I was speaking specifically of COBOL, very heavy on algorithms. Banks and stock brokers used it a lot, I don't know if it is still in use. RAdm. Grace Hopper helped develop it for the military post-WWII. That made it public domain and thus cheap if not free.
My Radm. Hopper story: In WWII the big guns were aimed with help from data machines (dumb computers basically). Hopper helped develop those machines. Her team developed the ballistics table that were then programed into the D. M.s. The computer was large enough that the techs could literally walk around in it, and they manual changed settings when a new run was to begin. One day the results were, to quote the Admiral, were "shit". They checked their program and it was copacetic so they investigated the hardware end. A moth was found to be stuck in one contact point, keeping it open. She removed the moth and taped it into their log book with the following notation:
"Problem found, bug in computer."
That log book is now in the Smithsonian, the first documented computer "bug".
And now you know. Hope you're still awake.
My Radm. Hopper story: In WWII the big guns were aimed with help from data machines (dumb computers basically). Hopper helped develop those machines. Her team developed the ballistics table that were then programed into the D. M.s. The computer was large enough that the techs could literally walk around in it, and they manual changed settings when a new run was to begin. One day the results were, to quote the Admiral, were "shit". They checked their program and it was copacetic so they investigated the hardware end. A moth was found to be stuck in one contact point, keeping it open. She removed the moth and taped it into their log book with the following notation:
"Problem found, bug in computer."
That log book is now in the Smithsonian, the first documented computer "bug".
And now you know. Hope you're still awake.
