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I did the same with my mum's stacks of paper tape PL/I programs. At one point I tried to build an automated reader that would interface with my BBC B, but that

by pacaro 7y ago

I did the same with my mum's stacks of paper tape PL/I programs. At one point I tried to build an automated reader that would interface with my BBC B, but that took me longer than transcribing by hand did. I remember being surprised at the time just how quickly I learned to read papertape, just having the tape in my left hand with my thumb at the current position and writing the character with my right hand, shimmy the tape, next character

tpmx 7y ago
Neat! I was going through this during a few years after I had just gotten a handed down ZX81 from a relative some time around 1984, at the age of 7 or so. I still remember that this relative sold the computer to my parents for 400 SEK (~$40). Pretty good "investment" in my career, I've gotta say. (They also, while not being super well paid as municipal workers also sprung for two more computers for me - one 8086 PC in ~89 and one 80486 PC in ~93. So thankful. These things were so expensive back then, probably at least 1.5x a monthly salary after taxes.)