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Posted: Fri Aug 21, 2009 6:26 pm
by JPG
robinson46176 wrote:I got into data processing in about 1965 or 1966. Huge state of the art system that wouldn't fit in a 2 car garage. No monitor, no mouse, no keyboard. just a panel of lighted touch switches flashing in binary code... We read punch cards, mag tape, Paper tape and MICR encoded documents (mostly checks). Our line printer was fast even by many of today's standards. 132 characters wide, 1,140 lines a minute. Of course the characters didn't always line up perfectly.
We used thousands of reels of mag tape, mostly the big 2400 foot reels at 800 BPI. The big disk were just coming along about the time I left for less hectic pursuits. We did processing (mostly checks and monthly statements) for two banks, lots of sales analysis, lots of inventory and 45 payrolls. Everything we did crossed my desk. I used to buy Rolaids by the barrel...
Our MICR reader sorter would read 1200 checks a minute. If it screwed up it would destroy 1200 checks a minute.
Programming was mostly using Burroughs Advanced Assembler II. About half of the small in-house utilities I wrote I did in machine code. I had up to 17 girls using key-tape machines on 3 shifts. We had only one key-punch (029) and it was not used for production. We did have a card punch with the computer, it punched about 300 cards a minute. Hey, it was fast back then.
NO hanging chads either!;)
Posted: Fri Aug 21, 2009 11:05 pm
by iclark
[quote="JPG40504"]NO hanging chads either!]
actually, as the keypunch machines got some wear on them, we did occasionally get some hanging chad. it was one of the reasons that one printed a copy of the program along with the results whenever you ran a job. if it happened to lift back up into its original position, it would change the value of the character in that field.
one of my teachers used to reminisce about programming computer drums manually. that was when he was at Argonne National labs and they would hike up forestry roads in the winter on weekends, crash in a barn, and then ski out the next day. claimed that it pre-dated rope tows.
Key punch operation
Posted: Fri Aug 21, 2009 11:19 pm
by dlbristol
My very first attempts at programming were in college where we learned FORTRAN 4! We typed our own key punch cards and I am awful at the keyboard. When cards were run through the compiler, it would simply stop and give you the whole stack back!! No expalination no nothing!! Hanging chads were never an issue, I had so many typing errors that I finally hired a friends wife to do it for me. To this day, I can feel the stress rise when I think about that class. The programming was difficult enough with out the typing on top.
Posted: Sat Aug 22, 2009 3:26 pm
by navycop
dlbristol.
You must of master the typing issue. Your post looks good and no spelling errors.
Posted: Sun Aug 23, 2009 8:59 pm
by keakap
JPG40504 wrote:Backhertz:
Don't tell anyone, but I still compile basic!
(grooooan)
I remember back when Basic came out!
I suddenly feel very old...
[btw, "keaka" is "Jack" in Hawaiian. My last name starts in _.]
Good Typing?
Posted: Sun Aug 23, 2009 9:14 pm
by dlbristol
navycop wrote:dlbristol.
You must of master the typing issue. Your post looks good and no spelling errors.
Well, I don't do to bad given enough time. That last post took me 13 minutes to get right!
Posted: Sun Aug 23, 2009 9:19 pm
by keakap
robinson46176 wrote:... No monitor, no mouse, no keyboard. just a panel of lighted touch switches flashing in binary code... We read punch cards, mag tape, Paper tape ...
Wow, this is reviving memories I thought were gone. I was in the other side of the business, installing, maintaining, debugging, repairing the beasts. First machine was as described above, first all transistorized computer in the world (circa '59), by RCA- then the world's second largest computer company.
Today's "computer" is on a small Chip. Back on the 520 (holy moly- I just realized the coincidence!) one "and" gate was on its own Board! And the core memory was actually little iron donuts with wires laced thru 'em!
I remember a little sandwich board sitting on top of one of the system cabinets that held the memory-- it took two full cabinets each the size of those refrigerators to house it-- that proudly stated the capacity of a stunning 65 thousand bytes!!
Posted: Sun Aug 23, 2009 11:48 pm
by backhertz
I got my handle after suffering an on-the-job injury. I first tried
Backhurts@ but someone already had it. Being in the electronics
field my entire life Hertz came to mind. It has nothing to do with
rental cars...
Posted: Mon Aug 24, 2009 1:51 am
by a1gutterman
backhertz wrote:I got my handle after suffering an on-the-job injury. I first tried
Backhurts@ but someone already had it. Being in the electronics
field my entire life Hertz came to mind. It has nothing to do with
rental cars...
Has your back healed??? Now it is time to work on the old memory. See post 122 of this thread.
Posted: Mon Aug 24, 2009 3:59 am
by iclark
keakap wrote:I remember back when Basic came out!
I suddenly feel very old...
what's 45 years when you are having fun?
I didn't learn the UMBIC dialect of BASIC until early '71. IIRC, it was Rocky Mountain BASIC in '72 and Tech BASIC in '76, but I might have those 2 backwards. at least by '72, we had mag cards.
I do remember loading computers from paper tape, but I never had to punch it.