Oleplug

Photo of the Day

Posted by Current_Yellow7722@reddit | vintagecomputing | View on Reddit | 31 comments

Photo of the Day

Posted by Current_Yellow7722@reddit | vintagecomputing | View on Reddit | 31 comments

Oleplug@reddit

On the extremely old IBM 2311, the crazy operators (like me) would open the lid and use hands to slow them puppies down quick in order to change a pack. Not kidding. Newer stuff had inter-locks to prevent such idiocy. LOL

Photo of the Day

Posted by Current_Yellow7722@reddit | vintagecomputing | View on Reddit | 31 comments

Oleplug@reddit

Had an older gent put disk packs on the back of drives like that to stage his backups. These were dual-ported DEC RM05 (CDC) drives on PDP-11/70's, He came back into the computer room to find a pack on the floor, face up and I guess he thought he put it there. Anyway, after loading the pack on not one, but three other drives, he finally figured out there was an problem. The field service guy had to scrounge up heads and other parts to fix them up. Smallish town, took several days.

Photo of the Day

Posted by Current_Yellow7722@reddit | vintagecomputing | View on Reddit | 19 comments

Oleplug@reddit

I working in a large stuffed computer room for a few years. Didn't have those nice auto-loader tape drives. Gave up the mainframe life and went to DEC gear. Never looked back.

Photos of the Day

Posted by Current_Yellow7722@reddit | vintagecomputing | View on Reddit | 27 comments

Photos of the Day

Posted by Current_Yellow7722@reddit | vintagecomputing | View on Reddit | 27 comments

Oleplug@reddit

When I was 'transitioned' away from DEC in 1993, they allowed us to take our 'desktop' and software with us. I left with a fully loaded MV2-GPX and 19in Sony monitor, with a license for every DEC product (CSC pak). A few weeks later got a long term contract and made a boat load of $$ using this machine. Later upgraded to a 3100/76 with expansion pizza box and kept going. Still doing VMS support today on AXP and Itanic.

Found a haul of vintage computing

Posted by RollUpRollOut@reddit | vintagecomputing | View on Reddit | 39 comments

I present to you a DEC Alpha Chip

Posted by PaleDreamer_1969@reddit | vintagecomputing | View on Reddit | 61 comments

Oleplug@reddit

Worked with an off-shoot Altavista team at DEC in Boxborough. Developed code to index other document formats. Built add-on tools for ALL-IN-1 to include 'fuzzy search' for sites having large quantity of documents, calendar, etc. Good ole days doing BLISS.

I present to you a DEC Alpha Chip

Posted by PaleDreamer_1969@reddit | vintagecomputing | View on Reddit | 61 comments

I present to you a DEC Alpha Chip

Posted by PaleDreamer_1969@reddit | vintagecomputing | View on Reddit | 61 comments

Oleplug@reddit

I still support a site using Alpha ES40s and DS20s. Finally heading towards an emulator since Oracle is dragging it's time on Rdb for OpenVMS X86 version.

What models of computers were in your school's computer labs?

Posted by echocomplex@reddit | vintagecomputing | View on Reddit | 433 comments

When you're cleaning out your Dad's basement and his 50 year old Altair switches on

Posted by MethodElectrical2540@reddit | vintagecomputing | View on Reddit | 113 comments

Oleplug@reddit

How cool! Always dreamed of having one of these when they came out. Raising kids on a shoestring budget it just wasn't feasible.

Photo of the Day

Posted by Current_Yellow7722@reddit | vintagecomputing | View on Reddit | 20 comments

A program for net income calculation, 17 kilograms of read-only memory

Posted by Tesla44289@reddit | vintagecomputing | View on Reddit | 48 comments

Oleplug@reddit

First job was in a bank data center 1975. There was an IBM-047 paper tape to punch card machine that used a smallish plug board. PB was for reformatting the magnetic-ink style data to the cards. Had both IBM 1401 and 360 systems, monster IBM-1419 check reader/sorter. Less compute power and storage in that huge room than in my cell phone.

How do two different programing language communicate with each other specifically?

Posted by BidDogAnus@reddit | learnprogramming | View on Reddit | 20 comments

Oleplug@reddit

Not all true. I have worked on OpenVMS for years. Every programming language the compiles on that platform uses the same 'calling' standard. C calling COBOL, PASCAL, FORTRAN, BASIC is normal. There are system services written in macro assembler or DEC's BLISS called from any supported language on VMS. Have used PHP modules using COBOL shared images to do the work.

