US defence still using assembly language - cos it works
Discussion
Guvernator said:
Almost every company\client I've worked at has had at least one legacy system running on 20+ year old hardware\software that people are just too scared to replace. This includes big banks, multi-nationals, the works. Hell the majority of the worlds ATM's still run on Windows XP as far as I am aware and that's 15 years old. It's actually pretty rife.
Yeah we have a number of clients whose till systems run some seriously old kit. Makes it bloody hard when developing websites that have to run on browsers which Jesus used to use.Also makes me laugh when they demand our website is pen tested despite them running a windows platform that has been out of support and full of vulnerabilities for years!
NNH said:
Very serious wedge: there are some rather elderly programmers who carry out much of the system upkeep for the National Grid, and they can pretty much name their price!
I didn't realise that Fortran was becoming prized though - I may need to revise my university notes.
I didn't realise that Fortran was becoming prized though - I may need to revise my university notes.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/10-Vintage-Computer-Punc...
130R said:
At least they are not using Windows. Clicks on red cross to cancel nuclear strike ..
Windows for Warships: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/01/05/windows_fo...s
t.
I remember my Uni days where you had to hand write into coding sheets - and pass to someone to type in.
A week later .... what you typed was entered into the computer
You had an hour to try it out.... and 99% of the time it failed because the typist bksed something up.
Tell that to kids of today and they won't believe you.
And yes... also had experience of punched cards, Assembler, Tape, even entering Hex...
Heck, my first real job was working in RPG II.
I had 99 places to store values... Wow!!!!
Happy days!!!!!
t.I remember my Uni days where you had to hand write into coding sheets - and pass to someone to type in.
A week later .... what you typed was entered into the computer
You had an hour to try it out.... and 99% of the time it failed because the typist b
ksed something up.Tell that to kids of today and they won't believe you.
And yes... also had experience of punched cards, Assembler, Tape, even entering Hex...
Heck, my first real job was working in RPG II.
I had 99 places to store values... Wow!!!!
Happy days!!!!!
528Sport said:
Everyone seems obsessed with replacing "old" kit If the old kit works and you can get the spares no issues.
Sometimes tried and tested is much better.
You don't even need to be limited by the spares - a company I work with does a lot of business in reverse engineering electrical components from decades ago and manufacturing short runs of 'new old'.Sometimes tried and tested is much better.
If you're refurbishing army vehicles from the 80's getting new builds of their original systems can cost tens of thousands per vehicle, but installing new systems and getting them tested and approved can cost millions. If the world market is a few hundred vehicles it makes more sense to reinvent the obsolete technology.
NNH said:
Very serious wedge: there are some rather elderly programmers who carry out much of the system upkeep for the National Grid, and they can pretty much name their price!
I didn't realise that Fortran was becoming prized though - I may need to revise my university notes.
Really ? Me too ! Format statements, direct access files, anyone ? I do still have a couple of copies of the Algol60 book, but I guess that really is a bit old.I didn't realise that Fortran was becoming prized though - I may need to revise my university notes.
maffski said:
528Sport said:
Everyone seems obsessed with replacing "old" kit If the old kit works and you can get the spares no issues.
Sometimes tried and tested is much better.
You don't even need to be limited by the spares - a company I work with does a lot of business in reverse engineering electrical components from decades ago and manufacturing short runs of 'new old'.Sometimes tried and tested is much better.
If you're refurbishing army vehicles from the 80's getting new builds of their original systems can cost tens of thousands per vehicle, but installing new systems and getting them tested and approved can cost millions. If the world market is a few hundred vehicles it makes more sense to reinvent the obsolete technology.
We were given one drawing that was pre war, I'm talking about the Boer war by the way!!!
HD Adam said:
Don't see a problem myself 
Joshua: You are a hard man to reach. Could not find you in Seattle and no terminal is in operation at your classified address.David Lightman: [typing] What classified address?
Joshua: D.O.D. pension files indicate current mailing as: Dr. Robert Hume, a.k.a. Stephen W. Falken, 5 Tall Cedar Road, Goose Island, Oregon 97...
