Look what I found...

University: Punch card for FORTRAN. Batch process get your print output. Edit, shuffle and resubmit. Repeat.

Me too (WATFOR)... you forgot the "drop on floor and accidentally stomp cards" part.

I remember running back to the computer centre between lectures to fetch print out only to find it hadn't compiled due to a silly syntax error. Then there would be no vacant card punch, then late for next lecture.

JimboZA:

University: Punch card for FORTRAN. Batch process get your print output. Edit, shuffle and resubmit. Repeat.

Me too (WATFOR)... you forgot the "drop on floor and accidentally stomp cards" part.

That's what the sequence numbers in columns 73-80 are for. You just put it in a card sorter :slight_smile:

JimboZA:
I remember running back to the computer centre between lectures to fetch print out only to find it hadn't compiled due to a silly syntax error. Then there would be no vacant card punch, then late for next lecture.

That's what an exacto knife and scotch tape are for. :slight_smile: In addition, I recall occasionally having to program in Pascal on an 027 card punch when the 029 card punches were busy, and having to multi-punch things like semicolons.

liudr:
There is a panel in my work place that someone kept. It's got hundreds of jumper wires on a matrix of holes. He said it was a program someone made. That stuff IS older than punch cards.

Not sure about the model numbers and other specifics, these were just slightly before my time but I do think I remember them being wheeled out the door. I did have an assignment for a few weeks once that involved operating a card sorter. If a jam occurred, it could create quite a mess in a hurry.

Jack,

That looks like it came out the same era as the one at my work place. Must be pretty old. My only experience with punch cards was using them as note cards and bookmarks.

liudr:
Jack,

That looks like it came out the same era as the one at my work place. Must be pretty old. My only experience with punch cards was using them as note cards and bookmarks.

Liudr, yeah, when I started working they had a "Tabulating Department" that was full of that equipment with those plugboards. Never became familiar with it as the writing was on the wall and the mainframes were beginning to occupy the next room over. This is the only souvenir that I managed.

I have these pictures:

liudr:
I have these pictures:

We would do well to remember those next time we get stuck debugging code. I sure wouldn't want to debug that thing!

Those plug in wired matrix panel were what we used at a NASA tracking station in the 60s to configure the equipment for the next satellite, it actually worked very well.
We just had a rack with one panel for each satellite and the main components were connected in a couple of seconds.

looks just like my code! :slight_smile:

:stuck_out_tongue:

I was trying to find a spaghetti monster image on google to parallel the panel but can't find one that is comfortable to look at.

That picture of the back of the board looks like when a cat has got hold of a ball of wool my wife has been knitting with ( we dont have cats any more )

they (job search provider) were still handing out floppy discs 3 years ago! i had a hell of a time making my dvd drive read it! lol

I must admit though, when we used to load a new game on the Sinclair "computer" , from a an audio cassette, ones imagination run wild with 5 minutes of modem chirps and whistles until it loaded .

That spaghetti board reminds me of grad school. We had an IBM 1620 that was kind of like our own PC that we could do whatever we pleased with. The IBM reader-punches were programmed with a plug-in card very much like that spaghetti board. If you changed that board, you could punch and read cards that had a completely different coding from normal. I carefully keyed in a very long program before I noticed that the last user had not removed their custom programming board. Doh!

Boffin1:
I must admit though, when we used to load a new game on the Sinclair "computer" , from a an audio cassette, ones imagination run wild with 5 minutes of modem chirps and whistles until it loaded .

Yeah, I have a few APPLE ][ cassettes in my vintage computing collection. I remember that old time (80's).

liudr:
I was trying to find a spaghetti monster image on google to parallel the panel but can't find one that is comfortable to look at.

You're not denigrating His Noodly Appendage, are you? :fearful:

I didn't know FSM is a deity! I thought that was just a depiction of disorder :slight_smile: Some interesting reading.