Ancestors

Written by media archaeology lab on 2024-12-19 at 18:37

just in case you've got an excess of punch cards and a lack of Christmas decor...

=> View attached media | View attached media

=> More informations about this toot | More toots from mediaarchaeologylab@post.lurk.org

Written by AI6YR Ben on 2024-12-19 at 18:39

@mediaarchaeologylab LOL I grew up with the only paper in the house being old punch cards, because my mom used to code them for her job.

=> More informations about this toot | More toots from ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org

Written by dr_a on 2024-12-19 at 19:45

@ai6yr @mediaarchaeologylab I almost got in trouble once for leaving a pile of punch cards at the front of the classroom for a prof. I may have triggered a traumatic flashback.

=> More informations about this toot | More toots from dr_a@mastodon.social

Written by AI6YR Ben on 2024-12-19 at 20:07

@dr_a @mediaarchaeologylab

(flashback to 1950, when prof was a student)

"Hi professor! Here's my homework... I worked on it all night!" (slips on floor) "WHOOPS! AWWW CRUD! I DROPPED THE ENTIRE STACK!!! 😭 "

=> More informations about this toot | More toots from ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org

Written by Paul_IPv6 on 2024-12-19 at 20:40

@ai6yr @dr_a @mediaarchaeologylab

ooh! floor sort!

you only do one of those before you learn to make a diagonal marker line across the top of the deck. so much faster than trying to read sequence/card numbers.

=> More informations about this toot | More toots from paul_ipv6@infosec.exchange

Written by Bill Ricker on 2024-12-19 at 21:24

@paul_ipv6 @ai6yr @dr_a @mediaarchaeologylab

this is one reason certain early languages reserved card columns 73-80 for sequence numbers, or had leading line numbers.

an offline card sorting machine could reorder a dropped deck semi-automatically.

In 1978 I was paid to operate such a machine since my time on it cost less than the IBM 370 (maybe already a 3033?) SORT command after loading a deck to disk, and tomorrow was soon enough.

=> More informations about this toot | More toots from n1vux@mastodon.radio

Written by llewelly on 2024-12-19 at 21:32

@n1vux @paul_ipv6 @ai6yr @dr_a @mediaarchaeologylab

I think this was in fortran until fortran95 ?

=> More informations about this toot | More toots from llewelly@sauropods.win

Written by Bill Ricker on 2024-12-19 at 21:38

@llewelly @paul_ipv6 @ai6yr @dr_a @mediaarchaeologylab

I'm not sure of when/how it was phased out, but yes, FORTRAN ii, iv, G/H, 68 had reserved columns to the right, and COBOL to the left. (Fortran had numeric STATEMENT LABELs to the left, sequence to the right, so LABELs weren't required to be sequential numbers. I suspect COBOL's dual use left numbers were required to be sequential?)

=> More informations about this toot | More toots from n1vux@mastodon.radio

Written by Bill Ricker on 2024-12-19 at 21:41

@llewelly @paul_ipv6 @ai6yr @dr_a @mediaarchaeologylab

{ I did very little COBOL. Helped two friends with their Survey of Languages homework, without taking the class myself (I had a used copy of an IBM 702 hardbound manual which included short COBOL tutorial! which was sufficient to advise on a HELLO WORLD assignment) and for work in 1980ish ^wrote^ two copy-pasta lines of COBOL when adjusting a DB schema. }

=> More informations about this toot | More toots from n1vux@mastodon.radio

Toot

Written by Paul_IPv6 on 2024-12-19 at 21:45

@n1vux @llewelly @ai6yr @dr_a @mediaarchaeologylab

i learned COBOL at the same time i was learning C/UNIX.

my experience was:

COBOL: spend 10 minutes thinking about logic, 4 hours typing, 4 hours correcting syntax errors before it finally compiles. 10 minutes debugging after it compiles, then it works.

C: spend 10 minutes thinking about logic, 30 minutes typing, program compiles just fine. core dumps as soon as i run it. debug/type. repeat the compile/dump/debug for 4 hours. then it works.

=> More informations about this toot | More toots from paul_ipv6@infosec.exchange

Descendants

Written by Bill Ricker on 2024-12-19 at 22:01

@paul_ipv6 @llewelly @ai6yr @dr_a @mediaarchaeologylab

heh. sounds right.

on the DEC-10, our DBMS and our green-screen key-to-disk package both included code generators for COBOL so changing form and schema produced flawless new Data Sections, so I only needed to clone the If good then copy else error statement for appropriate data type when inserting a new field 17A. Easy peasy.

0 time debugging, production change ready on first compile.

=> More informations about this toot | More toots from n1vux@mastodon.radio