Old Timer Computer Programming Story

While I wasn't a computer professional, I was working around programmers back when they had to hand program using languages like APL, Assembler, Fortran, COBOL, and PL/I. I never learned to program, but I sometimes had to read the code. What people did back then was write *comments* to explain their code (anything typed between two * was not run as computer code, so it could be used as informational commenting in natural language, not programming, vocabulary.) That was both to keep track of what they were doing for their own reference, and also to help out anyone who had to maintain the code after them. It took extra effort to comment, and it was considered an important part of good programming practice. At one extreme was APL, which is a very dense, totally mathematical language (which I liked) and that was usually never commented, since it was mostly math geeks who liked APL. Others commented for their own reference and when they left a job they would "comment strip" so that the poor slob who inherited their computer programs would not have a clue what they did. My first job after college was stuck with a vital computer program that had been comment stripped. It was job security; the ex-programmer always wanted to be called back as a paid consultant. Then there were the ego maniacs LOL. They commented practically whole books worth of "look how brilliantly I programmed this part" types of comments.

A = B *Oh my God, I just invented the equal sign. The equal sign says that two things are the same! I am so awesome. With this simple symbol I am saying that A is the same amount as B. And it's so clever that I'm actually saying B is the same as A! It works forward or backward! I'm so brill! Why don't they pay me more? Ah, I'll think of a way to get even more money out of this gig, because I am so smart!! Yee haa!*