Brings back memories. I wrote a MIXAL assembler/simulator to run on an IBM 11/30 (actually, a clone - the General Automation 18/30), back in the mid 70s. Abou

Brings back memories. I wrote a MIXAL assembler/simulator to run on an IBM 11/30 (actually, a clone - the General Automation 18/30), back in the mid 70s. About 7000 lines of 11/30 assembly, all on punched cards. And yes, I used the trick of running a marker across the stack of cards, diagonally, so it was really obvious when something was out of place. Don't remember if I put sequence numbers in columns 73-80, though the computer lab did have an ancient card sorting machine I used a few times. I was really lucky back then - I was a high school sophomore who was given free rein of the local college's small computer lab. I got really good at keying in the IPL (initial program load) sequence on the front-panel keys, triggering a read of the IPL card from the card reader, which then would boot off the Winchester drive. I got to show my daughter an IBM 029 card punch at the Seattle Living Computers Museum a few years ago. Don't think she was too impressed :-)