[HECnet] punched tape

[h vlems]

Yup, old people :-)
Last month I bought an rx2600. The guy eas around 30. He showed me a small carddeck, about an inch high, and asked how thede things were used. he also eanted to know how many lines could be printed on a card and how they were read by the computer.
the answers surprised him no end  
Hans

Van: Brett Bump
Verzonden: zaterdag 20 april 2013 14:40 PM
Aan: hecnet at Update.UU.SE
Beantwoorden: hecnet at Update.UU.SE
Onderwerp: Re: [HECnet] punched tape



Oooold people. ;-) I was still in high school at that time. My 
introduction to a paper-tape device came about 4 years later (in college) 
when my physics prof and I put together a Heathkit H-11 (PDP-11/03 really) 
that had the nastiest paper-tape device ever created by man. I think we 
could get it to load maybe 1 time out of 20. We then got the 8 inch floppy 
drive functional and I think the paper-tape device was relagated to the 
trash heap. The 8-inch floppy drives ran the Heath branded RT-11 V02.

About a year later was when our resident math guru (Name Drop) Keith Olson
moved to Montana and handed us the keys to the PDP-11/20. We actually USED 
the paper-tape device on that machine (because it REALLY worked). I loved 
making my assembler students load an absolute loader, EDIT-11, MARCO-11, 
LINK-11 and have them paper-tape punch out ONE of their project, if for no 
other reason then to show them how nice having a disk operating system 
was. I still have digital copies of the DEC paper-tape software, but 
sadly after I left the college, I was told the paper-tape was tossed in 
the trash and the PDP-11's (11/20, 2 11/45's and a 11/70) were disected 
for the cabinets and power distribution supplies (sad).

Brett

Side note: Keith (KE7BWR) is now retired and living in Utah.

On Sat, 20 Apr 2013, h vlems wrote:

> Paul, we share a common background. I learned Algol on a B6700, which succeeded the ELX8. Some of the flexowriters were still there, early 1976.
> The B6700 could read and punch papertape but mostly for data I think. Programming was done on cards. If you were lucky your account was upgraded for CANDE and you could
> use a terminal.  
> hans
> 
> It is called the TU/e for decades but my generation still says TH...
> 
> Van: Paul_Koning at Dell.com
> Verzonden: vrijdag 19 april 2013 20:46 PM
> Aan: hecnet at Update.UU.SE
> Beantwoorden: hecnet at Update.UU.SE
> Onderwerp: Re: [HECnet] punched tape
> 
> 
> On Apr 19, 2013, at 1:48 PM, Lee Gleason wrote:
> 
> >
> > How many people on this list have ever used paper tape at a job? My first computer job we used it to control phototypesetting machines. When an 11/70 was added to the
> mix of gear there, we ordered it with paper tape readers and punches on it to help in transitioning away from the paper tape only gear it was replacing.
> 
> That was probably 6 bit tape -- most typesetters I've seen that were fed with tape used 6 bit tape.
> 
> My first programs were written on paper tape -- Flexowriter editing papertape typewriter/reader/punch machines, with a character set optimized for Algol 60. That was at
> the Technical University Eindhoven, then known as THE -- which is where the operating system by that name came from. It was a batch system: paper tape in, line printer
> output. Magnetic tapes available in theory but rarely used, plus a drum for paging. Processor was a Philips (Electrologica) EL-X8, a 27 bit machine with a rather exotic
> I/O architecture that I never really understood.
> 
> BTW, Flexowriters are great machines. Teletype Corporation never built anything remotely as reliable as those -- certainly not the cruft known as Model 33, and even a
> Model 35 isn't as good.
> 
> Semaphores (in the computer science sense) were invented there.
> 
> paul
> 
> 
> 
>