[cctalk] Re: mainframe vs mini

[Paul Koning via cctalk]

> On Mar 11, 2023, at 3:38 PM, Chuck Guzis <ccl...@sydex.com> wrote:
> 
> On 3/11/23 10:48, Paul Koning wrote:
> 
>> Speaking of 1620 peripherals, I know there were paper tape reader/punch 
>> options for it.  Has anyone ever encountered those in the wild?
> 
> I've seen a 1621 paper tape unit, but never used it.  That always seemed
> to be the wrong answer to the problem of input, particularly for
> programming work.  

Dijkstra said as much when he evaluated the 1620 for possible use by the TU 
Eindhoven -- a big problem is that it was unable to handle arbitrary 8-bit data.

        paul