For many years, I kept around a plug-board labelled "COBOL INTERPRETER",
just to prove that a COBOL interpreter was possible :-)
notice the "emoticon" at the end of my original post. I was trying to
convey knowledge of the misinterpretation, and the humor of it.
On Sat, 12 Dec 2015, Charles Anthony wrote:
The plug board could control which columns of the punch card appeared in
which columns of the printout; it served as a simple FORMAT program. The
COBOL interpreter plugboard rearranged the COBOL source on the punch card
to a more readable style on the printer.
Exactly.
That's why there was a plug-board kept around on a shelf preprogrammed for
the desired formatting for COBOL programs.
However, being for an "INTERPRETER", not a "407 ACCOUNTING MACHINE" (used
for generating printouts from decks of cards), the plug-board controlled
the column positions where the material was printed on the card, not
printout.
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred ci...@xenosoft.com
