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

[Richard England]

Matthew Saltzman wrote:
> On Wed, 2008-04-02 at 09:48 -0700, 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.  
>>     
>
> Those weren't line numbers per se (in the sense that BASIC had line
> numbers, for example).  In FORTRAN, an 80-column card was divided into
> fields:
>
> Column 1: 'C' indicated a comment line, ' ' a code line.
>
> Column 2-6: Statement label numbers.  These were arbitrary numbers used
> as targets for FORMAT, GOTO and "computed GOTO" (now *that* was a flow
> control concept!), and DO statements.  These did not have to obey any
> ordering rules.  There was no concept of an if-else block or a while
> loop with a logical test, so flow control was handled by GOTOs of some
> variety.  Targeted statements were usually CONTINUE statements (no-ops),
> because there was some ambiguity regarding when the targeted statement
> was actually executed, and because it made reorganizing the flow a bit
> easier (especially with punchcards[1]).
>
> Column 7-72: Code.
>
> Column 73-80: Ignored.  Intended to be used for sequence numbers so you
> could sort the cards down in order if somebody dropped the deck.  The
> numbers could be anything really, for example a three-letter alpha code
> identifying the deck and a four-digit sequence number.
>
> (Somebody is bound to correct me on the actual column numbers, now...)
>
> Aside: In the early FORTRANs, the body of a loop was always executed
> once, even though the test was at the top of the loop.  So you needed a
> guard if you wanted to avoid making any passes through the loop at all.
> That changed with FORTRAN 77.
>
> [1] Of course, you'd want to re-sequence cards at some point if you
> reordered them.
>
>   
>> 	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
>> On Wed, 2008-04-02 at 11:27 -0500, Mikkel L. Ellertson wrote:
>>     
>>> Les wrote:
>>>       
>>>> On Tue, 2008-04-01 at 20:36 -0700, Richard England wrote:
>>>>         
>>>>> Try dropping two trays , each about 2.5 feet long.  They did that to me 
>>>>> in the data center when I was in grad school.  Luckily I had just 
>>>>> printed they contents out and resequenced them.  The manager of the data 
>>>>> center had a cow when I told the staff to put the deck back together, 
>>>>> but my advisor (bless him) stood behind me and insisted that if they had 
>>>>> taken due care it wouldn't have happened.
>>>>>
>>>>> Ah cards, loved 'em (not).  And drum cards. Boy there was an arcane art!
>>>>>
>>>>> ~~R
>>>>>
>>>>>           
>>>> Did you have the diagonal line drawn on the top to help?
>>>>
>>>> If they were Fortran, or COBOL, you could always sort on the line
>>>> number.  I don't remember the other languages having line numbers.
>>>>
>>>> Regards,
>>>> Les H
>>>>
>>>>         
>>> Are you sure about Fortran and COBOL having line numbers? I didn't 
>>> use COBOL enough to remember any more, but I remember only using 
>>> line numbers or labels in FORTRAN if they were the target of a 
>>> branching instruction.
>>>
>>> Mikkel
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>>>       
>>     
You always incremented your statement numbers by 10 so when you had to 
add a loop or goto you could add at least 9 before you had to redo all 
the statement numbers.... tip from an almost geezer (hey you are not a 
geezer, you're an "experienced person").

~~R