Saturday 11 January 2014

Slide rules and Fortran

Computers are now an everyday aspect of all of our lives, But if you take an instant to remember that not so distant past you will remember a world where slide rules were the apogee of technical sophistication. It was probably 1973 when I bought my first and last slide rule, Thirty shillings were extracted from me for this wonderous aide to the mathematician that lurked somewhere within me. We were allowed to use this hi tech hardware in maths class by special dispensation. It does seem another world.


Fortran was the buzz word so far as computer language was concerned. I remember the dimpled computer cards and the pink computer tape. School exam results were fed into computer programmes for the first time ever.


All our yesterdays.

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