Posts

Showing posts from September, 2014

Pegasus Autocode Revisited

Image
Pegasus, courtesy Wikipedia Is this the longest-running debugging session of all time? Back in 1958 I wrote a little program in Pegasus Autocode. The Ferranti Pegasus was an early (and very successful) UK computer, and as an 11-year old I was lucky enough to borrow a manual and have my program run. The kind person who ran my program fixed a couple of problems for me, but I've never been quite sure what they were. Today I found out, and finally got to fix the program myself. PEGEM to the rescue I've known for a while about Chris Burton's wonderful PEGEM Pegasus Emulator. This is a DOS program which provides a pretty complete simulation of the Pegasus. You control the program via the switches on the operator's console. The drum is loaded with the Initial Orders (the Pegasus Operating System), and you can create your own five-track punched paper tapes which you use to program the computer and provide data. A missed excursion and a loose end tidied Yes