🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <gdtbkuc9tjvps2vgagrchabmo8u4aqgo4u@4ax.com>,
 William Hamblen <william.hamblen@nashville.com> wrote:
>On Mon, 29 Jul 2002 11:54:25 GMT, ppnerk@yahoo.com (Phred) wrote:
>>
>>On the question of EBCDIC, I assume this is an "improved" or extended 
>>version of Binary Coded Decimal? 
[snip]
>
>BCDIC and EBCDIC at bottom are punch card codes.  The bit patterns
>were constrained by the realities of reading and punching cards.  They
>don't have much to do with binary coded decimal arithmetic.  IBM cards
>had 80 columns (which probably is why terminals also have 80 columns)
>and 12 rows.  The rows were numbered 12, 11, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7,
>8, 9.  There was one character per column.  The number 1 had a punch
>in the 1 row, the number 2 a punch in the 2 row, etc. The letter A had
>a punch in row 12 and row 1 and the letter B a punch in row 12 and row
>2.  And so on.  Compared to BCDIC, EBCDIC had lower case letters and
>more punctuation, and some of the codes were different (as I
>remember).  You didn't have too many punches in one column so the card
>wouldn't come apart when it went through the reader.  Remington Rand
>had a completely different system with 90 columns (as I remember), but
>later Sperry/Univac systems used 80 column "IBM" cards.  Card codes go
>back over 100 years - pre computer and definitely pre BASIC..
>
>I think BASIC was one language that if not never, was hardly ever
>committed to cards.

Actually, when I first met BASIC (discounting a "course" on GEC BASIC 
at Univ. of Qld in 1963 which was pretty much all matric algebra) it 
was on a Tandy TRS-80 Model I.

 A local high school teacher ran a short "hobby" TAFE course [that's 
an adult education sort of thing - "Technical And Further Education"] 
on it back in about er... hmm... pre 1980(?).  To get our programs 
"compiled" and run on a distant Dept of Education computer, we 
"punched" them onto cards with pencil marks in lieu of holes.  It was 
a bit frustrating, especially with a turn around time of a week, but 
we had fun anyway.  And I must have learnt something because a couple 
of years later I gave a short TAFE course on BASIC programming myself.
That time it was very modern and we used GWBASIC and floppy disks. ;-)


Cheers, Phred.

-- 
ppnerkDELETE@THISyahoo.com.INVALID