3 ms·
where did you think punch cards came from? you know, the punch cards that we use to represent the first computer programs? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punch
by segmondy 7mo ago
where did you think punch cards came from? you know, the punch cards that we use to represent the first computer programs?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punched_card https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punched_card. read the precursor section.
Basile Bouchon developed the control of a loom by punched holes in paper tape in 1725. The design was improved by his assistant Jean-Baptiste Falcon and by Jacques Vaucanson.[5] Although these improvements controlled the patterns woven, they still required an assistant to operate the mechanism.
In 1804 Joseph Marie Jacquard demonstrated a mechanism to automate loom operation. A number of punched cards were linked into a chain of any length. Each card held the instructions for shedding (raising and lowering the warp) and selecting the shuttle for a single pass.[6]
- mitthrowaway2 7mo agoSince you asked: That's exactly where I thought punch cards come from.
- srean 7mo agoIndeed. To help debug the occasional 'dropped all the cards on the floor' accident, was the diagonal stripe across the side, after the cards have been stacked right. This was used for computers for sure, not sure about the Jacquard looms. With complete freedom in addressing (raising) any subset of the warps, these looms were very expressive. My favorite are multi shaft looms. In a k-shaft loom you can only define k elementary subsets of all the warps. Makes for more interesting problem solving instances and mathematical structure.