ENIAC programming Was: release dates of early microcomputer operating systems, incl. Intel ISIS

[Chuck Guzis]

On 09/17/2015 10:51 AM, tony duell wrote:

> As a total thread-drift, I have in my hand a machine that anyone
> would class as a a programmable calculator. It looks like a
> calcualtor, it has key-per-function operation (that is, a 'SIN' key,
> etc). And yet...


Back in the day, a friend who worked for Lockheed on a top-secret 
government project faced a problem.  Posessions were searched upon 
reporting to the site and upon exit.  Things such as cameras, notebooks 
and tape recorders were confiscated.  He essentially had to do his work 
in a screened vault.

So he began bringing his HP 41C to work with him.  As calculators 
weren't on the proscribed list, not an eyebrow was raised.  It was only 
logical that an engineer needed a calculator.  So he smuggled his data 
in and out using the memory of the 41C.

--Chuck