FAA - 'Now try to debug something like that!'
Found on C.S.Y2K, thank to Jim Cobbs.
Sample of production code containing some stuff coded without assembler.
'The problem is that the date functions are not in programming languages, like Fortran or Cobol, but in machine language -- strings of ones and zeros more basic to the computer than even the operating system'
John
------
cory hamasaki wrote:
>
> In <34bc4b05.203797770@news.calgary.telusplanet.net>, ttoews@telusplanet.net (Tony Toews) writes:
>
> > The extent of problems with the air traffic computers is not certain,
> >but experts say that the 3083 mainframe model referred to in a letter
> >from IBM to an FAA contractor, <snip>
> >
> I didn't know that the FAA had replaced the 360/50's with 3083's. The 3083
> is an early 1980's machine, pre-XA, pre-ESCON.
I suspect that the 3083s are pre 360s and were not installed to replace any IBM 360s. I could be mistaken but I think the 3083s (or was it the 3085) was a one for one transistored version of the vacuum tube IBM 705.
> > Monte Belger, the associate administrator for Air Traffic Services,
> >said in an interview that the FAA should know within 90 days whether
> >the computers can be de-bugged. The problem is that the date
> >functions are not in programming languages, like Fortran or Cobol, but in machine language -- strings of ones and zeros more basic to the computer than even the operating system.
I've got a hint here as to what may be something truely awesome. The first programming gig I did was at NSA on an IBM 705 and at that point there was *NO* assembler language. All that was available was a "relative address compiler" which ment you could code an OP CODE but the addresses had to be actual, but relative. BTW: (Cory, please copy) this geeks at NSA had discovered that when you wired up a computer you
inadvertently, and quite accidently "created" op codes that weren't
documentated anywhere. Most were useless, but the gear heads I worked with found uses for some of them: the one I'll always remember was "Side Ways Add"; it added up all the on-bits in one register and stored the answer in another register.
Now try to debug something like that!
--
Jim Cobbs
jim9885@ibm.net
Include me out. |
