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-   -   Back in my day we programmed with a stick and clay, and liked it (https://www.mersenneforum.org/showthread.php?t=27063)

chris2be8 2021-08-05 15:21

Back in my day we programmed with a stick and clay, and liked it
 
[FONT="Arial Black"][COLOR="SeaGreen"]Note: This thread was spun off from:[/COLOR][/FONT] [URL="https://www.mersenneforum.org/showthread.php?t=26716"]New cryptocurrency causing disk drive shortage[/URL]

Think how many punch cards that would be.

(It show my age that I can say I've used punch cards. And paper tape.)

Chris

EdH 2021-08-05 15:26

[QUOTE=chris2be8;584903]Think how many punch cards that would be.

(It show my age that I can say I've used punch cards. And paper tape.)

Chris[/QUOTE]But, do you know whether dirt was discovered or invented? I don't think I've ever used cards or tape for their intended purpose. I started out with cassette tape.

Uncwilly 2021-08-05 15:33

[QUOTE=chris2be8;584903]Think how many punch cards that would be.[/QUOTE]I found this
[QUOTE=https://www.quora.com/How-many-80-column-paper-punch-cards-would-be-necessary-to-store-1-terabyte-of-data-How-much-space-would-be-required-for-the-cards-and-how-much-would-they-weigh]Anyway to work it out, a terabyte is 1*10^12 bytes which translates to 1.25 * 10^10 cards, or 12.5 billion cards. This would take up 1,205,467 cubic feet of space and weigh 34,097.5 tons.[/QUOTE]Punch cards were never really used to their full potential. There is maybe 10% optimization that could be done while not changing the structure of the holes.

PhilF 2021-08-05 15:45

[QUOTE=chris2be8;584903]Think how many punch cards that would be.

(It show my age that I can say I've used punch cards. And paper tape.)

Chris[/QUOTE]
I used paper tape in junior high. There was a teletype terminal in the office that students could use to connect to a remote mainframe somewhere. It is how I learned my first programming language (BASIC).

It connected to the mainframe through a 110 baud acoustic modem attached to the side of it. You dialed the number then placed the handset into the cradle. I wonder how long it would take to transmit those 12.5B punch cards at 110 baud?

Looks like I'm showing my age too...

xilman 2021-08-05 16:37

[QUOTE=PhilF;584906]I used paper tape in junior high. There was a teletype terminal in the office that students could use to connect to a remote mainframe somewhere. It is how I learned my first programming language (BASIC).

It connected to the mainframe through a 110 baud acoustic modem attached to the side of it. You dialed the number then placed the handset into the cradle. I wonder how long it would take to transmit those 12.5B punch cards at 110 baud?

Looks like I'm showing my age too...[/QUOTE]You are but a callow youth. I was using cards and tape at university when doing my DPhil research.


Answering your question is a matter of simple arithmetic. 110 baud is 10 bytes per second to an adequate approximation. 1TB is 10[SUP]12[/SUP] bytes to an equally adequate approximation. There are 10[SUP]11[/SUP] seconds in 3000 years, again to an adequate approximation.

storm5510 2021-08-07 00:50

[QUOTE=EdH;584904]...I don't think I've ever used cards or tape for their intended purpose. I started out with cassette tape.[/QUOTE]

The first time I saw punch cards was in 1972. My eldest brother was taking a course at a very small school just off Monument Circle in Indianapolis. There was one computer which took up most of a 25 foot square room. Anyone walking by outside could see it through a large picture window. I think the language was COBOL. I remember clearly my brother telling me, "Do not ever drop a card stack."

Chuck 2021-08-07 02:25

1 Attachment(s)
[QUOTE=storm5510;585029]I remember clearly my brother telling me, "Do not ever drop a card stack."[/QUOTE]

No problem, we'll just run the cards through the sorter (you DID remember to punch sequence numbers into columns 73-80 I hope).

xilman 2021-08-07 08:01

[QUOTE=Chuck;585035]No problem, we'll just run the cards through the sorter (you DID remember to punch sequence numbers into columns 73-80 I hope).[/QUOTE]
You did remember to increment the sequence numbers by 10 or 100 so you could insert new cards I hope.

BASIC programmers learned that very early on.

slandrum 2021-08-07 15:45

[QUOTE=xilman;585061]You did remember to increment the sequence numbers by 10 or 100 so you could insert new cards I hope.

BASIC programmers learned that very early on.[/QUOTE]

The RENUMBER command from BASIC doesn't work so well on punch cards.

It was also fun when you wanted to insert a lot of code in one place.

kriesel 2021-08-07 15:46

[QUOTE=slandrum;585104]It was also fun when you wanted to insert a lot of code in one place.[/QUOTE]Use call.

slandrum 2021-08-07 15:50

[QUOTE=kriesel;585106]Use call.[/QUOTE]

You mean GOSUB (at least in the basic variants I used, and there was a very small limit to nesting). CALL was used when you needed to call directly to machine code.


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