Well Said Jay.

I'd also like to chime in that I -am- an expert in software design and SDLC methodoligies.

You are quite right in that software engineering of that time was essencially a hardware function, as the finished work was burned onto an PROM (1960's) , EPROM (1970's), and then later EE-PROM's (1980's).

When there was a bug in the code you litterly had to replace the IC chip PROM back then with one containing the updated code. It was a very long an laborious process as every single hardware and software function had to be revalidated every time the PROM was replaced.

This changed with the invention of Languages such as BAL, HALSM, Cobol, and Fortran and Disk Drives, as PROM burning faded out once disk drives became practical. It wasn't until this point that SDLC Methodoligies really came into play.

No one even tried to use a SDLC with a 30,000 line computer program that was stored on Punch Cards, Paper Tape or Mag Reels.

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