Authors, how long have you been writing?

Bramblethorn said:

I wrote a little bit of FORTRAN back in the day, and after that I used a special-purpose language based on FORTRAN for about nine years. But I've forgotten it all now. I wish I remembered more of the C++ I used to write.

In the English language, since high school. First paid would've been late 1990s or so.

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I still write in Fortran, and mostly in post-90 when I do. I write more in C and Tcl/Tk. That all started in 1973 when I took my one-and-only programming course (in Fortran IV using punch cards), and I've since written in more programming languages than I can really remember.

I write some in English, too.

I originally wrote programs for the IBM 1401 in their SPS. I found it a pain because it wouldn't compile accurately and/or run fast enough for the massive volume of data we were running daily so I changed to machine code.

Everything was on punched cards in 1963.

I learned with Fortran IV on punch card... 80 column punch cards.

Over my career I have written systems in... ready?...

360 Assembler, Cobol, RPG II, RPG III, Basic(multiple vesions), PLP, PLSql, Sql, PowerBuilder, C, C+ C++, C#, Visual Cobol, Visual C+, Pascal, HTML, PHP, ASP, and whole host of tools that do the programing for you.

PowerBuild really wasn't a language. It was one of the first tools that coded most of the system for you as far as retrieving and updating data, etc.

All this Fortran talk ins getting me hot and bothered. I might write a story about it

When I started writing programs, Fortran couldn't be used on our computer. It took a further 3 years before a version of Fortran would work on it.

What I was wrong with a good abacus, I ask you.

ChloeTzang said:

What I was wrong with a good abacus, I ask you.

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How does one do square roots and trig onan abacus, please?

I've written in FORTRAN IV, BASIC, (up to Quick & Visual), and been writing in English since I got my first typewriter; a very long timae ago.

Handley_Page said:

How does one do square roots and trig onan abacus, please?

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Engineers were building sophisticated things LONG before computers were in general use. We used adding machines, slide rules and trig tables. Engineers built some of the most advanced aircraft in the air. SR71 was designed and built in the 50's and only recently retired (though later greatly updated with the aid of modern computers). The space program began without the use of computers as we know them today.

They used analog computers for simulations to determine if the devices they made without computers actually worked. Apollo had 4 or 5 digital identical computers onboard (1Mhz, 2K of hand-built core memory if I recall), but they had to invent everything as they went along. Apollo was largely built with adding machines and slide rules and simulated/tested with analog computers. A TRS-80 would have been an Apollo engineers unattainable fantasy.

So an abacus or soroban (Japanese version) was undoubtedly used for engineering in Asian countries to do trig and any other math functions required. I believe it still is. Regular users can add and subtract on an abacus faster than a handheld electronic calculator.

Assuming Cloe is a young Asian woman and not a 40 year old bald white guy with a beer gut, she might be able to attest to the speed with which regular users can do computations of all sorts on an abacus/soroban.

rj

I threw in the abacus for fun coz back in elementary school my grandmother taught me how to use an abacus for maths and drilled me until I could use one blindfold. The other thing was remembering reading Robert Heinlein novels where they piloted starships using sliderules and books of tables. Now math just goes right by me. I never was that good at it.

Handley_Page said:

How does one do square roots and trig onan abacus, please?

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Square roots here:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oLoqfehjLLc

If you can add, subtract, multiply, and divide, then you can calculate trig functions by a factorial series: http://www.askamathematician.com/20...tions-and-numbers-like-pi-before-calculators/

If you know enough calculus to differentiate a function, you can use Taylor series expansions to find similar expressions for other functions of interest, though you may need to apply a few tricks to do it within a limited working space. Most computers will be doing something similar behind the scenes.

I remember an old SF story, probably Clarke, where a spaceship's navigation computer dies and they end up resorting to abacus methods for a few months until they can get back in touch with Earth.

I joined Lit in May 2002 when I posted my first story....Gosh I feel old now

Adding Machines, Calculators and Computers actually can ONLY add or subtract.

They do however do it very, very fast.

ChloeTzang said:

I threw in the abacus for fun coz back in elementary school my grandmother taught me how to use an abacus for maths and drilled me until I could use one blindfold. The other thing was remembering reading Robert Heinlein novels where they piloted starships using sliderules and books of tables. Now math just goes right by me. I never was that good at it.

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There's an advantage I never heard of. Try using a calculator blindfolded. I spent part of high school in Japan and learned the soroban for my studies. I still have the same one and use it on occasion, but I'm too rusty to use it seriously. I still have my Sun slide rule from college and use it whenever I'm working on something that requires proportions. Otherwise, I'm fine with a modern calculator.

rj

Shady_Lady said:

I joined Lit in May 2002 when I posted my first story....Gosh I feel old now

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Snap. Gosh you don't chatter much here though, do you

Writing comics, 35 years.

Writing erotica: one month. First story got rejected.

Maybe I should stick to guys in tights.

Yhall got me singing about a Daisy Girl.

NoJo said:

Snap. Gosh you don't chatter much here though, do you

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Nope not a lot

King_Willie said:

Writing comics, 35 years.

Writing erotica: one month. First story got rejected.

Maybe I should stick to guys in tights.

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Why did it get rejected? I've had two rejections; one stayed rejected, the other was fixed simply by removing one, non essential, line.

How long have you been writing

I've been writing BDSM fiction for about 10 years. My early stuff was " cut to the chase and have fun" but now I am exploring the emotional parts of relationships. I am working on a coming of age story and am looking for people who are interested in reading my drafts and giving feed back. and I will happily do the same for them.

please message me at Email Address Removed. if you are interested
dont let the e-mail throw you off.

[Please don't post Email addresses to the open forum. If you would like to exchange Email addresses, please do so by private message - AH Mod]

I've dabbled in writing fiction for many years, but I began writing stories with the intent of actually finishing them about ten years ago. Almost all have been erotic (i.e. porn).

Since computer languages popped up: my first was something called APL, then came BASIC, FORTRAN in various flavors, C, and C++..

Now blind, I'm learning to perform math and writing in my head. Tho blind I can create eidetic images in my mind. Some blind autistic people are master composers using perfect pitch to create their music.