What is Assembler 1620? A little bit of history for everybody

I finished in 1972 and I went to the world of labour, always working for the public administration. I worked at the City Hall and for the Metropolitan Area. After that, I started working at the Computing Laboratory of the UPC.

(He smiles) You could say that I have worked in all the possible roles at the University, from student to University Professor, being administrative and management staff in the middle.
Well! It is not easy to say what was exactly that did it... but I can tell you a funny anecdote that probably helped me to make my mind up and become a Computer Science Professor.

When I was at the second year of my degree, I was one day walking along the ETSEIB corridors when I saw a sign that read: "Course on Assembler 1620 and Fortran II". I froze; it was probably the first time that I was in front of a sign whose meaning was totally unknown to me. I am  a curious person by nature and I love novelty, therefore I could not let that opportunity pass!. I registered for the course and that is how I learned how to program.
They are programming languages. The first one was the IBM 1620 assembly language, and  Fortran was its first high level computing language. The computer IBM 1620, which is the machine I started programming with and it is now in a showcase at the ETSEIB, was announced by IBM in October 1959 and it was commercialized as a low cost "scientific equipment".

Not really... I was taking the specialization in energetic techniques.

When I decided to do computer programming, I saw it as a novelty and another technology. When you study Industrial Engineering you see many technologies and at that point I did not realise the magnitude of computing. It was not until we started the FIB  (Barcelona School of Informatics acronym) project that I became conscious of computer science being a discipline by itself, not another branch of my career. We were creating a new discipline that was going to change the future.

Once I understood the importance of computers, I became aware of software being the only intangible technology. Software is like smoke, it is something almost spiritual, that you can not touch. We started with a machine that was not able to do many things by itself, but just by developing a computer program, new actions would be performed. This ability plus the possibility of working with very interesting people like my professor, Martí Vergés, or my colleagues like Jaume Pagès, Pere Brunet, or Antoni Olivé (who was working in a company at that moment) ...etc. gave me a very stimulating view of computer science.
Well, now it is less hidden... (He laughs) Màgic Andreu, a good friend of mine, has become very popular by building his professional life on one of my hobbies, magic tricks, effects or illusions. I guess everything comes from the same root. I always had been curious about the inexplicable and when I was a child the owner of the shop "El Rei de la Màgia" captured my interest with those tricks that were apparently impossible to explain...

However, for me, those two worlds have been quite parallel... In fact I have never looked for or found many connections between magic and computers. (He thinks and then he smiles). Well, actually we could say that the two worlds have functional similarities, both generate conferences, retreats ...etc.

Many years ago I helped in founding the Cercle d'Il·lusionista at UPC, a magicians association at the university.
I came back to the UPC thanks to Martí Verges when he was the director of the Computing Laboratory. Later, I started my PhD in computing with a French Professor. However at that time you needed a Spanish PhD Advisor to get your PhD. Therefore, I asked Fernando Orejas, when he arrived to the FIB, just graduated, if he wanted to be my advisor. He accepted and helped me a lot.

FIB started with third cycle courses, i.e., doctoral courses. Just think that at that point it was necessary to train new professors. Therefore, they started reading Computing PhD Thesis. Ramon López de Mántaras was the first student who became a doctor at FIB. I was the second one.

During the academic year 1977-1978, the second cycle courses started. All along the eighties the Barcelona School of Informatics eventually taught all the cycles, first, second and third, from undergraduate to PhD. The first year that the School offered a first year course in Computer Science, a large number of students came to the FIB and started a computing career from the beginning.

The start of the graduate courses was a bit chaotic, with problems of teaching space (or the lack of it), not enough teaching staff ...etc and with some tensions, also. However, they were also very exciting and creative moments. We believed that Computing was a discipline by itself and we wanted to fight for it. Sometimes the environment was not very welcoming, but here we are and I feel very happy about it. Personally, I think we did it!. The Barcelona School of Informatics is a reference in the UPC and the Software Department (LSI) is one of the basic departments at the School.
No, later. First FIB was created with some internal departments. Three of them became part of LSI: Computing Theory (IT), Computer programming (PC) and Information Systems (SI). The Software Department, LSI was officially founded in 1987 and it was considered independent from the FIB, even though the Barcelona School of Informatics would continue being the School with more teaching load from our Department. At the beginning and with Fèlix Saltor as a department director, LSI had to create a new set of rules to manage itself. It was structured into five sections: Computer Graphics, Computing Theory, Artificial Intelligence and Programming and Information Systems. Nowadays everything has changed, now the Department has more researchers working and it is organized in eleven research groups.

I belong to the Software Engineering for Information Systems Research Group (GESSI). Our group works in many fields of Software Engineering, with particular emphasis on procurement and implementation of COTS components, requirements engineering, and construction of quality models for software domains. Software process modelling and enactment. We are also focusing in some particular kinds of software components and packages, remarkably ERP systems and container libraries and in some particular domains, as e-learning systems and software for mobile devices. Now, we are also very interested in software as services.
Well, when the groups were created I was working as a Vice-Chancellor of UPC. My agenda was pretty full and Xavier Franch was a person who had been with me from the beginning. He had fought for our research lines and he had shown his value more than enough. At that time he was more focused on research than I was. Therefore, we thought he was the right person for the position and now I think we did it the right thing.
I have been Vice-Chancellor twice, before and after being the Dean of the Barcelona School of Informatics. My first period as a Vice-Chancellor belongs to the years 1982-1986 with Gabriel Ferrater as UPC Chancellor. That was the time when the departments were created and the building of the new Barcelona campus, the Campus Nord was decided and slowly started. After that, I worked as the School Dean for six years, quite a long period of time, from 1992 until 1998. During these six years the new curricula (1991) were implemented, new management and academic regulations were introduced and the Campus Nord was finally opened. Finally, my last period as a Vice-Chancellor spans from 1998 to 2002. In this last position I worked with a very good team and I consider it a really pleasant time when the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya became more relevant abroad.
As always, I love novelty and I have a tendency towards the new aspects of Software Engineering. Now I am really interested in Software as a service. In fact, our research group is member of the European platform on software services and engineering, NESSI, and the Spanish one, INES. These platforms aim to establish connections between the companies and research groups in a certain domain; in this case it will be software and services.

I have been very interested in creating a very powerful research group on software engineering, and thanks to Dr. Xavier Franch I have seen such an objective attained. Now I would love that the professional conditions for those who stay at the University were not as hard as they are, so that our PhD Students did not feel the business economical temptation too early. The programme that we teach is closely related to what a Computer Engineer would do at a company. Therefore, sometimes companies take from us our researchers before they finish their PhD. This situation has a positive aspect, in contrast: it means that we are working on what is going on the computing world. However, sometimes it meant to have to say goodbye to very valuable people.

On the other hand, it would also be interesting that Spanish companies, as they do in other countries, considered research as a vital asset and that they collaborated with us. Well, what I would love is to see that what I helped to create became consolidated with a high level of stability, creativity and competitiveness.

I believe that software has a very clear future. Long live to software!

Think that software is and it will be everywhere, in little electrical devices, in many everyday actions ...etc. Therefore, I hope we go on educating people good enough to develop high quality software.

Sometimes, I am not sure if the actual computer languages are the language wthat will bring about all the future new technologies. Not being sure about that, I feel a bit of excitement. Maybe computer science could live a conceptual revolution as Physics did when Quantum Mechanics or Relativity appeared. Who knows? I definitely don't know! However, I am looking forward to following the computer science evolution to see what happens. Yes, long life to soft!

ilapuente@lsi.upc.edu