Chapter 34

STEVE - Tuesday, December 26, 1961

The shuttle flight was smooth and uneventful. When I was able to emerge from the airplane I made my way down to the baggage claim area. I picked up my luggage, and allowed myself the indulgence of a taxi ride back to my apartment, even though the weather here seemed quite mild compared to the wintry weather I'd been in for the past few days.

I collected my mail and went upstairs to my apartment. I decided to wait a bit before calling Sandy, since she was probably still driving back to Poughkeepsie. I looked around the rooms in the apartment, and realized that there was still quite a bit of room for additional furniture. If we had a sleeper sofa in the living room, we would even be able to accommodate overnight guests. I wasn't enthusiastic about the idea of trying to find another place, especially one as nice as this at anywhere near the rent, and besides, Sandy and I had nice memories of this place.

My thoughts were interrupted by the phone. As I had hoped, it was Sandy, calling the minute she got back home.

"Dearest Kitten, so good to hear your voice! And I'm so glad that we had the Christmas holiday together!"

"Me too, my love!"

"I know I said something in passing about needing a bigger apartment for whatever we might want from your Mom's house, but I was just looking around, and there's really a lot of room here. What would be really nice would be a sleeper sofa - that way we could put up one or two people overnight. What do you think?"

"I know that the living room couch unfolds into a double bed, and it's in pretty good condition. There's a desk that I've always liked, and I'm sure that we can use some more dishes and kitchen stuff."

We talked for a few minutes longer, and hung up. I unpacked my bags and put my new clothes away. I hung the binoculars in the closet, determined to take them with me the first time I could get out for a hike on the canal trail. By then, I was ready for bed, since I knew that in the morning I would be back at the agency and hard at work on the Reaper training course.

All too soon, the alarm woke me from a sound sleep. After a shower and quick breakfast of dry cold cereal and stale bread toasted (almost everything that was in my refrigerator was unusable, and I realized I had to get some provisions on my way home), I picked up Sarah's package and set forth for work. I used my badge to get in, and passed by Murray's office on the way to mine. He was in, and we exchanged pleasantries about the holidays. I told him that I was going to start work on the training materials, and he said, "Good. We have two new programmers starting next week, right after the first of the year. Do you think you'll be ready for them?"

"It's tight, but I can start them on the basic Stretch programming stuff for the first week, and we should be in good shape. I'll be going back to Poughkeepsie for the first part of the week of the 15th of January for the formal acceptance test; I'm sure it will go smoothly this time."

"OK, let me know Friday how you want to proceed with these two. Lucy Morrison graduated last June from Cal Tech, went to work for a small company on the west coast, but it folded in October. Vladimir Hlavacek just got his Master's degree from Carnegie Tech. Both have outstanding credentials."

His phone rang and as he answered it, he said to me, "We're done now. I'll catch up with you later today."

I went to my office, and spent the next hour carefully studying Sarah's teaching plan. She had focused on the many important differences between conventional computer organization and Reaper, starting with the parallelism which was the key to its power. I decided that I would start with a simplified block diagram of a conventional computer alongside a similar diagram for the Reaper data flow and paths. Once I had explained the elements of Reaper, I would move on to the question of how to control them from one cycle to the next; this would lead to the introduction of the control word layout and the different field definitions, along with an overview of the address indexing capabilities and an introduction to the assembler language. Finally, I would explain the multi-way branching mechanism, illustrating the power of this by comparing a Reaper four-way branch to a flow chart of a similar branch tree on a conventional computer.

I spent the rest of the day and much of Thursday drawing diagrams and flow charts. Once we had gone through these concepts and the new programmers were comfortable with them, I would take them back and give them each a copy of the Reaper programming specification and Sarah's assembler manual. I also selected some programs from my acceptance test suite to use as illustrations once they were working with these documents. Later in the game, I would introduce the fast memory and the tape subsystem, but I didn't want to overwhelm them with any additional complications until they had a good grasp of the basics.

I found Sam in his office, and reviewed my plans with him. He thought I was on the right track and made a few suggestions. I asked, "Would you be able to spend some time talking to the newcomers about cryptanalysis, our application, and how Reaper fits into the picture?"

"Sure, if I can do it in several sessions. When should we start?"

"Well, they start work on Tuesday. I figure with all the paperwork that will be a lost day. The first few days they will be learning the basic Stretch programming stuff. I'd say any time after Wednesday for the initial session, and after that we can play it by ear. I'll start on the basic Reaper concepts the following week. Remember that I will be in Poughkeepsie for a few days starting the 15th for the acceptance test."

"Ah, yes. I'm guessing you'll be going up Friday evening for that."

"Yes, I think Sandy's Mom is getting married on Saturday and she particularly wants me to be there."

Sam smiled, and said, "That's the first I've heard about that!"

"Well, Walt only proposed on Christmas day. It's going to be a very small event, only their families. I guess I almost count as family by now."

"Refresh my memory, when are you getting married?"

"The first Saturday in April. Needless to say, we're planning a honeymoon and some additional vacation time to get her moved into my - soon to be our - apartment. We didn't think getting married earlier would be fair to either IBM or the agency, what with Reaper being delivered in about six weeks, and Sandy's involvement in the Reaper test effort."

"Well, that's certainly very thoughtful and considerate of both of you! Remember to keep your priorities straight and don't either of you become consumed by your job."

I winced at the memories of September, and said, "I think we learned that lesson a few months back!"

"Yes, I'm sure you did! Check back with me Tuesday afternoon and we'll set a time to meet with the new programmers."

I spent the rest of that afternoon and most of Friday polishing up my drawings, assembling the basic Stretch programming material, and making notes for my explanations of the Reaper structure and control word layout. I called Murray and said, "I'll be ready for the new programmers Tuesday afternoon. I'm assuming that they will be tied up with paperwork until then. I'm going to start them out with Stretch programming the first week, and Sam will spend several sessions with them. I want to get them going on Reaper the next week before I leave for Poughkeepsie for the acceptance test."

"Sounds good. I'll call you after lunch on Tuesday. One thing to remember; they have clearance for anything to do with Reaper, but not yet for the application program. That should be forthcoming by the end of the month."

SANDY - Thursday, December 28, 1961

I guess Steve and I had been doing the same type of work since he left! I called him when I got home tonight, and he told me about the training materials he was pulling together for some new programmers that were joining the Agency right after the first of the year. I said, "As I mentioned last week, I've been working for the past month on a new outline for the new Stretch training course for the Field Engineers. I'm just about done with that, and I'll review it with their education department tomorrow. After that, I need to work with their people on revising the detailed lesson materials; I think that will take me another two months."

"Well, what I'm doing is much more informal. I've outlined my training course and how to introduce them gradually to Reaper. The first week they will be learning basic Stretch programming, so I still have plenty of time to polish the Reaper stuff. I need to get them up to speed to where they will have plenty to do when I'm back up there for the acceptance test."

"I'll be glad when you get here! You are coming Friday night, aren't you? The wedding is definitely on Saturday."