Passing by reference

[MartinRinehart at gmail.com]

Dennis Lee Bieber wrote:
> Great if one is using a teletype as editor

The original Dartmouth computer room was a basement that featured 8
teletypes.

The original BASIC, Dennis, was implemented on a time-shared
"mainframe" with a gigantic 8k words (20-bit words, if I remember) of
core memory.  Designing a language for such a machine, I'd bet you,
too, would choose single-letter names. ('A' was a numeric. 'A$' a
string.)

If you compare the teletype to a tube it was lame. But that's not the
right comparison. The Fortran technology was cards, punched on a card
punch, carried to the operator. Wait your turn (hours more commonly
than minutes). Get a report off the line printer. Repunch the
offending cards.

Indeed, the teletype with line numbers was a giant step forward. No
operator. No waiting. Compiler complains. Retype the offending line. A
miracle in its day. You didn't even have to start your statements in
column 7!