Programming on metal cylinders?

[Dave Wade]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: cctalk <cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org> On Behalf Of Chuck Guzis via
> cctalk
> Sent: 22 April 2019 18:10
> To: John Foust via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
> Subject: Re: Programming on metal cylinders?
> 
> On 4/21/19 7:11 AM, John Foust via cctalk wrote:
> >
> > I was assisting an older client the other day, a former Yale prof, and
> > he's been programming since the late 1950s.
> >
> > He knew people who worked at Bletchley Park.  He also mentioned he
> > knew people who had manually scribed their programs on some sort of
> > metal cylinder.  Which computer system was that?

Music Box? Could he be confusing something with BOMBE set up?

> >
> > Part of what he'd like me to help with is a circa 2001 Compaq /
> > DIGITAL version of a FORTRAN programming environment.  He had not yet
> > found the installation media so we could try to get it running on Windows
>> 10.
> > I wonder if it will...

Do you mean DIGITAL/Compaq FORTRAN for Windows? Or something older such as VAX Fortran which had many extensions.


> 
> Could this be something that uses the same technology as a drum program
> card on a keypunch?
> 
> --Chuck