John wrote...
> Did they look like the card about half way down this page?
>
> <http://www.cs.uiowa.edu/~jones/cards/collection/i-optical.html>
>
> The EduSystems from DEC (PDP-8) supported a similar card. See:
>
> <http://dundas-mac.caltech.edu/~dundas/retro/cards.html>
Odd. I grabbed one of my 2000/Access TSB cards, and it's not either of those
two. It has characteristics of both. There are no black clock marks for
example. My recollection was partially incorrect, there is in single mark to
make for a statement. You have to write out each statement. I'll describe
the card:
The first four columns are only the numbers 0-9 and are for marking a BASIC
statement number from 0001 to 9999. Then there are 36 columns, each column
can be a single mark for &,-,0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9. In the boxes for 1-9 for a
column, in small print next to the number, are all the alphabetic
characters, three per box. For example, the 1 box has small print A,J,/ and
the 2 box has B,K,S. I do remember that to get the number in that column you
marked the box simply. To get one of the three alphabetic characters, I
believe you marked one of the top three (in order) of &,-,0 AND the number
box containing the symbol in order. For example, in the 2 box, to get a B I
think you would mark & and 2 in the same column. But looking at the card,
there is also a small print symbol directly under the number. I don't recall
how that was selected. And now I notice some of the boxes have symbols on
the right. Hummmm I will have to figure out just how this was coded when I
get the optical mark reader restored!
Re: printing more cards
> I don't see why not.
Now that I have one of the cards in front of me, my high school obviously
had them printed on their own... as the printing says "SLUH" (St. Louis
University High) on the card. I should get a quote from my local printer
just out of curiousity. Wonder if they'd have blank cards, or if I'd have to
order blanks from somewhere and deliver them to the printer.
I will try to scan the card later tonight and put it up for the curious to
see.
Jay West
Received on Mon Feb 14 2005 - 20:05:53 GMT