4 F (-65.2 C) Windchill -118.2 F (-83.4 C)
APO AP 96598 Wind 7.0 kts Grid 95 Barometer 680.4 mb (10613 ft)
Ethan.Dicks at usap.gov http://penguincentral.com/penguincentral.html
I've finally dug my copy out... with the
Craigmount Secondary
School Library tag in the inside cover ;-)
I will have used that very copy at some point. I used to work at
Craigmount, and I remember the four -8s they had quite fondly. Andrew
Watt also had an HP2000 system, and later an Apple ][, a very early
Beeb, and after the -8s a couple of -11s.
11:55 p.m.
On 25/06/2008 23:49, Ethan Dicks wrote:
On Wed, Jun 25, 2008 at 11:11:12PM +0100, Pete
Turnbull wrote:
> I will have used that very copy at some point. I
used to work at
> Craigmount, and I remember the four -8s they had quite fondly. Andrew
> Watt also had an HP2000 system, and later an Apple ][, a very early
> Beeb, and after the -8s a couple of -11s.
*Four* -8s... what kind? Any disk or tape, or just
TTYs and papertape?
All the -8s (and the -11s they had after I left) were cast-offs. The
father of one of the pupils worked for DEC, and was very friendly with
Andrew Watt who was one of the Maths teachers, so that was the source.
I remember that the largest one was a PDP-8/E in a dual rack, with a
fast paper-tape reader, a couple of RK05s, and a box with extra core.
It was connected to a glass teletype of some sort (maybe a Hazeltine)
and maybe some other terminal device, and AFAIR ran O/S-8. I think it
also has a Decwriter of some sort. It was called EDWARD - Electronic
Device With Auxiliary Rotating Discs.
The smallest one was an -8/F mounted on a trolley; I can't remember what
that used for I/O. Another was an 8/E or maybe 8/F in a cabinet with
two (IIRC) TU56s, and had 2,3 or 4 ASR33s at various times because it
ran one of the multiuser Edusystems (rather slowly). I can't remember
what else there was.
--
Pete Peter Turnbull
Network Manager
University of York
26 Jun
26 Jun
6:39 a.m.
On Thu, Jun 26, 2008 at 07:55:13AM +0100, Pete Turnbull wrote:
On 25/06/2008 23:49, Ethan Dicks wrote:
Ah... very handy having a patron like that. Columbus only ever had
a small sales and field-service office, and for a short time, a
walk-in-Digital store for ribbons, diskettes, floor models, etc.
Perhaps Dayton schoolkids had a better crack at castoffs that we
had.
On Wed, Jun 25, 2008 at 11:11:12PM +0100, Pete
Turnbull wrote:
>I will have used that very copy at some point.
I used to work at
>Craigmount, and I remember the four -8s they had quite fondly. Andrew
>Watt also had an HP2000 system, and later an Apple ][, a very early
>Beeb, and after the -8s a couple of -11s.
*Four* -8s... what kind? Any disk or tape, or
just TTYs and papertape?
All the -8s (and the -11s they had after I left) were cast-offs. The
father of one of the pupils worked for DEC, and was very friendly with
Andrew Watt who was one of the Maths teachers, so that was the source. I remember that the largest one was a PDP-8/E in a
dual rack, with a
fast paper-tape reader, a couple of RK05s, and a box with extra core.
It was connected to a glass teletype of some sort (maybe a Hazeltine)
and maybe some other terminal device, and AFAIR ran O/S-8. I think it
also has a Decwriter of some sort. It was called EDWARD - Electronic
Device With Auxiliary Rotating Discs.
Nice. Sounds quite a bit larger than my -8/e now.
The smallest one was an -8/F mounted on a trolley; I
can't remember what
that used for I/O. Another was an 8/E or maybe 8/F in a cabinet with
two (IIRC) TU56s, and had 2,3 or 4 ASR33s at various times because it
ran one of the multiuser Edusystems (rather slowly). I can't remember
what else there was.
Also nice in its own way. Certainly fun to watch the tape spin as the
Edusystem wheezed along.
-ethan
--
Ethan Dicks, A-333-S Current South Pole Weather at 26-Jun-2008 at 12:10 Z
South Pole Station
PSC 468 Box 400 Temp -91.5 F (-68.6 C) Windchill -119.5 F (-84.2 C)
APO AP 96598 Wind 4.8 kts Grid 92 Barometer 676.2 mb (10772 ft)
Ethan.Dicks at usap.gov http://penguincentral.com/penguincentral.html
9:35 a.m.
Ethan Dicks wrote:
Ah... very handy having a patron like that. Columbus only ever had
a small sales and field-service office, and for a short time, a
walk-in-Digital store for ribbons, diskettes, floor models, etc.
Perhaps Dayton schoolkids had a better crack at castoffs that we
had.
I'm feeling guilty. My public high school was near Carleton College,
which was kind enough to donate a working IBM 1620. They also gave us
access to a PDP-8/I running TSS/8.
Both were great fun to work with.
-brad
29 Feb
29 Feb
8:03 a.m.
On Wed, Feb 20, 2008 at 07:39:41AM +0000, Symmes, Dave wrote:
I tripped across this email link on a Google search.
I was the author of the original PDP-8 * "Introduction to Programming",
published in either late 1968 or early 1969. I hired onto Digital straight out of college
as a tech writer joining a department of four writers for the whole company.
Thanks for finding the list and thanks for speaking up. I still have
my copy of "Introduction to Programming" I received nearly 30 years ago,
which was invaluable in helping me understand what to do with the PDP-8
I had just picked up at the Dayton Hamvention.
Almost 40 years later I am still with HP.
Congrats on that. I got my start as a programmer in 1981, and have worked
a lot of places. I always seemed to find the places that didn't get
bought out - they were just crushed under the wheels of history. Working
for a University now, I'm reasonably certain that they will outlive me;
a new experience.
Your work is certainly remembered, especially among those of us who still
twiddle bits in groups of 12.
-ethan
--
Ethan Dicks, A-333-S Current South Pole Weather at 29-Feb-2008 at 15:50 Z
South Pole Station
PSC 468 Box 400 Temp -63.6 F (-53.1 C) Windchill -98.0 F (-72.2 C)
APO AP 96598 Wind 10.8 kts Grid 11 Barometer 684.2 mb (10470 ft)
Ethan.Dicks at usap.gov http://penguincentral.com/penguincentral.html
6023
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9 comments
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participants (7)
-
alec＠mckenzie.me.uk -
brad＠heeltoe.com -
dave.symmes＠hp.com -
ethan.dicks＠usap.gov -
gordonjcp＠gjcp.net -
pete＠dunnington.plus.com -
ploopster＠gmail.com