Linux is KING - Couldn't be hacked - Mac, Vista went down in flames

[tom]

On Wed, 2 Apr 2008, Mikkel L. Ellertson wrote:

> Les wrote:
>> On my punch cards they did.  Every card had a number sequential to the
>> sequence.  The punch we used inserted them automatically.  Well, the
>> programming card did.  The reference number used for calls may have been
>> different, but I don't remember it.
>> 	Our programs were HUGE, multiple trays.  Each tray was denoted by the
>> color of the diagonal line.  We had 8 colors, so I guess we never had
>> more than 8 trays, because I don't remember pairs of lines anywhere.
>> 
>> Regards,
>> Les H
> Was the number actually punched in the card, or was it only printed on the 
> top of the card? Printed on the top of the card would not require any 
> modification of the card reader routine, and would not eat up columns on the 
> punch card. If I remember correctly, you only had 80/card.
>
> If the number was punched, I could picture a program that would re-order the 
> program based on the number, if the cards were messed up, but you would 
> probably have needed a mini-computer to do that, and feed it to the 
> mainframe.

I seem to recall that the machine room at school had a card sorter which 
would mechanically sort the cards. That sorter wasn't used much by the 
time I got there as there was enough virtual memory on the computer(s) for 
the school to perform the sort in memory and repunch (for a fee). Best to 
not reorder your deck.