Early 1980s computing

My first college experience was in the early 1980s as an engineering student, so the only computer programming I needed was FORTRAN (Formula Translation), the 1977 version. FORTRAN was a very early advanced programming language, what was called a third-generation language. It was invented in 1957, when computers still weighed several tons, so it was a big advance.

My programming classes still used dumb terminals, which displayed whatever the computer told them to display. No graphic interface. Because of its age, FORTRAN was based on punch cards, which had very specific roles for each column of data. For example, the first six characters were reserved for statement numbers and special commands, and character seven was reserved for a continuation mark to indicate the previous line was spilling over. Each punch card held one line of code.

Thankfully, I was spared from writing programs on punch cards. Barely.

FORTRAN was and is a good language for scientific programming, and I used it professionally through 1994 for a wide range of computer simulations. It is still used, and apparently there is a version called FORTRAN 2023, an amazing 66 years after it was first developed!