One of the best films of the 80ies!
dxg said:
HD Adam said:
Don't see a problem myself
Joshua: You are a hard man to reach. Could not find you in Seattle and no terminal is in operation at your classified address.David Lightman: [typing] What classified address?
Joshua: D.O.D. pension files indicate current mailing as: Dr. Robert Hume, a.k.a. Stephen W. Falken, 5 Tall Cedar Road, Goose Island, Oregon 97...
One of the best films of the 80ies!
Troubleatmill said:
st.
I remember my Uni days where you had to hand write into coding sheets - and pass to someone to type in.
A week later .... what you typed was entered into the computer
You had an hour to try it out.... and 99% of the time it failed because the typist bksed something up.
Tell that to kids of today and they won't believe you.
And yes... also had experience of punched cards, Assembler, Tape, even entering Hex...
Heck, my first real job was working in RPG II.
I had 99 places to store values... Wow!!!!
Happy days!!!!!
Blimey, System/34? You could run a medium sized company on 128k of memory and 128MB of disk...unless you bolted on the big expansion cabinet to get to 256K, 256 Meg. Those were the days. Tell that to the kids today and they won't believe you, etc...t.I remember my Uni days where you had to hand write into coding sheets - and pass to someone to type in.
A week later .... what you typed was entered into the computer
You had an hour to try it out.... and 99% of the time it failed because the typist b
ksed something up.Tell that to kids of today and they won't believe you.
And yes... also had experience of punched cards, Assembler, Tape, even entering Hex...
Heck, my first real job was working in RPG II.
I had 99 places to store values... Wow!!!!
Happy days!!!!!
Troubleatmill said:
st.
I remember my Uni days where you had to hand write into coding sheets - and pass to someone to type in.
A week later .... what you typed was entered into the computer
You had an hour to try it out.... and 99% of the time it failed because the typist bksed something up.
My first IT job was back in '77. Write on coding sheets, send them down to the punch room, get a 5 inch thick pack of cards back. Job would usually fail on the first compile run because of a typing and/or coding error. We had two terminals between about 100 of us on which the code could be corrected and we had to book a slot (of no more than half an hour). Usually quicker to get the card/s corrected and resubmit. Two problems with that.t.I remember my Uni days where you had to hand write into coding sheets - and pass to someone to type in.
A week later .... what you typed was entered into the computer
You had an hour to try it out.... and 99% of the time it failed because the typist b
ksed something up.1. We were all in our early 20s.
2. The punch room was full of girls in their 20s who looked as if they'd come straight from the beach and you'd be in there for hours not working.
The answer if you were in a hurry was to "fix" the card with a bit of chad and some silver paper from your fag packet (virtually all of us smoked back then).
Forget your fags back in those days and you could delay the end of year DTI returns!
98elise said:
A lot of military kit will run on old tech. As you're not surfing the web on it, or downloading dodgy apps it will still work like the day it was installed as long as the hardware holds out.
We I joined home computers were common, yet I worked on kit that used ferrite core store as memory (iron beads) and was programmed by paper tape. Still did the job it was designed to do though.
They were still using core storage tech on the Space Shuttle I believe. It had worked on the Appollo missions and everyone was too scared to change it.We I joined home computers were common, yet I worked on kit that used ferrite core store as memory (iron beads) and was programmed by paper tape. Still did the job it was designed to do though.
944fan said:
Its common in financial systems to be running old tech for the same reason, it works. Who wants to be the one to suggest a re-write and fk up something like that.
Means if you an old school programmer and know Fortran or Cobol etc you can earn some serious wedge
Haven't used either for 20+ years but interesting - time to brush up and update the CV perhaps.k up something like that.Means if you an old school programmer and know Fortran or Cobol etc you can earn some serious wedge
even worse their launch code was 0000000 for 20 years...
http://gizmodo.com/for-20-years-the-nuclear-launch...
http://gizmodo.com/for-20-years-the-nuclear-launch...
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