Big Glass! - Page 3

xilman · 2020-07-17, 07:20

Quote:

Originally Posted by Uncwilly

I had to machine my own gears for my first computer. Then some society gal came along and started using it.

And had to use tweezers to fix a programming bug on my 3rd machine.

Some of us were 100% serious in our posts.

I really did toggle a 7-instruction program into a PDP-8 so that the paper tape reader could load the RIM loader so that relatively useful work could then be done. All this on a AS-33 wet-sump teletype.

retina · 2020-07-17, 08:47

So basically you are all admitting to not knowing how to make use of minions. That makes you the minions! All your whining about having it hard is your own fault. You should have made your life easier, not put up with the misery.

I have a large display wall make from a grid of high-res monitors showing me the current operations conditions. There is no keyboard or mouse, just network connections to the back end crunchers. Those are my P95 machines doing double duty displaying the wall.

xilman · 2020-07-17, 08:52

Quote:

Originally Posted by retina

So basically you are all admitting to not knowing how to make use of minions. That makes you the minions! All your whining about having it hard is your own fault. You should have made your life easier, not put up with the misery.

In the days in question I was undoubtedly a minion. A lowly undergrad and then postgrad student.

a1call · 2020-07-17, 16:15

This is the Big-Glass I learned (and dis-learned long ago) FORTRAN on:

https://images.app.goo.gl/oPCyJWhXRCG1k9pv6

chalsall · 2020-07-17, 20:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by a1call

This is the Big-Glass I learned (and dis-learned long ago) FORTRAN on:

LOL... Been there; done that.

Soooo glad we're past that, too! Being able to type faster than the comms channel was a pain!

a1call · 2020-07-17, 21:11

Good to see there are couple of other regulars here who are over 25. I was starting to think it's time to start working on my obituary.

I will wait couple of more years.

Uncwilly · 2020-07-17, 21:39

For my FORTRAN77 class, I was required to buy a coding form pad and a 132 column output form pad. We used PC's running Kermit to program on the HP3000 and had line printers.

Xyzzy · 2020-07-18, 12:49

Our current display is 3440×1440, which we thought was huge until we saw this yesterday:

https://www.samsung.com/us/computing...c49g95tssnxza/

We prefer extra-wide monitors versus multiple monitors.

LaurV · 2020-07-18, 15:16

We are not a big fan of curved monitors, things we do most look odd on them - like electronic schematic, PCB, mechanical stuff, datasheets i.e. lots of PDFs, software development i.e. lots of small-pitch fonts (courier new 8, to see as much as possible from the source code), etc, they all look "bent" on those screens. Flat, paper style, baby! Better for your eyes.

Between the two, we like your monitor better than the bigger one. No envy here.

storm5510 · 2020-07-18, 16:32

When I was in trade-school back in the late '80's and early '90's, I wrote COBOL on a 640 x 400 monitor. That was not the real problem though. Those machines functioned as dumb-terminals when writing code. They had to be started with a 360K floppy to link them to this really big IBM machine in the back of the room. Doing this changed the keyboard layout. "/" became "Enter" and "Enter" became "Space" and so on. The alpha-numeric keys were left alone, fortunately. Back then, the keyboards were small. 84 keys, I think it was.

The big IBM in the back of the room looked like two refrigerators laid on their backs and stacked one upon the other. It was impossible to have a conversation anywhere near it. It generated a really loud howling sound. To top it all off, there was a big line-printer in the front of the room. It could eat a case of wide green-bar paper per hour. It never stopped, and sounded like a saw-mill cutting logs.

So, the monitor I had to use was of little consequence compared to all the other things. Ear-plugs would have been nice though.

xilman · 2020-07-18, 17:08

Quote:

Originally Posted by LaurV

We are not a big fan of curved monitors, things we do most look odd on them - like electronic schematic, PCB, mechanical stuff, datasheets i.e. lots of PDFs, software development i.e. lots of small-pitch fonts (courier new 8, to see as much as possible from the source code), etc, they all look "bent" on those screens. Flat, paper style, baby! Better for your eyes.

