29 Sep
2026
29 Sep
'26
1:24 p.m.
On Sep 29, 2026, at 3:44 PM, ben via cctalk
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
On 2026-09-29 11:36 a.m., Paul Koning via cctalk wrote:
True, but in 60's and 70's only PL/1 or subsets of it could do binary and
decimal computing in a high level language.I have not looked at any newer languages cause
nothing would ever port.
Um, you forgot COBOL! Which is still around; GCC now includes a COBOL compiler. RPG
maybe also, though I don't know that language. And nowadays there is Python, though I
don't know if the decimal arithmetic library on Python/VAX would use those
instructions.
On Sep
29, 2026, at 1:22 PM, ben via cctalk <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
... Like what machines other than IBM had binary and decimal computing?
That
depends. One answer is "all of them" -- because any general purpose computer
can do both. If you meant
"had machine instructions both for decimal and for binary arithmetic", the
answer includes the PDP-11 and VAX, and I think the Intel 4004 had instructions used as
building blocks in decimal arithmetic.
You must of had a custom PDP 11 then.