Math for programming.

Posted by Otherwise-Mud-4898@reddit | learnprogramming | View on Reddit | 68 comments

Oleplug@reddit

Back a half-century ago, I was taking College algebra for high school credit. The section was full for the third class but an advisor said try 'this'. Same instructor, same class times, different days, so OK whatever the advisor approved it. Turned out is was not algebra but FORTRAN. Got credit for it as math, but I was hooked. Still at it 55 years later.

DIGITAL SERIES PB700

Posted by Phudgey99@reddit | vintagecomputing | View on Reddit | 26 comments

Oleplug@reddit

DEC sent me to a class for performance tuning then internals. VMS engineers were the presenters. Remember a comment from one of them about VMS running just fine until you put ALL-IN-1 on it. The group from Charlotte were plenty unset at lunch that day. Spent 10 years at DEC, good times along with boat loads of learning.

DIGITAL SERIES PB700

Posted by Phudgey99@reddit | vintagecomputing | View on Reddit | 26 comments

Oleplug@reddit

Me too. Transitioned out in 1992. Group I worked for did competitive sales support. We would go out to help local sales folk pitch replacements for just about any manufacturer. Most success with IBM S/36 and smaller main frames. Kinda stupid to get rid of the group that tried to bring in new customers. I still support a site running OpenVMS on Itanic.

What was your “everything clicked” moment?

Posted by Kitchen_Possible7604@reddit | learnprogramming | View on Reddit | 33 comments

Oleplug@reddit

Taking college algebra for high school credit 1971. Third class, signed up for ENG112 instead of ENG102, FORTRAN not algebra. Prof was the same guy I'd had twice before and said just give it a try. Really never looked back.

At a point in my programming learning career where I’m starting to dream in code

Posted by Dahvoun@reddit | learnprogramming | View on Reddit | 16 comments

Oleplug@reddit

Had a dream last night that a client (I worked as a consultant for many years) needed me to immediately respond to a contract offer. I woke up thinking I needed to call him and be ready to fly out to ATL. Wife thought it was VERY funny, said maybe I should call him to say hello anyway. Problem is, I don't have his work cell number any more. Plus the location was moved out of the US to someplace.

At a point in my programming learning career where I’m starting to dream in code

Posted by Dahvoun@reddit | learnprogramming | View on Reddit | 16 comments

A DEC communications device from the seventies has a message for y'all !

Posted by Laser_Krypton7000@reddit | vintagecomputing | View on Reddit | 69 comments

Oleplug@reddit

I worked for DEC too but used the VT52 before that. One of the best 'feel' KB I can remember. Most were 20ma and used a RS232 interface board. The IC's would give up frequently and I replaced a lot of them. Was a software guy but did hw also. Some good memories from that time.

OpenVMS: the wit and wisdom of Mark Twain

Posted by CornerProfessional34@reddit | vintagecomputing | View on Reddit | 7 comments

Oleplug@reddit

Those exit codes still work VMS $ PIPE SHOW SYSTEM | SEARCH SYS$INPUT uptime OpenVMS V8.4  on node BONNIE    1-NOV-2024 13:05:01.86   Uptime  237 21:40:49 VMS $ VMS $ exit %x34b4 %SYSTEM-F-GAMEOVER, all your base are belong to us VMS $ VMS $ exit %xb70 %SYSTEM-W-FISH, my hovercraft is full of eels VMS $

I'm not quite sure what this is.

Posted by Specialist-Signal598@reddit | vintagecomputing | View on Reddit | 77 comments

Oleplug@reddit

Didn't know about the marketing ploy. The search engine had undocumented callable routines in the shared images. Worked a project building add-ons for DECs ALL-IN-1 that indexed docs into a local AltaVista database. Then built the stuff to do the search from ALL-IN-1 too. Had customers with thousands of documents. Always thought that ALL-IN-1 was a ploy to sell bigger hardware too.

I feel like this is literally impossible only for me

Posted by Karmaplays765@reddit | learnprogramming | View on Reddit | 62 comments

Oleplug@reddit

#include <stdio.h> int main() { // printf() displays the string inside quotation printf("Hello, World!\n"); return 0; } I agree!

Digital VT220 and VT320 found at my university!

