Oddly, the 1620 was a decimal(!) at the level of machine code. (obviously deeperput you would type: 2600030002 . (I think. There’s alsog that in you are placing it at the beginning of memory, starting at location 0. So location 0 now has a 2, location 1 has 6, etc. You then execute it by hitting return. Execute what, you ask? Well, 26 is the codeation 3 into location 2. But what is in location 3? A zero. So location 2, with a 6, gets zeroed. The flag I mentioned tells to keep doing this, decreasing the location number. So, contents of 2 into 1, contents of 1 into 0 and contents of location 0 into location 9999 (looping around). This is an endless loop, zeroing the machine. Hit halt button and the machine is ready.
I just did that to see how much I remembered. I’m surprised.
On Sep 10, 2026 at 7:14:13 PM, Carl Distefano wrote:
David,
> I even, on the 1620, programmed in machine code.
Now that's impressive. I never stop marveling at the fact that all the amazing things that computers do come
--
Carl Distefano
cld@xxxxxxxxxx
David Auerbach
auerbach@xxxxxxxx