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"In the beginning, there was the terminal." (lemmy.ml)
submitted 3 days ago by alexei_1917@hexbear.net to c/programmerhumor@lemmy.ml
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[-] balsoft@lemmy.ml 13 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

I think this is roughly it:

  1. Magnetic beads manually strung on a thread, each one representing a single bit
  2. Punch cards/tapes
  3. Single-line text editors, for use on a teletype (a-la ed or qed - which still somewhat alive as sed)
  4. Multi-line, or "visual" editors, for use on the terminal (a-la vi)
  5. Modern IDEs
[-] unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de 16 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

I mean its not that deep is it? It just become more and more manual the further you go back until you hit the first calculators that were programmed with punch cards. Eventually cards were replaced with other types of storage and keyboards as inputs. Which allowed for human readable inputs that could then be interpreted.

[-] Drewfro66@lemmygrad.ml 15 points 3 days ago

Physical, human-legible media, like punch cards

[-] mushroommunk@lemmy.today 10 points 3 days ago

"human legible"

Have you looked at a punch card? I like some assembly, but the punch card is just dots. They blur together until all you see are holes and more holes and structure has lost all meaning.

[-] Euphoma@lemmy.ml 11 points 3 days ago

more legible than a ssd for humans

[-] alexei_1917@hexbear.net 4 points 3 days ago

I like some assembly

So, do you work with minimum spec hardware, or are you just a masochist?

[-] mushroommunk@lemmy.today 5 points 3 days ago

Por que no los DOS? (Pun intended)

But really it's been two things. I've had to adapt algorithms to some extremely ancient hardware that had another twenty years planned service, and I've had to work on robot operating systems where timing of operations is extremely important

[-] alexei_1917@hexbear.net 3 points 3 days ago

DOS? That's ancient technology! Who still uses that relic!? Lol.

[-] alexei_1917@hexbear.net 9 points 3 days ago

I once saw an application, I think some sort of old computer emulator tool, on a smartphone, read a punch card using the camera. Which made me think, QR codes are a difficult for humans to read way to put code onto a physical sheet of paper and them pass it to a computer, just like punch cards were, when it comes to technology, there is nothing new under the sun, and on a cycle, everything old is eventually new again.

[-] MyNameIsRichard@lemmy.ml 4 points 2 days ago

The very first computers were programmed using physical switches and buttons. Punched cards came later. Being a programmer in those days was a lot harder than it is now!

[-] NeatNit@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 2 days ago

Even your title isn't the true beginning. Before the terminal, there was just a printer. Teletype, was it?

this post was submitted on 13 Oct 2025
81 points (97.6% liked)

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