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Well, there were both. Punched cards were used in computing centers for preparing batch mainframe jobs for submission. Punched tape was more a hobbyist thing,

Well, there were both. Punched cards were used in computing centers for preparing batch mainframe jobs for submission. Punched tape was more a hobbyist thing, as form of program storage and sharing, used in the era of early machines such as the Altair 8800. You can still buy a copy of Microsoft BASIC on punched tape if you need it! https://www.ebay.com/itm/196212300301 https://www.ebay.com/itm/196212300301

mbreese 3y ago
To add to your comment… I thought the use of paper tape was directly related to the teletypes (when used for I/O with a computer). Where the paper tape could operate as both an input and output mechanism, depending on if you wanted to input a program/text or save a program/text. Paper tape wasn’t a computer storage medium, as much as it was a teletype medium. In this way, the paper tape hijacked the interactive I/O mode on these early computers to supplant it with a stored format.
- nomadluap 3y ago
  I guess you could look at paper tape as a physical manifestation of redirecting terminal I/O to text files using > and < in the shell.
- HarHarVeryFunny 3y ago
  Interesting - I wasn't aware of that. When I first learnt to program (in PL/1) in the 70's it was on a punched card system, but I never used paper tape myself. So, was switching from keyboard to tape input, or from printer to tape output, done locally at the teletype, or could that be controlled by the computer it was attached to ? I guess this implies the paper tape format was basically just a dump/listing of sorts that might otherwise have been directed to the printer, and when used as an input this would then be read into a program (e.g. editor) that was really expecting keyboard (tty) input ?
  - mark-r 3y ago
    You could turn on the paper tape punch at any time, and it would record every character sent to the printer. Then you could load the tape into the reader and turn it on and it would act as if you were typing at maximum speed (a whole 10 characters per second!) I don't recall any way to control either function remotely.
mark-r 3y ago
Yes, in the early days of microcomputers teletypes were common, and paper tape was a part of that. I'm talking about the computers of the 1960's for example where interactive use was unheard of.

mbreese 3y ago

To add to your comment… I thought the use of paper tape was directly related to the teletypes (when used for I/O with a computer). Where the paper tape could operate as both an input and output mechanism, depending on if you wanted to input a program/text or save a program/text. Paper tape wasn’t a computer storage medium, as much as it was a teletype medium. In this way, the paper tape hijacked the interactive I/O mode on these early computers to supplant it with a stored format.

nomadluap 3y ago
I guess you could look at paper tape as a physical manifestation of redirecting terminal I/O to text files using > and < in the shell.
HarHarVeryFunny 3y ago
Interesting - I wasn't aware of that. When I first learnt to program (in PL/1) in the 70's it was on a punched card system, but I never used paper tape myself. So, was switching from keyboard to tape input, or from printer to tape output, done locally at the teletype, or could that be controlled by the computer it was attached to ? I guess this implies the paper tape format was basically just a dump/listing of sorts that might otherwise have been directed to the printer, and when used as an input this would then be read into a program (e.g. editor) that was really expecting keyboard (tty) input ?
- mark-r 3y ago
  You could turn on the paper tape punch at any time, and it would record every character sent to the printer. Then you could load the tape into the reader and turn it on and it would act as if you were typing at maximum speed (a whole 10 characters per second!) I don't recall any way to control either function remotely.

mark-r 3y ago

Yes, in the early days of microcomputers teletypes were common, and paper tape was a part of that. I'm talking about the computers of the 1960's for example where interactive use was unheard of.