<HTML> Hi, Karae. Yes, I have been bringing my students to the Museum. My fifth class will be visiting Saturday, Nov. 14. Students are always fascinated by experiencing the restored IBM 1401, various data processing equipment, and the Babbage Engine all operational again. They also enjoy seeing the other exhibits and hearing the docents' stories. At the very least, they'll appreciate their laptops and iPhones more. See <a href="http://cs.sjsu.edu/%7Emak/archive/CS160-Spring2008/fieldtrip/index.html" target="_blank">http://cs.sjsu.edu/~mak/archive/CS160-Spring2008/fieldtrip/index.html</a> for photos from a visit last year. I was warned by other faculty members that computer science students are not interested in history. But I prove them wrong every time the students see the old "compusaurs" come back to life. The CS dept would like me teach a semester-long "History of Modern Computing" class tied to the Museum, but with all the budget cuts in the California state universities, that won't happen soon. (Does anyone want to sponsor a chair in the San Jose State University CS dept? I work cheap!) I taught a 90-minute seminar on the 1401 and data processing last summer: See <a href="http://cs.sjsu.edu/%7Emak/1401/" target="_blank">http://cs.sjsu.edu/~mak/1401/</a> In my compiler class, I do discuss the challenges that the early compiler writers faced. For example, the Fortran compiler for the 1401 worked in 4K of memory and required up to 63 passes. See <a href="http://cs.sjsu.edu/%7Emak/lectures/IBM1401FORTRANCompiler.pdf." target="_blank">http://cs.sjsu.edu/~mak/lectures/IBM1401FORTRANCompiler.pdf.</a> My students were complaining that I'm making them write a 3-pass compiler in Java on laptops with 2 GB of memory. -- Ron P.S. I've been a volunteer at CHM for nearly 10 years, lately mostly with the 1401 restoration. I'm trying to find funding for the Museum to hire CS students from SJSU to work as interns. It helps that I'm involved with both institutions. I can keep you posted on my efforts. I'll try to stop by your office and say hi the next time I'm at the Museum. On Thu 15/10/09 6:21 AM , "Karae Lisle" klisle@computerhistory.org sent: <blockquote style="border-left: 2px solid rgb(245, 245, 245); margin-left: 5px; margin-right: 0px; padding-left: 5px; padding-right: 0px;">Hi Ron You should definitely bring your students to the Museum, and/or encourage them to visit and learn....... Great story - I coded FORTRAN at FSU on a Cray - brand new terminals in 1980...card reader was over in the corner with the electrical cord wrapped around the leg.... Karae ________________________________ From: <a href="javascript:top.opencompose(" target="_blank" scc_active-bounces@computerhistory.org="" ,="" )="">scc_active-bounces@computerhistory.org</a> on behalf of Ronald Mak Sent: Wed 10/14/2009 9:25 PM To: Van Snyder; Paul McJones Cc: <a href="javascript:top.opencompose(" target="_blank" scc_active@computerhistory.org="" ,="" )="">scc_active@computerhistory.org</a> Subject: RE: [SPG_Active_Members] Wired.com: Oct. 15, 1956: Fortran ForeverChanges Computing's Fortunes After my "day job" at IBM Research, I teach compiler writing and software engineering classes at San Jose State University. For your amusement, I've attached an e-mail that I sent last year to some of my faculty colleagues about a "Fortran incident" in my software engineering class. Of course, in my compiler class, I teach my students how to use BNF. -- Ron P.S. Truly bizarre fact: I have John Backus's old office at IBM Almaden Research Center. P.P.S. No, there isn't a plaque by the door. In fact, you wouldn't know that he ever worked here if it weren't for his former colleagues remembering him (and telling me that I have