On Oct 19, 8:33, Stan Barr wrote:
> ard_at_p850ug1.demon.co.uk (Tony Duell) said:
> >
> > Also, many of us remember filling in a coding form, then either
punching
> > a card deck or having one punched, then handing it to the operator,
then
> > coming back to collect the output (normally error messages :-)). I
wonder
> > if people will even rememebr that went on in, say, 50 years time.
>
> I used to have to fill out coding forms, put them in the internal mail
> with a run request and get a printout in the mail a day or so later.
> It made debugging somewhat slow :-)
At school (secondary school, I suppose that's high school for Americans),
we used to fill out FORTRAN (even though we were writing ALGOL) coding
forms and hand them in, and get them back a week later. It taught the
value of dry-running a program :-)
When I worked at Edinburgh University in the mid-70's, our research unit
had punch operators who'd punch the cards, and I'd take the boxes up the
road about 3/4 mile and hand them in. Then they'd sit in a queue until the
operator fed them in, and we'd get the printout back later that day
(usually). I must have handled hundreds of thousands of punch cards, but
now I all I have are three empty metal trays and one card (and I only have
the card because someone sent it to me with a note on it a while ago).
Can anyone remember how many IBM cards fit in a box? A card is nominally 8
thou thick, and a tray is about 16.5" long internally, so it must be
something of the order of 2000.
Who remembers drawing a cross or a diagonal line on the top of the card
deck, so you had some chance of re-ordering the deck if someone dropped the
box?
Who remembers using a folded card (16 thou) to check the points on their
engine (nominally 15 thou)? Folded in three to check the spark plug gap
(nominally 25 thou)??
--
Pete Peter Turnbull
Network Manager
University of York
Received on Sat Oct 19 2002 - 06:09:00 BST