Computing in the 1960s
Walter E Brown
What was it like to be a computer programmer almost 60 years ago?
I started programming in those days, and would like to share with you my recollections and first-hand experiences on how we went about the job of programming. I will describe what the hardware was like and what software was available for programmers, and will also offer anecdotes dating from that era.
Come and join me in a return to the time of punch cards, punched paper tape, unit record equipment, and disk drives the size of a laundry machine!
Walter E Brown
With broad experience in industry, academia, consulting, and research, Dr. Walter E. Brown has been a computer programmer for almost 60 years, and a C++ programmer for more than 40 years.
He joined the C++ standards effort in 2000, and has since written circa 175 proposal papers. Among numerous other contributions, he is responsible for introducing such now-standard C++ library features as cbegin/cend, common_type, gcd/lcm, void_t, and <cmath>’s mathematical special functions, as well as the headers <random> and <ratio>. He has also significantly impacted such C++ core language features as alias templates, contextual conversions, variable templates, static_assert, and operator<=> (the C++20 “spaceship operator”).
When not playing with his grandchildren, Dr. Brown continues as an Emeritus participant in the C++ standards process and as a frequent speaker at C++ conferences and meetups worldwide.