the honor of inhabiting his old office). Ronald Mak Research Staff Member PERCS Petascale Storage Subsystem IBM Almaden Research Center Department of Computer Science San Jose State University <a href="javascript:top.opencompose(" target="_blank" mak@cs.sjsu.edu="" ,="" )="">mak@cs.sjsu.edu</a> <a target="_blank" ?redirect="http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cs.sjsu.edu%2F%7Emak"">http://www.cs.sjsu.edu/~mak</a> -----Original Message----- From: <a href="javascript:top.opencompose(" target="_blank" scc_active-bounces@computerhistory.org="" ,="" )="">scc_active-bounces@computerhistory.org</a> [<a href="javascript:top.opencompose(" target="_blank" scc_active-bounces@computerhistory.org="" ,="" )="">scc_active-bounces@computerhistory.org</a>] On Behalf Of Van Snyder Sent: Wednesday, October 14, 2009 7:08 PM To: Paul McJones Cc: <a href="javascript:top.opencompose(" target="_blank" scc_active@computerhistory.org="" ,="" )="">scc_active@computerhistory.org</a> Subject: Re: [SPG_Active_Members] Wired.com: Oct. 15, 1956: Fortran ForeverChanges Computing's Fortunes On Wed, 2009-10-14 at 17:37 -0700, Paul McJones wrote: > <a target="_blank" ?redirect="http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fthisdayintech%2F2009%2F10%2F1015fortran-launch"">http://www.wired.com/thisdayintech/2009/10/1015fortran-launch</a> > > The reporter contacted me to ask for permission to use a photograph > from a match book cover John Backus had given to me, and also had a > few questions which I was happy to try to answer. The resultant story > has links to the Fortran archives at CHM and SPG. To enlarge on Abell's "the propellerheads aren't done with Fortran...." Since 1966, the year in which the standard that Computer Science professors love to bash was published, there have been four revisions (and those same professors gleefully proclaim that they're completely ignorant of their contents). A fifth will be published shortly. Fortran standards are referenced by the year their technical content is frozen, so the newest one will be called Fortran 2008. ISO takes a while to publish. Fortran hasn't been spelt with all caps since 1990, so Wired.com inadvertently got it right. 1977: Character variables, better support for I/O, structured programming, .... 1990: Modules, arrays, dynamic storage, free source form, .... See "Fortran 90 Explained" by Metcalf and Reid. 1995: Mostly minor fixups See "Fortran 90/95 Explained" by Metcalf and Reid. 2003: Object oriented programming, C interoperability, Stream I/O, IEEE arithmetic, .... See <a target="_blank" ?redirect="ftp%3A%2F%2Fftp.nag.co.uk%2Fsc22wg5%2FN1601-N1650%2FN1648.pdf"">ftp://ftp.nag.co.uk/sc22wg5/N1601-N1650/N1648.pdf</a>. Also "Fortran 95/2003 Explained" by Metcalf, Reid and Cohen. 2008: SPMD parallel programming -- See <a target="_blank" ?redirect="ftp%3A%2F%2Fftp.nag.co.uk%2Fsc22wg5%2FN1751-N1800%2FN1787.pdf"">ftp://ftp.nag.co.uk/sc22wg5/N1751-N1800/N1787.pdf</a> -- will be familiar to those familiar with UPC, which got its inspiration from the predecessor of this project, originally called F-- at Cray. Performance enhancements, more intrinsic functions, I/O improvements, .... See <a target="_blank" ?redirect="ftp%3A%2F%2Fftp.nag.co.uk%2Fsc22wg5%2FN1701-N1750%2FN1735.pdf"">ftp://ftp.nag.co.uk/sc22wg5/N1701-N1750/N1735.pdf</a> _______________________________________________ SCC_active mailing list <a href="javascript:top.opencompose(" target="_blank" scc_active@computerhistory.org="" ,="" )="">SCC_active@computerhistory.org</a> <a target="_blank" ?redirect="http%3A%2F%2Fmail.computerhistory.org%2Fmailman%2Flistinfo%2Fscc_active"">http://mail.computerhistory.org/mailman/listinfo/scc_active</a> </blockquote></HTML>