@Peter
Thanks again (and again to Ashraf!)!
You even managed to make this clear and helpful answer fit in with DoYouClone – very well done!
Thanks for the clear advice; now I have what to think about.
The $300 program was really simple, so early in the computer days that it gave a businessman a way to make some $60,000.
The program gave tables with the interest on different dollar amounts at different interest rates for each day of the year (two versions – a 360 day year, and a 365 day year).
The businessman printed a thousand copies of a book with all the tables, day by day, and sold them for $60 to banks that used them to calculate the interest a person would have to pay on a loan composed of units, tens, hundreds, thousands, etc.
Again, a thousand thanks!
(Maybe some day I’ll tell you what I did with one of the beginning microprocessors, much more interesting..)