Funny question.

[Oliver]

I've got this question: "What was first program or program making program"? ???

[Robin_Gravel]

I've got this question: "What was first program or program making program"? ???

Yes. It's a funny question.

Here's another funny question: how did Microsoft make a basic program for Altair 8800 when this machine does not use a keyboard or a monitor?

Here's the link of the altair 8800
http://wwwcsif.cs.ucdavis.edu/~csclub/m ... _8800.html


Robin Gravel

[Eigen]

Robin are you saying that this "thingy" is a "computer". It looks more like a ..... I don't know what.

[Kon-Tiki]

I've seen that on tv once. It had something to do with entering all things with a sort of morse-machine, giving 1s and 0s to the Altair. It looked really stupid, two guys, one button and someone telling that they're making a computer.

-Kon-Tiki-

[Andrew_Baker]

Well, kids, it's story time. Y'see, before the invention of the CRT and keyboard, they used teletype machines. The tty device in Unix is an artifact of this. These were, literally, electric typewriters that told the computer what was typed and received instructions to type.

Before that, people would punch holes in tape or cards. This was an artifact remaining from the Jacquard Loom.

You won't see the Altair getting too many props because it was released about the same time period as the Commodore Vic-20, the TRS-80, and later, the Apple.

[smartguy240]

The first program was

PROGRAM ver 1.0

[jelleghys]

The first program was

PROGRAM ver 1.0

MOEHAHA


My dad used to work for IBM. They had to make programs with "ponskaarten" (don't know the english word,... punch cards??). They had to make zillions of cards with some holes in, then they put that in the computer. And if there were errors in the program, they just had to change the cards with the errors on... I prefer a keyboard ::)

[Oliver]

So does anyone know what was first? O0

[juncmodule]

I don't think it really works that way. Computers, ones similiar enough to the ones we use today, were built to run programs. If you consider the processors ability to interpet commands (machine language) as a program, then, the program came first. However, machine language was written somehow. I imagine if you broke it down enough a human created on and off switches in a "computer" therefore that was the first program ever written...on and off. How those were turned on and off would have been the "first program to make a program" ever written.

Do you consider a program to be a physical action, or a written action (or punchcard action), that would make a difference.

So I guess you can answer it that way...I'm sure there are a billion other ways to answer it too. The human could be considered the program that wrote a program....Then you start talking about god and who wrote him....which brings us to Tron and the Matrix and philosophy. Which is a little ridiculous. So, I think my on/off switches theory is the best.

wee, my brain hurts...

later,
-junc

[Oliver]

................ok

[smartguy240]

So does anyone know what was first? O0

I already told you... in 1973 the first computer program was created..

PROGRAM VER 1.0...

[Robin_Gravel]

in 1973 the first computer program was created..
PROGRAM VER 1.0...

How did the guys create this program? By using the
switches?

Robin Gravel

[smartguy240]

Yea they inputted a piece of paper and it was programed to put an A on it

Kerels. ..SMG240 is de koelste persoon op het blok. ..hij krijgt alle meisjes die hij heeft gewild en hij rond heeft het meest sexiest meisje. ..dont wenst u dat u zoals hem zo koel was? Hoe ongeveer kon-Tiki? Hij is ook koel. ..net onder SMG240 niettemin! !!!

[CESS.tk]

lol @ smg ;D

The first computer would have been the Babbage Folly though. A mechanical divice, mind you!
But before that programs already existed, made for automatons. The diffrence between an automaton and a computer is that for each program, a different automaton has to be made and each automaton can only do one thing (how ever complex this may be - think of a cigarette vendor, a one-armed bandit, a calculator,...), while a computer is able to execute any program (as long as it is well written).
The first automaton was made by Pascal, a mechanical adding device to help his father, who was a tax collector. So the first program was an adding program, made in 1642.

[smartguy240]

No the first program was created by God...

Universe ver 1.0

then

Human ver 1.0