Re: The joy of old small computers, which sort of ran FORTRAN

On 2/25/25 10:23 PM, John Levine wrote:

It appears that John Ames  <commodorejohn@gmail.com> said:

On Tue, 25 Feb 2025 21:06:25 GMT
scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal) wrote:
>

 From what I've seen of the PDP-10, the VAX-11 instruction set
was superior.   I'm sure the PDP-10 folks will disagree, but
simply thinking about character handling on the PDP-10 gives one
a headache.

>
Now, for *real* fun, try the PDP-8, where you don't even have a
subtract instruction...!

 Or a load instruction.  Only wimps needed frufru stuff like that.

   Yep, DO remember how to do subtraction without a SUB instruction.
   A number of the early PICs didn't have that either.

I believe
it was built out of less than 1000 gates but it was an entirely usable computer
that ran lots of useful software.
 I did my first programming on a PDP-8, often through the console switches.
The one I used has been restored and still works:
 https://youtu.be/S2r_GujSc6w?si=6kq2UG-JtJTjZleC

   Started on the PDP-11. 'C' was NEW. Lots of
   punch-cards ...... only the supervisors got
   terminals  :-)
   DEC boxes were good too.