Posted by Ok-Opportunity-8660@reddit | vintagecomputing | View on Reddit | 27 comments

Oleplug@reddit

Since I still do some programming and support on OpenVMS, I certainly miss the LK keyboards. One of the dev servers has DECset and the keys can be redefined, but the term-emulator they force me to use makes the PF1 key work only half the time. The other has not dev tools so even editing DCL scripts is a pain.

Saw this the other day … i still remember VMS 🥹❤️

Posted by Ruegenpresse@reddit | vintagecomputing | View on Reddit | 51 comments

Oleplug@reddit

They might consider moving to emulation for AXP. Place I retired from had a good outcome moving off some big GS1280/8 servers.

Saw this the other day … i still remember VMS 🥹❤️

Posted by Ruegenpresse@reddit | vintagecomputing | View on Reddit | 51 comments

Saw this the other day … i still remember VMS 🥹❤️

Posted by Ruegenpresse@reddit | vintagecomputing | View on Reddit | 51 comments

Oleplug@reddit

I have that plate too. Still supporting apps and doing some sys-admin on VMS. Both AXP and Itanic. It's quirky, can you F$FAO this?

I don't like my code

Posted by Bwennin@reddit | learnprogramming | View on Reddit | 19 comments

Oleplug@reddit

Might be good to ask around. Some organizations have different best practice desires and rules. In future positions you may have to change and adapt. Maybe not directly ask, but bring it up in a casual setting (lunch?).

Is a good way to learn a language to start with memorising all the keywords?

Posted by CouldBeShady@reddit | learnprogramming | View on Reddit | 19 comments

What was the last computer to feature a front panel with toggle switches like on this pdp-8/e?

Posted by codycbradio@reddit | vintagecomputing | View on Reddit | 65 comments

Oleplug@reddit

Digital Equipment Corporation's PDP11/70 was introduced in March 1975, shipped for several years with a lighted and switched from panel. It was commercially available. Remember getting one brand new in 1982 with the iconic front panel.

A blast from the past - DEC / ÐIGITAL Vaxcluster with three !!! VAX 11/780 nodes plus removable drives storages pictures !

Posted by Laser_Krypton7000@reddit | vintagecomputing | View on Reddit | 33 comments

Oleplug@reddit

Yes, US based (Colorado Springs), digit from 1983-1992. Yup I am ancient! Company I retired from had a 3 Node GS1280/8 cluster now running on emulation. Someone here mentioned COBOL, that cluster is running manufacturing apps, about 4mil lines of code + some Macro, Pascal and B32. Doing some support at a site with 2 clusters, one actual AXP DS class hardware the other Itanic.

A blast from the past - DEC / ÐIGITAL Vaxcluster with three !!! VAX 11/780 nodes plus removable drives storages pictures !

Posted by Laser_Krypton7000@reddit | vintagecomputing | View on Reddit | 33 comments

A blast from the past - DEC / ÐIGITAL Vaxcluster with three !!! VAX 11/780 nodes plus removable drives storages pictures !

Posted by Laser_Krypton7000@reddit | vintagecomputing | View on Reddit | 33 comments

What was truly better back in the day?

Posted by LosAngelestoNSW@reddit | vintagecomputing | View on Reddit | 428 comments

What actually is "kernel" vs "user"?

Posted by ProgrammingQuestio@reddit | learnprogramming | View on Reddit | 21 comments

Oleplug@reddit

Kernel mode on OpenVMS, for example, lets the program look at or modify OS internals. Examples: - Force a crash resulting in a memory dump so it can be analyzed (like tracing a resource wait). - Look through locks to identify what process is causing a dead lock in a database or file. - Change the number of cycles in each clock tick - slow or speed up the clock to fall back or spring forward slowly.

Php is very messy :(

Posted by _--_GOD_--_@reddit | learnprogramming | View on Reddit | 28 comments

Oleplug@reddit

Not a trick. Working in an environment where even tiny screw ups could cost millions of revenue or success of the company itself, management required separate dev, test and prod servers, separate databases and strict controls regarding deploying additions or changes. Seems to be normal operating procedure in high volume manufacturing. php.ini did not control the functionality or design of the apps, modular design was in the apps themselves. Debug - output was somewhat cryptic. I routinely put output similar to below in the php code: echo "<!-- svr=$svr dbm=$dbn fac=$fac class=$acc -->\\n"; Where $svr - server name, $dbn - database server, $fac - the location and in this example the $acc was the user access class. This commenting style was also used quite a bit in the osCommerce package. I've developed code in ALC, C, COBOL, PERL, PHP and others. Any could be bomb-burst ugly.

