On Tue, Dec 15, 2015 at 12:11 PM, Fred Cisin <ci...@xenosoft.com> wrote:
> I've only ever seen them called "12" and "11" for the top and next >>>> rows respectively. For example, the card code listing on the IBM 360 >>>> "green card" shows them that way (e.g., A is 12-1). >>>> >>> Same here. But it's not outside the range of possibility that *someone* >>> called them X and Y, although I don't know who did. Doug Jones doesn't >>> mention it. >>> >> > On Tue, 15 Dec 2015, Dave Wade wrote: > >> I have seen ICT punches labelled this way. There is one here where "X" and >> "Y" have been manually added. >> >> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keypunch#/media/File:Hand-operated_Card_Punch- >> 2.jpg >> I think the one I own is labelled.... >> > > In my experience, they were called 'X'/'Y', or "12"/"11", but there were > occasional other names, even "high"/"low". Since the cards were not > marked, people could come up with all sorts of other cockamamie choices. > > > Let's not forget the System/3 96-column cards. BA8421 (sort of like > >> 7-track mag tape), with a really wacky way to combine the columns to > make >> 8-bit bytes. >> > Univac, of course, had their own system with their double-45 column > >> system, round holes and all. >> > > There were "window" cards that carried a piece of micro-fiche. Were the > makers of those aware of Gldberg's "Rapid-Selector" and/or Vannevar Bush's > Memex? (Both of which were motion picture film based microfilm with > optical reading of dot patterns for selection) > > There were even punched cards that also carried a mag-stripe (a > transitional device?) > I even saw some crude attempts to implement McBee edge sort - set of holes > around the perimeter that were linked or not linked with a slot to the > edge; poke a knitting needle through the hole(s) and see which ones shook > out. Some also carried "normal" punched card data punched on them. > Only once did I see a "multi-value" system - multiple holes punched in a > column, and edge slot going varying number of holes deep - "I want a value > of greater than or equal 3": poke the needle through 3, and 3, 2, and 1 > would all shake out. > > My father claimed that the use of round holes on divergent cards was due > to an attempt by IBM to patent the shape of the hole in the cards. He also > thought that the development of optical card readers was significantly > boosted along by an IBM attempt to patent use of a brass roller. > > For "The National Driving Test" (CBS 1966?), he had a sample MAIL back > port-a-punch (pre-perfed alternate columns) cards! > IBM succeeded in reading them! But, IBM's statistical programming > resulted in our whole family starting to learn FORTRAN the next day. > > -- I would love to have a micro and all of the 70 and 80- 87 Honda Motorcycle parts! The old ATC's Gotta Love em!
