That's fascinating. I spent significant time with early MUMPS and the machines of the time (https://github.com/rochus-keller/mumps/) which had a comparable amount of memory.
Was your whole insurance application only assembler, i.e. no COBOL or RPG at all?
The company started out with RPG. There was no COBOL compiler. They had to start processing health claims on paper tape, which could only be read with Assembler. They hired me to learn & write Assembler. We converted the master file update (40,000 cards, two hours twice a day) to Assembler, when I discovered a way to store 240 digits per card: twelve bits/column = three decimal digits. It was the 70's (7 = 0111), so our cards looked like lace doilies. Reconstructing jammed cards was fun.
I left the company after three years because I could only compile & test at night or on weekends.
Comments
That's fascinating. I spent significant time with early MUMPS and the machines of the time (https://github.com/rochus-keller/mumps/) which had a comparable amount of memory.
Was your whole insurance application only assembler, i.e. no COBOL or RPG at all?
The company started out with RPG. There was no COBOL compiler. They had to start processing health claims on paper tape, which could only be read with Assembler. They hired me to learn & write Assembler. We converted the master file update (40,000 cards, two hours twice a day) to Assembler, when I discovered a way to store 240 digits per card: twelve bits/column = three decimal digits. It was the 70's (7 = 0111), so our cards looked like lace doilies. Reconstructing jammed cards was fun.
I left the company after three years because I could only compile & test at night or on weekends.
Cool. So at least the work-hours haven't changed much since ;-)