And why? I learned in computer class 101 that the 'hole' in the alphabet derived from the iffy quality of card stock in the early days combined with less than perfect punching gear. Each letter consisted of one zone punch (top three) and one digit punch 1 - 9. With only 26 letters, one of the 27 combinations was unneeded. Hollerith chose the unused combination to be the one he deemed most likely to cause problems in production: adjacent zone and digit punch for 'S'. In other words, he skipped over the combination that eventually became EBCDIC 'E1' and instead went to 'E2', whose punches had a buffer between zone and digit.
Or so I was told. . . JO.Skip Robinson Southern California Edison Company Electric Dragon Team Paddler SHARE MVS Program Co-Manager 626-302-7535 Office 323-715-0595 Mobile [email protected] From: Don Williams <[email protected]> To: [email protected], Date: 04/01/2013 08:43 PM Subject: Re: PC2 - The New Punched Card Cloud Sent by: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <[email protected]> S is x'E2' instead of x'E1' Don > -----Original Message----- > From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:[email protected]] > On Behalf Of Skip Robinson > Sent: Monday, April 01, 2013 11:07 PM > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: PC2 - The New Punched Card Cloud > > Trivia 2. What quirk of the punch card had an effect so profound that it > survives today in EBCDIC? > > . > . > JO.Skip Robinson > Southern California Edison Company > Electric Dragon Team Paddler > SHARE MVS Program Co-Manager > 626-302-7535 Office > 323-715-0595 Mobile > [email protected] > > > > From: Charles Mills <[email protected]> > To: [email protected], > Date: 04/01/2013 08:00 PM > Subject: Re: PC2 - The New Punched Card Cloud > Sent by: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <[email protected]> > > > > Easy question. Herman Hollerith wanted them to feel familiar, so he made > them the size of a US Federal bill. > > Charles > Composed on a mobile: please excuse my brevity > > Phil Smith <[email protected]> wrote: > > >Jim Bohnsack wrote: > >>I still "use" punched cards (IBM 5081's) as note cards. I retired from > mainframe support last summer and have at least 2 boxes of cards (not > punched). They are the best note cards in the world. > > > >And I just bought a box of 2,000 on eBay! > > > >Trivia question: How was the size of the IBM 80-column punch card chosen? > > > >...phsiii ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
