For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV)
In the late 1960s when we moved back to Cambridgeshire, the world felt like it was changing. It was an age of scientific and technological progress; colour TV was becoming common, men were going to the Moon, and everything had a modern clean feel to it. Contrasting to the immediate post-war era of austerity, things were moving on. You might think that the rural Hertfordshire town of Royston with its surrounding agricultural community would be distant from this brave new world, but you would be wrong. One of the things being “modernised” at the time was education and the old grammar school system was on the way out, being replaced by stylish new comprehensive schools. The school I was going to, was such a modern brand-new building which felt totally different to the little victorian primary school which I had just left early due to my parents moving.
I was therefore insanely excited to be going to the Greenway School in Royston, a “Middle” school having 9 – 12-year-olds, being prepared to go to the equally modern Meridian high school next door. (I understand that both of these schools are still standing but both, part of a wider Academy network). It was like walking through a time warp into the world of tomorrow.
I can’t claim that the reality of the school was quite as idyllic as the dream. It was never going to be so, but I would like to think that I did alright out of the system. At least I wasn’t judged by an exam at the age of 11 because I have a feeling I would not have been ready for the 11 plus and would have been condemned to a “secondary modern” with any aspirations above my station being firmly managed down. Yes, I have a lot to be thankful for in that school, the main thing being, my introduction to computers.
I would imagine that most people at the time would have no clue what a computer actually did (me included). Computers to me, were rows of cabinets in special rooms with lines of tapes spinning round and copious flashing lights. The machines would be attended by very attractive individuals including women in short skirts dressed in the manner of the many 1960s space sci-fi series that I used to watch avidly. As to what exactly these machines really did, this was a mystery; something very complex and mathematical – working out problems which were far too difficult for mere people.
I had always been interested in science and technology so when the school offered computer lessons, I jumped at it! It wasn’t something you would expect to be taught at middle school (or any school for that matter) in those days, but there was a particularly innovative and passionate maths teacher. He made an arrangement with the relatively local Hatfield Polytechnic (now the University of Hertfordshire). The Poly had a computer called a “DEC PDP 10”, a mainframe computer at the cutting edge of computing. If that means nothing to you then you are no different to me because that combination of letters was completely alien but very impressive. Popular in universities and colleges at the time, this mainframe computer had the facility for so-called Time Sharing. This wasn’t some dodgy scheme to sell shares in holiday properties but the means of enabling a number people to use the computer at the same time, making it seem to each, that they had the whole system to themselves. Although in the world of modern IT this might seem trivial, it was not always so and my schoolmates and I had privileged access to state-of-the art computing.
The teaching we received began with an explanation of the various parts of a computer and a “how it works” guide followed by the basics of programming. The computer language used was called Beginners All purpose Symbolic Instruction Code, BASIC, which is a forerunner of many modern computer coding languages (you may be familiar to the programming language called Visual Basic from Microsoft. This looks totally different from the BASIC of my era, but it does owe its linage to that old teaching language).
I remember some of these early lessons well because something clicked in my head, a “light bulb moment”. I really “got it” and realised very soon, that this was the thing that would become my life from that moment onwards. Although I had no clue as to what computers were really about to start with, as soon as I had the teaching, my eyes were opened and it was no longer a mystery, it was an amazing world and I wanted to be part of it.
Because the computer we were using was in Hatfield, about 25 miles away, our initial interaction with the machine was by post. We had to hand write our programs on special forms called Coding Forms. These were sent to the Polytechnic where operators would key our programs into the computer and then they would be run. The printed output would then be returned to us. Anyone familiar with coding will know that a program will almost never run OK first time and the creation of a working program is an iterative process, one of trying, looking at the errors, refining and trying again. You can imagine the excitement when the output arrived back each week! The time it took to get even the simplest program working however, ran in to many weeks.
The output we got from the computer centre, was printed on a type of wide computer paper which was very distinctive and had green lines across it and holes punched on each edge. We also got the punched cards that were used to input our programs into the computer. This added to the excitement, and the feeling that we were dealing with something extremely high tech at the cutting edge, which it really was. There was something surreally futuristic to be handling real computer paper and punched cards with my own work on it; it was to me, science fiction turning into real life.
Then an astonishing innovation came; the “computer link”. This was something that we could only use for one week each term because just one had to be shared between many schools. What it consisted of, was a large attaché case that when opened contained a teletype machine that could communicate back to the computer using a telephone. If you don’t know what a teletype looks like it is like a large heavy electric metal typewriter. To the right of the keyboard were two large padded holes, each about 3 inches in diameter into which you inserted the telephone receiver. In those days, phones were hard-wired into the wall and you couldn’t just un-plug the phone and plug in your computer. No, instead you had to use this so-called audio coupler. The procedure was that you dialled the number, (on a rotary dial which was the only way telephones worked at the time) and listen for a high-pitched tone at which point you swiftly shoved the receiver into the two holes on the teletype. Then, if you were lucky, the machine would burst into life and print the reassuring word “LOGIN:”.
As you can imagine, the demand for using this machine during the termly one-week slot was high, and each student could expect only a few hours “computer time”. Since I had never typed before, I used to practice typing out my program on a typewriter we had at home, so I could enter it quickly (using two fingers) when it was my turn on the computer link. On one occasion, one of my schoolmates who hadn’t been in the computer lessons was looking over my shoulder at me typing various instructions in response the computer’s prompt, and asked in a rather bewildered manner “How do you know what to put?”. I didn’t have a glib or articulate answer at the time but it is easy to understand how the bewildering array of letters and numbers being printed out would be to someone who had not been in the classes. I learned very quickly that for me, this all was quite intuitive and and I had a gift for figuring out how to navigate a computer user interface and know “what to put”.
At that time it wasn’t common at all to have a computer course at school, and this was very experimental and I think they made it up as they went along. When the school inspectors paid a visit, (this was before Ofsted had been created, they were called Her Majesties Inspectors) the teacher who had taken the initiative and started the computer course was very keen to get hold of my work file to show what was being achieved.
Richard Mann 