🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <715264965snx@n5ial.chi.il.us> jim@n5ial.chi.il.us (Jim Graham) writes:
>
>now, for a question:  why did ibm assume that when someone is typing,
>that every single line of text that they type will always be PRECISELY
>the same length?  wouldn't it just be much simpler to end a line when
>a (CR, LF, CR/LF, etc.) was encountered?
>   --jim
>

Don Hosek has already answered some of your implicit questions, so I'll 
simply note that those 80 character fixed record files have nothing in
particular to do with typing...typing, what's that, oh you must mean
keypunching...but rather to do with an efficient internal representation
of, say, computer cards, or greenbar paper printouts.

You have to remember that many of the design decisions that current IBM
mainframe users have inherited were made long, long ago from the point of
computer technology.  While I was never a big fan of feeding my files
through a virtual card reader under VM/CMS, it was obvious how the need
for compatibility with existing software drove much of what is still used
today.

--Jon Radel
jon@radel.com