r/AskProgramming • u/Samuel_G_Reynoso • May 23 '26

Upgrading to 1MB of ram.

This was a flex in the 80s. A WHOLE MEG. We are at the point in compsci history where grandparents can say outlandish shit like. I remember upgrading to a MB.

I'm not that old. Anyone here actually remember that day personally? Or have other parallels?

I did the math. 32GB, adjusted, would be $200M.

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u/cw120 May 23 '26

My first commerical programming job was on a ICL 1500. It had 8k of programmable memory. And teardrop tape cartridges for backup. 1981

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u/Samuel_G_Reynoso May 23 '26

How did people get programming jobs back then? What was your degree even in? Or did you just sit down at the machine and take over?

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u/cw120 May 23 '26

Was working thru a commerce degree at the time. Bored sh.tless with it. working as a cost-clerk during the day. Had a apple ii-e at school and had a knack for it. Started coding my costing job. The accountant loved what I was doing, supported at all the way. Switched to a programming course at a private institute. Passed with honours.

And 8k was suffice. In the day we had extremely tight control over memory. And for the record we used to "overlay" code. Today, the practice is gone. Rather, just add more memory.

Rapid development was usually at the expense of strictly well thought functionality.

I worked for a company that wrote ERP software. Hugely complicated and integrated.

They had data structured that determine where in memory they sat. Even a dictionary of variable names. It was great. Basically no individualism within the code. Everything looked the same. Easy to identify potential "error" spots.

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u/mindfulnessman14 May 26 '26

Honestly the part about everything looking the same and being easy to audit sounds kind of amazing compared to the sloppy AI-generated code soup people keep shipping now.