When got to NSF in 1979, we were using DECWriters -- roughly the size of a small refrigerator, with a separate printer (IBM Selectric) about the same size - 8" floppies as well. They would hold about 60-70 pages of text; to change a font, even to italicize a word, you had to change the Selectric ball and run the page through the printer again, being sure that it lined up perfectly, of course. When I got my Apple ][ Plus in 1980, I had them install a separate CP/M card that would allow an 80-column display and let me run WordStar -- ah, bliss! Also spent about $5000 on the system overall -- when I'd been making all of $18,000 per year as an assistant professor (NSF paid better, about $32,000 p/a as I recall). I did some Pascal programming, but most of my coursework and related research work used Fortran, at which I got pretty good. I had a couple of simulation programs that ran to at least two entire boxes of IBM punchcards, each roughly 15" long and holding, if I recall, about 500 cards each. It took about five minutes to read the program into the card reader, then 15-20 minutes hanging around the output window to get back the error report telling you that you'd mispunched one card by a notch, and then had to dig through the decks to find the card, repunch it (after waiting in line for access to the keypunch) and try again. Then there was the fun when you dropped a box of cards and they went flying all over the floor at random. I can't remember how many times I got to see the cold light of dawn coming out of the Computing Center at 6 am after a fun evening of Fortran-on-the-rocks... Good times... :omg: JD

Yes. The idea was a relatively simple control language to teach basic concepts - and empowerment.

One other note -- someone mentioned the Adventure game -- I had just started teaching in a business school ("Introduction to Management" to bored sophomores) when one of my students told me about this game that could be accessed in the school's computer lab (i.e., a bunch of terminals connected to a VAX somewhere) -- I spent most free minutes running next door to sign onto it, and even checked out a modem (100 baud) so that I could play from home over the weekends. A couple of years later I went to work for the National Science Foundation in DC, and discovered that the same game could be found on NSF's mainframe; there, I finally solved it all. While at NSF, I bought myself an Apple ][; we got IBM PC's ( with 10 MB hard drives -- how to fill all that up!). When I left NSF in 1985, there were all of 12 PCs in the entire NSF, and I had one of them in my office, having traded my desk chair to my boss for it. Volkswriter, anyone? An entire word processor and all your documents, fitting on one 5.25" disk (that really flopped!) :omg:

I believe that the language you're referring to was LOGO (not to be confused with the current cable TV channel of the same name -- it was a lot about "turtle graphics" and making the turtle do things. It was supposed to empower kids and in general make the world a warmer, fuzzier place to be. You see how well it succeeded in that direction. Ah, for the days of Zork I, II, and III! :-D