Php is very messy :(

Posted by _--_GOD_--_@reddit | learnprogramming | View on Reddit | 28 comments

Oleplug@reddit

Can be if you let it sure. Self control and/or discipline is important. Some suggestions might be: - Make it as modular as possible. - Put all i/o in classes, build a test module for every function in the class. Debug output in HTML comments. - Only one database in a class (Informix, PostgreSQL, Oracle, whatever) each get a class. - Put all reusable code, including HTML output, in included functions like page header, footer, TOC menu. - Strive for ONE 'page' per file. - Comment, comment, comment.

Php is very messy :(

Posted by _--_GOD_--_@reddit | learnprogramming | View on Reddit | 28 comments

What’s the most underrated programming language that’s not getting enough love?

Posted by imKiLoX@reddit | learnprogramming | View on Reddit | 417 comments

Oleplug@reddit

COBOL has been around for decades. Don't know if much new stuff is being done with it, but it's still around and there are many current job listings for folks who know it. What do I like about it? Well I could probably write COBOL code to do what ever I want. Have seen it used on web pages (not kidding) for back end compatibility. As long as folks write code that keeps host system specific crap in separate modules, it is somewhat portable. Worked with a huge app called COMETS used in semiconductor manufacturing, 4m lines of COBOL on OpenVMS. Does all sorts of complicated stuff one might think can only be done in other languages.

What’s the most underrated programming language that’s not getting enough love?

Posted by imKiLoX@reddit | learnprogramming | View on Reddit | 417 comments

Oleplug@reddit

Still supporting apps written in STD C on VAX VMS in the late 90's. Was one of the original developers. Not the best language for these financial apps, but it is very fast on the newer OpenVMS platforms. Much of the OS and layered products were written in C. I've coded in or worked apps on code in FORTRAN, RPG, ALC, COBOL, BASIC, DIBOL, BLISS, PASCAL, C, VB, PHP and PERL. Then there is JCL, DCL, sh, bsh, IFDL, TDF, STDL, SQLMOD, SQL, SQL+ too.

I *suck* at programming :( [but, I'm still holding onto faith at age 52]

Posted by Terrible-Hornet4059@reddit | learnprogramming | View on Reddit | 132 comments

I *suck* at programming :( [but, I'm still holding onto faith at age 52]

Posted by Terrible-Hornet4059@reddit | learnprogramming | View on Reddit | 132 comments

Oleplug@reddit

Favorite position I held at Digital Equipment Corp was as a technical pre-sales consultant. Created many focused demonstrations to try and convince a prospective customer to come on board. If you can find this type of work, it can be very rewarding.

I *suck* at programming :( [but, I'm still holding onto faith at age 52]

Posted by Terrible-Hornet4059@reddit | learnprogramming | View on Reddit | 132 comments

Oleplug@reddit

I retired from a company where even the most senior people used what they coined 'Google Doc' all the time. After programming for about 50 years (started with punch cards) I can say that trial and error is very common. I probably suck too but kept at it. Still doing some C code on OpenVMS part-time. BTW, I got an AS from a community college in business data systems. Struggled to learn anything and everything I could on my own and on the job. Learning was a constant companion, still is in a way. Hang on and keep going if you enjoy the challenges.

What exactly does "self-taught" mean?

Posted by Lunapio@reddit | learnprogramming | View on Reddit | 24 comments

Oleplug@reddit

First language was FORTRAN while in high school taking college night classes. I had some formal education (learned RPG yuk as a bus major). Have learned many languages and platforms since. There was no CS degree back then.

I should’ve bit the bullet and learned a language like C first instead of Python.

Posted by FriendofMolly@reddit | learnprogramming | View on Reddit | 165 comments

Oleplug@reddit

Sounds like you work in semiconductor mfg, pretty typical there because the mfg tools are VERY expensive. The mfg software is pricey too, so some still run extremely customized code. COBOL anyone?

Am i screwed?

Posted by Mohamed_was_taken@reddit | learnprogramming | View on Reddit | 9 comments

Oleplug@reddit

Perhaps the most important lesson you can take away from the college experience is to "learn HOW to learn". No matter how many years you spend in information technology, learning will be a constant endeavor. On your own, classes, seminars, peer-to-peer or even simply chatting over lunch, always learning.