We called 'em vanilla 5081's (meaning manila, versus the pink, green, blue, etc. other colors we had).
Were I come from the ice(d) in tea is redundant - we just say sweet or un-sweet tea. 'course, I'm from Georgia (the US one....) -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU] On Behalf Of Joel C. Ewing Sent: Monday, July 30, 2012 12:44 PM To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU Subject: Re: Friday: What you've been waiting for! Build an 80 column punched card reader! My recollection is that in the era of punched cards the more common usage by programmers/operators was just "card", "cards", or "card deck" and others more often than not called them "IBM cards" because typically "IBM" was printed somewhere on the cards and people understood they were associated with IBM computers. Adding a modifier of "punch", "punched" or "punchable" in the context of typical discussions would have been totally redundant and wasted effort because other types of cards didn't make sense in the context of IBM unit record equipment. Today when knowledge of the old unit record context can't be assumed, I think there is a legitimate argument for both "punch card" (a card intended for use in IBM "card punch" equipment) and "punched card" (a card in which holes could be or have been punched). It seems unduly limiting to insist that the modifier could not be a descriptor of the device for which the card was intended (and the official names of those devices were indeed something like "model nnnn Card Punch"). The meanings are subtly different, but I see both as able to convey the concept of a punched/punchable card that was punched using IBM Card Punch unit record equipment. "Iced Tea" is no doubt a lost cause, because when said quickly the "d" and "t" merge and listeners only hear "ice tea" no matter what -- and "tea with ice" is just too much to say when you're thirsty:) Joel C. Ewing On 07/30/2012 10:11 AM, John Gilmore wrote: > English can be wielded with great precision; but it, and American > English in particular, often is not. The term 'ice tea' has now, for > example, largely supplanted 'iced tea' among the subliterate; etc., > etc., ad nauseam. > > When punched cards were in wide use 'punch cards' was avoided, but > those who wish to use 'punch cards' are of course free to do so, as I > am free to deprecate it. > > --jg > ... -- Joel C. Ewing, Bentonville, AR jcew...@acm.org ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
