4 ms·
> into the virtual punch card reader as someone to young to have seen punch cards live this sounds really strange.
by chefkoch 5y ago
> into the virtual punch card reader
as someone to young to have seen punch cards live this sounds really strange.
- anonymousiam 5y agoYou can still create (virtual) punched cards on Linux. Just install the bsdgames package and run bcd. I guess punched cards are such a novelty that the bcd program belongs in "games". Note that bcd, ppt, and morse are all in the same binary. ppt simulates punched paper tape and morse will encode/decode International Morse Code. I actually ran these yesterday when I was explaining some computer history to my 19 year old son.
- skissane 5y ago> You can still create (virtual) punched cards on Linux. Just install the bsdgames package and run bcd. You can still create virtual punched cards on Linux by using the virtual punched card driver in the Linux kernel (which only works on IBM mainframes). Arguably a more realistic virtualisation than bsdgames since rather than just being a novelty it can actually be used to do something useful (such as integrate Linux applications with legacy IBM mainframe software when both are running in separate VMs under the IBM z/VM hypervisor - you can connect two VMs such that cards sent to one VM’s card punch appear in the other VM’s card reader.)
- retrac 5y agoIf you think about it, it is no weirder than Linux users talking about TTYs when no one has connected an actual teletype to a Linux machine other than for a laugh. The basic IO device becomes an abstraction that hangs around. Fun fact: you also boot Linux on zSeries by feeding a kernel image into a virtual punch card reader!