Interview: The Man Who Wrote the Payroll Code in 1974 Posted by Rotundo on Friday October 15, @12:10PM EDT from the back-then-we-had-to-use-two-digits dept. Last month you sent in questions for Walt Ferraday, the COBOL programmer who wrote the payroll system that is still running at a large Midwestern insurance company, and who came out of retirement this year to fix it. His answers are below. He typed them himself, on a terminal, in all capital letters. 1) Why two digits? (asked by many, many people) BECAUSE CORE MEMORY COST MORE THAN MY CAR. EVERY BYTE WAS A DECISION. NOBODY EXPECTED THE PROGRAM TO OUTLIVE THE MACHINE. THEN THEY BOUGHT ANOTHER MACHINE AND COPIED THE PROGRAM. THEN ANOTHER. THE PROGRAM IS NOW OLDER THAN THREE OF MY GRANDCHILDREN. 2) Is it going to be okay on January 1st? (asked by Nervous Ned) MY CODE WILL BE FINE. I FIXED IT IN MARCH. I AM LESS SURE ABOUT THE CODE THAT CALLS MY CODE. I DID NOT WRITE THAT. A CONSULTANT WROTE THAT IN 1988 AND HE HAD A PONYTAIL. 3) What do you think of Linix? (asked by kernel_kid) MY GRANDSON INSTALLED IT ON MY PC. IT ASKED ME WHICH KEYBOARD I HAD. NO COMPUTER HAS EVER ASKED ME THAT. I LIKE IT. 4) How much are they paying you? (asked by Anonymous Coward) ENOUGH TO BUY A BOAT. I WILL NAME IT 'PIC 9(2)'. 5) Any advice for young programmers? WRITE COMMENTS. SOMEBODY WILL READ YOUR CODE IN 25 YEARS AND IT MIGHT BE YOU. Interview: The Man Who Wrote the Payroll Code in 1974 | Login/Create an Account | Top | 39 comments | Search Discussion Threshold: -1: 39 comments 0: 32 comments 1: 25 comments 2: 16 comments 3: 10 comments 4: 3 comments 5: 1 comments NestedFlatThreadedNo Comments Oldest FirstNewest FirstHighest Scores First The fine print: the following comments belong to whoever typed them. Dashdot takes no responsibility for them, and frankly, neither do most of the people who typed them. Best interview ever by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 15, @12:26PM EDT (#3) The all-caps answers are perfect. This man is a national treasure. Somebody give him a boat. Oh wait, they did. [ Reply to This ] Re:Best interview ever by StylusSam on Friday October 15, @12:35PM EDT (#4) (User Info) This. A thousand times this. [ Reply to This | Parent ] Re:Best interview ever by RTFM_Ralph on Friday October 15, @01:32PM EDT (#10) (User Info) Heh. Nice one. [ Reply to This | Parent ] Re:Best interview ever by MediaMaven on Friday October 15, @02:32PM EDT (#16) (User Info) So what you're saying is that it's a conspiracy. Got it. [ Reply to This | Parent ] Re:Best interview ever by MarkupMarcy on Friday October 15, @12:39PM EDT (#6) (User Info) Wait until you see the next version. It's going to be worse. [ Reply to This | Parent ] Re:Best interview ever by ByteBandit on Friday October 15, @12:57PM EDT (#7) (User Info) Real men use a magnetized needle and a steady hand. [ Reply to This | Parent ] Re:Best interview ever by CourtWatcher on Friday October 15, @01:14PM EDT (#8) (User Info) I work in this field, and the parent is basically right, although the details are a bit more complicated than one comment can cover. [ Reply to This | Parent ] Re:Best interview ever by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 15, @01:55PM EDT (#12) Actually, that's a common misconception. The spec explicitly allows it; it's the vendors who didn't implement it. [ Reply to This | Parent ] Write comments by HexHead on Friday October 15, @12:37PM EDT (#5) (User Info) That last answer should be printed on every CS diploma. [ Reply to This ] Microwave by RetroRaccoon on Friday October 15, @01:45PM EDT (#11) (User Info) My microwave has more processing power than the computer that went to the moon, and it still can't figure out popcorn. [ Reply to This ] The consultant with the ponytail by Anthropologeek on Friday October 15, @02:05PM EDT (#13) (User Info) Hey, I resent that. My ponytail and I wrote very good code in 1988. Mostly. [ Reply to This ] Re:The consultant with the ponytail by Anonymous Coward (Score:0) Re:The consultant with the ponytail by CoffeeCoder on Friday October 15, @03:02PM EDT (#19) (User Info) Exactly. And the vendors know it, which is why they're scared. [ Reply to This | Parent ] Re:The consultant with the ponytail by perl_monger_mo on Friday October 15, @04:13PM EDT (#27) (User Info) You must be new here. [ Reply to This | Parent ] Re:The consultant with the ponytail by Nervous Ned on Friday October 15, @02:44PM EDT (#17) (User Info) Did you even read the parent post? He said the opposite. [ Reply to This | Parent ] Offtopic, but by crufty on Friday October 15, @02:47PM EDT (#18) (User Info) Offtopic, but does anyone know how to get a Sound Blaster 16 working under the new kernel? It just beeps at me. Rhythmically. [ Reply to This ] Interesting, but... by ByteBandit on Friday October 15, @03:25PM EDT (#22) (User Info) This is interesting, but I think the article misses the bigger picture. Technology like this only matters when it gets cheap enough for ordinary people. Until then it's a toy for people who read Dashdot. Which, admittedly, is us. [ Reply to This ] Re:Interesting, but... by ShopperSheila on Friday October 15, @03:45PM EDT (#23) (User Info) Agreed. Couldn't have said it better myself. [ Reply to This | Parent ] Re:Interesting, but... by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 15, @03:54PM EDT (#25) Thanks for posting this. I learned something today, which is rare for a comment section. [ Reply to This | Parent ] Re:Interesting, but... by DaemonDiva on Friday October 15, @04:59PM EDT (#33) (User Info) The parent's point stands, though: it depends entirely on the use case. [ Reply to This | Parent ] Re:Interesting, but... by GrumpyGreybeard on Friday October 15, @04:27PM EDT (#29) (User Info) I think you're missing the point. Nobody is arguing it's perfect, just that it's better than what we had. [ Reply to This | Parent ] Re:Interesting, but... by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 15, @04:31PM EDT (#30) Says the guy posting at 3am on a Tuesday. [ Reply to This | Parent ] Re:Interesting, but... by overclocked_otter on Friday October 15, @04:32PM EDT (#31) (User Info) Not true at all. I've been running it for months with no problems. Maybe check your hardware? [ Reply to This | Parent ] Year 2000 by frostbyte on Friday October 15, @03:57PM EDT (#26) (User Info) Just wait until January. Then we'll see who's laughing. (Probably everyone. The answer is probably everyone.) [ Reply to This ] Jolt by Anonymous Coward (Score:0) Re:Jolt by BioBob on Friday October 15, @05:48PM EDT (#39) (User Info) Funny, I had the exact opposite experience. Ymmv, I guess. [ Reply to This | Parent ] Answer: 42 by kernel_kid on Friday October 15, @05:44PM EDT (#38) (User Info) The answer, of course, is 42. What was the question? [ Reply to This ] 14 replies beneath your current threshold. Show them all (threshold -1).

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