Between the two, we like your monitor better than the bigger one. No envy here.

I've two monitors attached to this machine, one smaller than the other. TBH, almost all my attention is on the bigger.

By far the greatest improvement in my productivity comes from having four^* virtual workspaces between which I can switch with a mouse click and drag a window from one to another. Been using this for many years and was pleasantly surprise that Win10 finally caught up.

With respect to productivity, see the Unhappy Me thread for why my typing ability has now deteriorated from barely acceptable to markedly inadequate.

* I can have as many as I want but four seems to work well in practice

2020-07-17, 08:47	#24
retina Undefined "The unspeakable one" Jun 2006 My evil lair 6679₁₀ Posts	So basically you are all admitting to not knowing how to make use of minions. That makes you the minions! All your whining about having it hard is your own fault. You should have made your life easier, not put up with the misery. I have a large display wall make from a grid of high-res monitors showing me the current operations conditions. There is no keyboard or mouse, just network connections to the back end crunchers. Those are my P95 machines doing double duty displaying the wall.

2020-07-17, 16:15	#26
a1call "Rashid Naimi" Oct 2015 Remote to Here/There 2,333 Posts	This is the Big-Glass I learned (and dis-learned long ago) FORTRAN on: https://images.app.goo.gl/oPCyJWhXRCG1k9pv6

2020-07-17, 21:11	#28
a1call "Rashid Naimi" Oct 2015 Remote to Here/There 2333₁₀ Posts	Good to see there are couple of other regulars here who are over 25. I was starting to think it's time to start working on my obituary. I will wait couple of more years.

2020-07-17, 21:39	#29
Uncwilly 6809 > 6502 """"""""""""""""""" Aug 2003 101×103 Posts 10,891 Posts	For my FORTRAN77 class, I was required to buy a coding form pad and a 132 column output form pad. We used PC's running Kermit to program on the HP3000 and had line printers.

2020-07-18, 12:49	#30
Xyzzy Aug 2002 2³·1,069 Posts	Our current display is 3440×1440, which we thought was huge until we saw this yesterday: https://www.samsung.com/us/computing...c49g95tssnxza/ We prefer extra-wide monitors versus multiple monitors.

2020-07-18, 15:16	#31
LaurV Romulan Interpreter "name field" Jun 2011 Thailand 10273₁₀ Posts	We are not a big fan of curved monitors, things we do most look odd on them - like electronic schematic, PCB, mechanical stuff, datasheets i.e. lots of PDFs, software development i.e. lots of small-pitch fonts (courier new 8, to see as much as possible from the source code), etc, they all look "bent" on those screens. Flat, paper style, baby! Better for your eyes. Between the two, we like your monitor better than the bigger one. No envy here.

2020-07-18, 16:32	#32
storm5510 Random Account Aug 2009 Not U. + S.A. 100111011100₂ Posts	When I was in trade-school back in the late '80's and early '90's, I wrote COBOL on a 640 x 400 monitor. That was not the real problem though. Those machines functioned as dumb-terminals when writing code. They had to be started with a 360K floppy to link them to this really big IBM machine in the back of the room. Doing this changed the keyboard layout. "/" became "Enter" and "Enter" became "Space" and so on. The alpha-numeric keys were left alone, fortunately. Back then, the keyboards were small. 84 keys, I think it was. The big IBM in the back of the room looked like two refrigerators laid on their backs and stacked one upon the other. It was impossible to have a conversation anywhere near it. It generated a really loud howling sound. To top it all off, there was a big line-printer in the front of the room. It could eat a case of wide green-bar paper per hour. It never stopped, and sounded like a saw-mill cutting logs. So, the monitor I had to use was of little consequence compared to all the other things. Ear-plugs would have been nice though.