Lol, I've programmed Assembly and i loved it back in my Amiga Days. Workbench friendly assembly with correct calls to libraries! :)

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Addicted to SETI crunching!
Founder of GPU Users Group

Good old Fortran I like it... and BASIC, never really got on with COBOL...

Gee, COBOL was easy. All you really needed was a pad of these! ;^)

I remember the PC/AT. It had 10Mhz processor, 1 megabyte of memory, coprocessor chip, ATI All in Wonder EGA video card, 40 megabyte hard drive, corded laser mouse and a 19 inch monitor

I am punching on a IBM keyboard of a similar object of that time right now to write this message.
Though a bit noisy, I still have to find a better keyboard.

Sleepy

The only language in which I took a course was PL/I while at Elsag in Genoa. I did not understand a single thing and I thought that, being too old at 44, I had to retire. Then I went back to Milano and Agrate Brianza at SGS, now STMicroelectronics, and I was given a copy of the White Book, the Kernighan-Ritchie C Manual. I was relieved.
Tullio

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The White Book, the Kernighan-Ritchie C Manual

I have the second edition.
The holy scripture to all us programmers:)

I've got both first and second editions at home - essential reading and both are well thumbed :-)

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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

I never understood the need of C++. Maybe I am too old and you can't teach new tricks to an old dog.
Tullio

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I never understood the need of C++. Maybe I am too old and you can't teach new tricks to an old dog.
Tullio

But that's a major leap in programming.
Perhaps not like Moore's Law but it have changed programming radically.
Most programming use what it's called Object Oriented Programming today.

I wish that the Moore's Law could also be applied to software development.
There has been many improvements over time but very slowly.
What's complicate it more is of course all the so called computer languages that is supposed to solve software developers "problem".

"Engelbart's Law" should really mean more than just "getting better at getting better", but then software would write itself at the thought of having an original thought and we would more probably become extinct-except living just to stay up all night eating Hostess Bakery products and drinking Mt. Few while learning by trial and error a programing language that I will probably use as often as I use chemistry 090....I can't believe I said that....Oh, "Engelbart's Law"....he was the mouse man from Portland Oregon or late (deceased recently). His history, even wiki's short version, says if there is an easier way to do something, find it! Never really wanted much more than to make the world a nicer place, and in doing so we have lost our skill's at the keyboard to the right click of a mouse.
Took a look for the first time in a long time at the progression of things. I have a 30 pin SIMM still sitting in the pile but am not sure how to add a pic of it in the post, a Panasonic at that, but it is probably the only one I have-for me they were a bit spendy at the time. Anybody needs it let me know. ;) I'll send it on.

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"It don't really hurt 'till the bone shows...."

"SAEPE EXPERTUS, SEMPER FIDELIS, FRATRES AETERNI"

Took a look for the first time in a long time at the progression of things. I have a 30 pin SIMM still sitting in the pile but am not sure how to add a pic of it in the post, a Panasonic at that, but it is probably the only one I have-for me they were a bit spendy at the time. Anybody needs it let me know. ;) I'll send it on.

I guess we all have old computer stashed away somewhere that is also called a "donor" :)

NASA is searching for Assembler and FORTRAN programmers to keep in touch with the Voyager 1 and 2 spacecrafts, since the last of the original programmers has retired at the age of 80 years.
Tullio

The computers in space seem to be of an excellent quality ! Still working ?

Yes, they still work and send data.
Tullio

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What's good with Moore's Law is that programmers doesn't need to optimize the code.
Wait two years and the hardware will do the trick.

NASA is searching for Assembler and FORTRAN programmers to keep in touch with the Voyager 1 and 2 spacecrafts, since the last of the original programmers has retired at the age of 80 years.
Tullio

That complexity that arises from multilayer software codebase exploited very vividly in Vernor Vindge's "Deepness in the sky".
We'll come to such situation sooner or later.

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SETI apps news
We're not gonna fight them. We're gonna transcend them.

The Federal Aviation Administration in the USA had a number of IBM hosts programmed in a language called Jovial, which today no one knows. When they switched to a more modern language they had many problems.
Tullio

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NASA is searching for Assembler and FORTRAN programmers to keep in touch with the Voyager 1 and 2 spacecrafts, since the last of the original programmers has retired at the age of 80 years.
Tullio

That complexity that arises from multilayer software codebase exploited very vividly in Vernor Vindge's "Deepness in the sky".
We'll come to such situation sooner or later.

Multilayer software codebase is both a blessing and a problem.
The complexity arises when a programmer have to deal with LOTS of black boxes.
Usually it works but when not we programmers are lost.

The Federal Aviation Administration in the USA had a number of IBM hosts programmed in a language called Jovial, which today no one knows. When they switched to a more modern language they had many problems.
Tullio

Ada is a programming language that was developed on behalf of the US Department of Defense in the late 1970s. The reason was that they wanted to clean the flora of the programming language used for all the systems that existed in the various armed services. The language was named in memory of Ada Lovelace.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ada_(programming_language)
The method used by the US Air Force was called KISS. "Keep it Simple, Stupid".

The only language in which I could write a program is LOGO, a dialect of LISP. Unfortunately, being an interpreter, LOGO programs are very slow.
Tullio

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LOGO and LISP are very odd.
I think it was most used as a learning tool in universities.
Another programming language that is odd is of course FORTH.
Used quite a lot in astrophysics.
In space applications, such as the Philae spacecraft and other embedded systems which involve interaction with hardware.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forth_(programming_language)
A problem with that language is that the programmer can create new commands.
Works very good for the programmer writing the code but not to those that have to manage the code later.

One possible implementation:
FORTH Code.
: HELLO ( -- ) CR ." Hello, world!" ;
Usage.
HELLO <cr>
Output.
Hello, world!

Looks like the number of interconnection standards is obeying Moore's Law as well...

I'm guessing I got an M.2 (NGFF) card. Plugs into an L-shaped connector on the motherboard (push in at a slight angle, press it down to lie flat and parallel to the motherboard, fix with a single retaining screw to a stand-off). Very neat, once you know what you're looking for.

It'd odd now they look nearly like Mini PCIe cards, but with storage moving to a direct PCIe connection I guess it may not be.

You're more correct than you know. Because the SATA specification hasn't kept up with SSD technology (and SATA 3G and 6G were made specifically to try to overcome the limitations of ATA specifically for SSDs since HDDs cannot saturate a SATA 1.5G connection), a new specification was created to basically plug the SSD directly into the PCIe bus. This new specification is known as M.2 and is an extension of the PCIe 3.0 x4 slot. Due to the limit of available PCIe lanes in a given CPU/chipset, often if you use M.2 you lose functionality of one of the onboard PCIe slots on the motherboard. Given the speed increase, I'd say it's a fair trade-off.