XPost: alt.comp.os.windows-11, comp.text.pdf, alt.comp.os.windows-10   
   From: nospam@needed.invalid   
      
   On Tue, 3/4/2025 11:28 PM, Don_from_AZ wrote:   
   > Peter Flynn  writes:   
   >   
   >> On 04/03/2025 15:23, Tim Slattery wrote:   
   >> [snip]   
   >>> A box of Hollerith (or IBM) cards held 2,000 cards. Each FORTRAN   
   >>> statement would go on a separate card, so 2,000 FORTRAN  statements   
   >>> is right. And if you dropped your box and spilled your cards, good   
   >>> luck getting them back in the correct order!   
   >>   
   >> In my college, the computing centre had a card sorter, which was huge   
   >> and stood on cast-iron lion's feet which someone had painted gold :-)   
   >> But of course it only worked if your program statements or data lines   
   >> (cards) were numbered. You only drop a box of cards once.   
   >>   
   >> (You may hear the voice of experience there :-)   
   >>   
   >> Peter   
   >>   
   > I worked for Honeywell at a WWMMCCS site (World-Wide Military Command   
   > and Control System) at the Washington Navy Yard as a tech support   
   > guy. This was about 1973. I created new boot decks for the Honeywell 635   
   > as needed, with new patch cards or new configurations. I was carrying a   
   > tray of punched cards to the computer room, one hand on each end of the   
   > card tray. I tried to hook the door handle with my little finger to pull   
   > it open and lost my grip on the tray; cards all over the floor!   
   > Embarrasing to say the least, and I didn't even try to put them back in   
   > order, just punched out a new deck.   
   >   
      
   You could put numbers in column 72.   
      
   https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/58/Fortra   
   CardPROJ039.agr.jpg/960px-FortranCardPROJ039.agr.jpg   
      
   You generally also need some spacing between card numbers, like use 10,20,30   
   then if you added a card it could be 25, then a card between 20 and 25, could   
   be card 23. You needed a means to support program edits.   
      
   If you needed a program label line number, that went on the left   
   of the card, while anti-spill card numbering went on the right of the card.   
   This is an example of an infinite loop, and if I spilled these two cards   
   on the floor, 25 comes before 30 and we're all good. The 100 on the left   
   is a program label.   
      
   100   GOTO 100                             25   
         CONTINUE                             30   
      
   For small student programs, nobody bothered with column 72. For larger   
   projects, it was considered a necessary evil.   
      
   The easiest way to get the cards numbered, would be to copy the deck to   
   the output punch and have column 72 content added automatically. I don't   
   think I ever used the output punch on a mainframe. Maybe my QDGS deck   
   had column 72, because that was a box-full (2000 cards for some purpose).   
   I don't recollect where that deck came from -- maybe someone had it   
   punched for me. The output came in a box (the Ice Queen probably put   
   the 2000 cards in a box, after they were punched). The ice Queen was   
   the emotionless computer operator, she wore a heavy sweater year round,   
   because it was like 50F inside the computer room. I'd been on a tour   
   of that computer room, and it's like working in the flash freezer   
   at the fish plant. It is COLD in there. That's why she was the   
   Ice Queen, as she had mastery over ice, and the ice could not get to her.   
   Nothing got to her. I don't think the expression on her face, changed   
   even once. She didn't even have a name! That's how emotionless she was.   
      
      Paul   
      
   --- SoupGate-DOS v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)