Re:Dennis Ritchie’s first C compiler (c. 1972)
by ktpsns on Thursday March 11, 2021 @06:47AM
(#26423008)
Actually the transition from "offline editing" and "electronic terminals" was not short at all. Teletypes (aka "typewriters which can recieve content encoded in electricity, next to the user keyboard") date back way beyond computers, and were still in use in the 1980s (but evventually superseded by fax). Teletypes were cheaper, faster and more convenient then video terminals. Don't underestimate of having a printout of your session, especially when being online (i.e. connected to the mainframe or mini computer) is something valuable and your terminal is "dumb" and has no storage (except paper).
Re:Dennis Ritchie’s first C compiler (c. 1972)
by Wildgoose on Thursday March 11, 2021 @09:25AM
(#26424299)
My first usage of a computer was on a printed teletype. My last such use was probably around 1985. They were around for a long time.
And there are people claiming that computer scientists are not conservative :)
To what extend this explanation is correct is another question... The article by Denis Richie says "Other fiddles in the transition from BCPL to B were introduced as a matter of taste, and some remain controversial, for example the decision to use the single character = for assignment instead of :=".
It's a kind of butterfly effect :) Mr. Richie prefered "=" over ":=" and fifty years later a server crashes somewhere because somebody wrote a=b=c instead of a=b==c.