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I worked as a paid programmer on card systems in 1970. I'm not saying things were better then. Give me C++ and Python any day over Assembler. However, there wa

I worked as a paid programmer on card systems in 1970. I'm not saying things were better then. Give me C++ and Python any day over Assembler. However, there was something magical about being able to step through your program one instruction at a time using a switch on the control panel, or being able to display and modify the memory with lights & toggle switches. It was like you were reaching right into the soul of the machine, in a mysterious world. Compilations were so expensive (40 min. for a 4,000-card program) that we would often patch the binary card decks to squeeze one more test. We had to segment our programs into "overlays" that would load consecutively, and re-use the same limited memory locations. What a pain :o) Having dealt with index registers in Assembler, C pointers were a cinch.

woofyman 12y ago
It was an awesome feeling when my card deck compiled and produced the correct output the very first time !
nitrogen 12y ago
"patch the binary card decks" Is this the origin of the word "patch" in CS usage? As in, literally patching paper? Or does it trace further back to patching clothing?
- Johnythree 12y ago
  No, I don't think so. Originally you programmed by plugging "Patch Cords" into field of jacks. So to edit a program, you would swap around a bunch of Patch cords. The term "patch cord" comes from old Telephone switch boards.
e12e 12y ago
Reminds me of: http://www.columbia.edu/cu/computinghistory/fisk.pdf http://www.columbia.edu/cu/computinghistory/fisk.pdf
- scrollaway 12y ago
  That was an incredibly moving and insightful story. Really well written. I feel like I'm one of today's ten thousand :)
- VLM 12y ago
  I enjoyed that story; my father could have written it, although at a large railroad as the setting. As per the very end of the story, lets just say it was into the 00s before we ran out of what seemed to be an infinite supply of bookmarks and art project stock paper. I distinctly remember as a kid watching the first star trek movie on TV on a VCR tape and making a shoebox sized model "Enterprise" out of many used punch cards and about a roll of scotch tape, although that was hardly the only art project or whatever using punch cards. I would say by the 90s the very concept of a punch card had pretty much disappeared from the general public conscious and general public people were mystified what my bookmarks were, what is that peculiar artifact I'm using as a bookmark?
- dang 12y ago
  Discussed at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8077739 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8077739.
bootload 12y ago
"However, there was something magical about being able to step through your program one instruction at a time using a switch on the control panel, or being able to display and modify the memory with lights & toggle switches." Access to the hardware. Would have killed for this as an undergrad, typing up 200 line FORTRAN programs via a IBM card punch type-writer. One mistake and you were back to the comp-centre to re-type of fix the card to resubmit the batch. ~ https://www.flickr.com/photos/bootload/tags/punchcard https://www.flickr.com/photos/bootload/tags/punchcard

woofyman 12y ago

It was an awesome feeling when my card deck compiled and produced the correct output the very first time !

nitrogen 12y ago

"patch the binary card decks" Is this the origin of the word "patch" in CS usage? As in, literally patching paper? Or does it trace further back to patching clothing?

Johnythree 12y ago
No, I don't think so. Originally you programmed by plugging "Patch Cords" into field of jacks. So to edit a program, you would swap around a bunch of Patch cords. The term "patch cord" comes from old Telephone switch boards.

e12e 12y ago

Reminds me of: http://www.columbia.edu/cu/computinghistory/fisk.pdf http://www.columbia.edu/cu/computinghistory/fisk.pdf

scrollaway 12y ago
That was an incredibly moving and insightful story. Really well written. I feel like I'm one of today's ten thousand :)
VLM 12y ago
I enjoyed that story; my father could have written it, although at a large railroad as the setting. As per the very end of the story, lets just say it was into the 00s before we ran out of what seemed to be an infinite supply of bookmarks and art project stock paper. I distinctly remember as a kid watching the first star trek movie on TV on a VCR tape and making a shoebox sized model "Enterprise" out of many used punch cards and about a roll of scotch tape, although that was hardly the only art project or whatever using punch cards. I would say by the 90s the very concept of a punch card had pretty much disappeared from the general public conscious and general public people were mystified what my bookmarks were, what is that peculiar artifact I'm using as a bookmark?
dang 12y ago
Discussed at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8077739 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8077739.

bootload 12y ago

"However, there was something magical about being able to step through your program one instruction at a time using a switch on the control panel, or being able to display and modify the memory with lights & toggle switches." Access to the hardware. Would have killed for this as an undergrad, typing up 200 line FORTRAN programs via a IBM card punch type-writer. One mistake and you were back to the comp-centre to re-type of fix the card to resubmit the batch. ~ https://www.flickr.com/photos/bootload/tags/punchcard https://www.flickr.com/photos/bootload/tags/punchcard