On Sun, 2005-02-27 at 08:47 +0100, Nico de Jong wrote:
> From: "Fred Cisin" <cisin_at_xenosoft.com>
> Subject: Re: origins of IBM 3740 diskette format
>
>
> > Yes, but,...
> >
> > In FORTRAN, columns 73 - 80 are reserved for housekeeping, such as
> > resequencing dropped decks.
> > THerefore, the information content in FORTRAN could be said to be 72 bytes
> > per card, NOT 80.
> >
>
> That was the same for IBM (DOS) Assembler, Cobol (73-80) and RPG-II (column
> 1-5 IIRC).
>
> Nico
>
JCL too. It had something to do with how the 701(!) read in data, into
two 36-bit words... I think most S/360 languages did it this way.
Some big guy in S/360 development mentioned this in the System/360 talk
at CHM - video is (was?) availible at computerhistory.org.
He said it during a slide with the heading "JCL - worst language
ever" :)
--
Tore S Bekkedal <toresbe_at_ifi.uio.no>
Received on Mon Feb 28 2005 - 12:22:17 GMT