18 Jun
2026
18 Jun
'26
12:12 p.m.
> The IBM 1401 COBOL compiler wrote assembler
(Autocoder) on a tape. Then
> you had to mount the Autocoder assembler tape and assemble it. And it
> included the input COBOL code as Autocoder comments.
On Thu, 18 Jun 2026, Bill Gunshannon via cctalk wrote:
Interesting. I did Autocoder but never thought of it
as assembler.
Programming the 1401 in assembler was when you took the output from
an Autocder deck and hand optimized it to a single card. :-)
Hand otimizing was more likely machine language programming rather than
"programming in assembler".
Sixty years ago, I took a course in 1401 machine language.
The 1401 was inconvenient to access regularly, but there was a [homemade?]
"compatability"? "conversion" program to be able to run small 1401
machine
language programs on the 1620.
I had just had a few years of FORTRAN programming, and a course using 1620
PDQ FORTRAN, but 1401 machine language changed my view of programming.
Most fun that I EVER had in a programming class.
I was going to then be taking a course in SPS ("Symbolic Programming
system"?)(a low level assembler) the next semester, but I got hired away
for a gig that got out of hand, almost into a career, and it was decade(s)
before I got back.
The 1401 was long gone :-(
I never experienced Autocoder; I understand that it is a much more
"advanced" assembler.
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin(a)xenosoft.com