3 ms·
Yup..."back then" you would arrange all your cards in a shoebox and then take a marker and make a diagonal mark from top left to bottom right JUST IN CASE you d
by nervousvarun 10y ago
Yup..."back then" you would arrange all your cards in a shoebox and then take a marker and make a diagonal mark from top left to bottom right JUST IN CASE you dropped said shoebox on the way to class to turn in your homework/take home test. Without that mark there's no easy way to recreate the correct order of the punch cards.
Source: dad was an engineering major in the early 70s.
- kjs3 10y agoI was an engineering major in the mid 80s. You still goddamn well did mark your card deck. Wide tip sharpie, top left to bottom right. I think they retired the punches after my freshman year or the year after.
- punchthrowaway 10y agoThis comment is extremely interesting to me as my first instinct would be numbering the cards w marker. But it makes far more sense to draw a line on the edge for visual sorting.
- lettercarrier 10y agoAnd... you always kept your card decks until you graduated.
- donarb 10y agoThe first six columns of IBM cards used for COBOL programming had sequence numbers that could be used to validate that program lines were in order.
- joezydeco 10y agoI'm curious what % of HN readers have ever written a program with line numbers...
- Zardoz84 10y agoZX Spectrum +3 user here
- rurban 10y agoEven punch cards, but more teletype-style https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punched_tape https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punched_tape The punchcards were considered uncool then, the tape was much better.
- fratlas 10y agoOur highschool software teacher forced us to write at least one program in a language that used line numbers to give us perspective. Great teacher.
- flashman 10y agoI'm curious what percentage have never done so, but would still recognise: > 10 PRINT "HELLO WORLD" > 20 GOTO 10