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Programming with Punched Cards (2005) [pdf]

columbia.edu

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Re: Programming with Punched Cards (2005) [pdf]

#11

Post by bootload »

"So now I dug out my pad of coding forms and wrote one line on it, this time including the missing comma. I took it back to Maria and asked her to make me a new card."

Baby programmer. As an undergrad we were thrown into the deep-end and given those green/white programming sheets, pointed to the computer centre with its rows of 029 keypunch machines and let loose. This is what a keypunch looks like up close: https://www.flickr.com/photos/bootload/247968267/

While we had a micro-computer lab, we still had to use the Cyber mainframe to program with FORTRAN for data crunching map data. You really worked hard on your code. One mistake, one mistyped character and your printout was all debug. A year into my first startup, ten years later I missed the break-up of this machine. [0]

If I look over on my bookshelf, I still have a couple of decks. That's what I remember most. Card decks and rubber bands. Fun times.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CDC_Cyber

Re: Programming with Punched Cards (2005) [pdf]

#12

Post by zoom6628 »

Great read. I learnt to program at high school(mid 70s) on hand punched cards (paper-clips are amazing tools!) in Portran. Took to local bank each lunchtime to get processed. Dabbled with Algol/W learnt the same way and then at uni used punch machines to learn COBOL. One of our finals was to design, code, punch, debug a solution - we got 4 days to do it which means finding typos, logic errors, and design errors and elimintating them all with only 4 re-runs (1981)! Today i would re-compile 4x in the blink of an eye and my code is not more reliable than way back then. My first job was as a programmer at NCR and re used a line editor - such joy to be able to change and compile without getting up from my desk. Handling 200Mb disk drives the size of washing machines is another story though.

The 'art' of desk checking is invaluable to some of us while others prefer the 'suck it and see', or the 'push and pray' approaches. They all have their place, but if one is isnt a math geek then desk checks are the best way to 'prove' out the code and find bugs.

Re: Programming with Punched Cards (2005) [pdf]

#13

Post by kabdib »

A course with mandatory use of punchcards was the only CS course I ever did poorly in. It was IBM assembly language at a community college, and I just couldn't deal. I'd built my own computer a few years earlier, and going to punchcards -- where you couldn't even delete a mistake -- was miserable.

Later, to avoid other courses with punchcards, I used a combination of Emacs at MIT-AI over the Arpanet, a terminal emulator written in Z-80 assembly and a DEC-10 at my co-op job. It was worth driving 30 miles to pick up printouts to avoid punching cards and waiting hours for my programs to turn around.

Re: Programming with Punched Cards (2005) [pdf]

#15

Post by cpr »

Great story!

Reminds me if the time I was using the Naval Electronics Labs' (San Diego) mainframe as part of an Explorer post, semi-officially during high school (1971-ish), and got ambitious, writing a compiler in the assembly macro language. Wrote it up on the punch card forms, several thousand lines of code. Submitted it to the punch card crew, and got it back several days later with a rather strong note about what project to charge it to. Turns out it was quite expensive to punch several thousand cards and they expected our group to be submitting little programs in Fortran, not monster assembly decks.

Oh well, somehow it was glossed over. They ended up hiring me that summer to do some systems programming so I guess they weren't too mad.

Re: Programming with Punched Cards (2005) [pdf]

#16

Post by Taniwha »

zoom6628 wrote: post #12

Great read. I learnt to program at high school(mid 70s) on hand punched cards (paper-clips are amazing tools!) in Portran. Took to local bank each lunchtime to get processed. Dabbled with Algol/W learnt the same way and then at uni used punch machines to learn COBOL. One of our finals was to design, code, punch, debug a solution - we got 4 days to do it which means finding typos, logic errors, and design errors and e…

I could have written this (but 5 years earlier) you're a kiwi right? I got started p[rogramming when someone gave me 100 PORTRAN cards on a scouts trip to Databank

I went thru Uni Comp Sci mostly using cards for everything, we all shared card punches, even today an 029 punch has a 'feel' to it I haven't forgotten

Re: Programming with Punched Cards (2005) [pdf]

#17

Post by Taniwha »

MaggieL wrote: post #6
beezle wrote: post #2

Memories...only dealt with cards for a couple of years, often just for archival. It was always great fun putting a couple cards of your roommate's deck out of order. And still have an EOF card as a bookmark in my old COBOL book

Out of order could be fun. But backwards or upside-down was even more fun. (Clip all the corners of the card so it won't be noticed.) More fun could be had with card patches (used for corrections) and card saws (used for clearing the worse jams -- no, I'm not kidding.) The best card patches were transparent or conductive tape, because they'd be read differently by optical vs. brush-contact readers, and many shops had…

some times the chain in a chain printer would break, they were reputed to be able to launch themselves thru the sheet steel of the printer's housing and embed themselves in a wall .... no one stood beside them

Re: Programming with Punched Cards (2005) [pdf]

#20

Post by todd8 »

That's a nice article. I started programming in 1967 so reading the article and seeing pictures of all of the machines even brought back memories of the unique and slightly pleasant smell of the freshly punched cards as they came out of a 029 keypunch!
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