From: lynnmcguire5@gmail.com   
      
   On 1/9/2026 3:40 PM, Lawrence D’Oliveiro wrote:   
   > On Fri, 9 Jan 2026 15:09:58 -0600, Lynn McGuire wrote:   
   >   
   >> I started writing software in Fortran in 1975, thought it the best   
   >> thing since sliced bread. Then I learned Pascal in 1983 (Turbo   
   >> Pascal). Then I learned C in 1986 (Turbo C).   
   >   
   > 1975 was probably about the time I first encountered actual lines of   
   > Fortran code (though not a computer to run them on). This was in the   
   > Encyclopedia Britannica article on computers.   
   >   
   > Then I got hold of a book called “The Compleat Cybernaut”, by Anna   
   > Burke Harris. It was a pretty comprehensive introduction to Fortran. I   
   > remember the bio mentioned that the author was living in a city where   
   > she was the only practising blacksmith. I devoured that in a weekend.   
   >   
   > Later, I found another book, called “Programming in POP-2”. The   
   > concepts of non-numerical programming, lists, structures etc -- way   
   > beyond anything Fortran had -- just blew my mind. Also it was   
   > stack-based.   
      
   My father started a chemical engineering software company in 1968.  In   
   May of 1975, he asked what I was doing that summer between my freshman   
   and sophomore years in high school.  I said watching tv and reading   
   scifi books.  "Nope, you are going to work for one of my programmers",   
   my dad said.   
      
   So I was the keypuncher for Sun Fu, a Chemical Engineer PhD.  Sun Fu   
   would write an algorithm on the back on a piece or two of printout   
   paper.  I would keypunch the algorithm in Fortran 66, get the subroutine   
   to compile cleanly on the time share Univac 1108, and deliver the card   
   deck to Sun Fu.  Dad paid me $2.00 per hour.  I should have paid him.   
      
   I knew Sun Fu well.  He lived with us for a year in Houston in 1973   
   after he got his PhD at the University Of Oklahoma where my Dad had   
   taught Chemical Engineering from 1963 to 1968.  Sun Fu was one of my   
   Dad's best grad students, an incredibly smart guy from mainland China.   
      
   Lynn   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)