Boy, do I remember punched cards. One of my earliest computer jobs was as a weekend shift operator while I was going to college. One of my tasks each weekend was to update the master payroll system. It was a process of getting the updates in punched cards, sorting the deck, and then running the master deck (several drawers of punched cards) and the update deck through an IBM 188 Collator. For you "youngsters" the IBM 188 Collator was "programmed" by plugging wires into a board which was then installed into the machine. It would read the master deck in one side and the update deck in the other. It would then compare the information on the cards from the two decks and drop them into one of five different pockets depending on what the plug board told it to do.
Anyway, I was in constant fear of dropping one of the drawers of the master deck. Sure, it could have been sorted, but that would have taken forever. The company had just converted from an IBM 1400 system without any tape drives to an IBM 360/30 with tape drives. So I decided to transfer the master deck to tape and write a simple program to do the job of the collator and create a new tape, which would then be run into the rest of the payroll system. My manager thought that they'd have to completely rewrite the payroll system to be able to read tape instead of cards. Well, I did have to format the tape as 80/80 unblocked, but everything worked great with no reprogramming. We just had to change the JCL to point to the tape drive instead of the card reader. They thought I was a real programming guru. Boy, did I have them fooled. Tom Kelman Enterprise Capacity Planner Commerce Bank of Kansas City (816) 760-7632 > -----Original Message----- > From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:ibm-m...@bama.ua.edu] On > Behalf Of Scott T. Harder > Sent: Tuesday, May 26, 2009 11:27 PM > To: IBM-MAIN@bama.ua.edu > Subject: Re: Book on Poughkeepsie > > VBG. Too funny. I've heard many stories about card decks being > dropped every which-way, but what did you have to do when that > happened? Were they numbered or denoted in some way where you could > put the deck back together? Must have been, but what a job; like > trying to find a mis-filed tape. ;-) And, I would think that > everything else came to a halt while the deck was re-ordered. > > -- > All the best, > Scott T. Harder > > > On 5/27/09, Patrick O'Keefe <patrick.oke...@wamu.net> wrote: > > On Tue, 26 May 2009 23:37:49 -0400, Scott T. Harder > > <scottyt.har...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > >>... > >>Never heard of 96-column cards, though. Just some ignorance on my > >>part with that one. > >>... > > > > The "96-column" card was really 3 tiers of 32 columns. 6 bits per > logical > > column. It was small (3-1/4 inch wide by 2-5/8 inch high) with small > > round holes.) It was used on the S/3. I'm not sure it was used by > > anything else. > > > > The small card size had both advantages and disadvantages. Large > > decks were light so people tended to pick up decks that were too large. > > If you tried picking up a deck that was much longer that the card's > width > > you were left holding the first and last card with the rest of the deck > > sprayed across the room. > > > > Pat O'Keefe > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, > send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO > Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html ***************************************************************************** If you wish to communicate securely with Commerce Bank and its affiliates, you must log into your account under Online Services at http://www.commercebank.com or use the Commerce Bank Secure Email Message Center at https://securemail.commercebank.com NOTICE: This electronic mail message and any attached files are confidential. The information is exclusively for the use of the individual or entity intended as the recipient. If you are not the intended recipient, any use, copying, printing, reviewing, retention, disclosure, distribution or forwarding of the message or any attached file is not authorized and is strictly prohibited. If you have received this electronic mail message in error, please advise the sender by reply electronic mail immediately and permanently delete the original transmission, any attachments and any copies of this message from your computer system. ***************************************************************************** ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
