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I learnt programming on punched cards. As a student, we were limited in the number of cards we were given for free. I remember cannibalising older stacks for c
by sriram_malhar 7y ago
I learnt programming on punched cards. As a student, we were limited in the number of cards we were given for free.
I remember cannibalising older stacks for cards containing (fortran IV) statements like "DO 100, I = 1, N", and "100 CONTINUE". My first exposure to reusable code :)
- Symbiote 7y agoHow much did they cost? Even special cardboard seems like it ought to be very cheap.
- sriram_malhar 7y agoI have no idea. This was India in 1981. There was this "general knowledge" that it was expensive so I never even bothered to find out! Esp. since my beginning programs were well within 300 lines, and the rest I could get by using cards from friends. I never thought of this way until now, but we were trading cards: "Does anyone have a 'FORMAT INT2' card"? I'm not sure it built any character!
- Taniwha 7y agoYup, we did the same, I wrote my first program 50 years ago this year, on perforated punch cards, they cost 1c each (in NZ), that paid for processing, we would share and reuse cards exactly like this