Yep. Same width as Roman Chariots, drawn by two horses, side by side.. On Tue, Jun 2, 2020 at 9:39 PM Jesse 1 Robinson <jesse1.robin...@sce.com> wrote: > > My favorite OT theme. Related in my mind. The diameter of the original space > shuttle booster rocket was an odd value determined as follows: > > -- The booster was built in rural Utah > -- To reach the eventual launch pad, it had to travel through a train tunnel > -- The booster had to fit through the tunnel > -- So the spacing of train tracks determined the booster's diameter > -- The spacing of RR tracks was influenced by the spacing of ancient wagon > wheels > -- Wagon wheel spacing was influenced by the horses that once pulled them > -- In other words, the diameter of the booster rocket derived from a horse's > *ss > -- QED? > > . > . > J.O.Skip Robinson > Southern California Edison Company > Electric Dragon Team Paddler > SHARE MVS Program Co-Manager > 323-715-0595 Mobile > 626-543-6132 Office ⇐=== NEW > robin...@sce.com > > -----Original Message----- > From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU> On Behalf Of > Charles Mills > Sent: Tuesday, June 2, 2020 2:31 PM > To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU > Subject: (External):Re: Punched cards and character set > > CAUTION EXTERNAL EMAIL > > "Laced" (every hold punched) cards were an amusing bulletin board item. > > And yes, I believe I heard at the time @Jesse's premise as to why 'S' did not > use row 1. > > Actually, the alpha codes are as follow: > > A - I, row 12 plus rows 1 - 9 > J - R, row 11 plus rows 1 - 9 > S - Z, row 0 plus rows 2 - 9 > > So you see that if S used row 1 it would have had two adjacent rows punched, > 0 and 1. > > (The rows, from top to bottom, are 12, 11, 0 - 9.) > > Non-alphanumeric punches were fairly rare, and column binary was extremely > rare. > > Object code decks of course contained non-alphanumeric punches. The X'02' > that begins each (traditional) object code record, preceding ESD, TXT, RLD or > END? I still think of it as "12-2-9.") > > Charles > > > -----Original Message----- > From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU] On > Behalf Of Steve Smith > Sent: Tuesday, June 2, 2020 2:07 PM > To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU > Subject: Re: Punched cards and character set > > That's plausible, I think. While there are plenty of adjacent punches in the > full 256-characters, I'm sure most cards were mostly alphanumeric only, and > it might pay to make them as strong as possible. I remember seeing some > cards that were punched in every position; those were very delicate, and > definitely couldn't survive a pass through a card reader, regardless of the > fact they had no validity at all. > > sas > > On Tue, Jun 2, 2020 at 4:55 PM Jesse 1 Robinson <jesse1.robin...@sce.com> > wrote: > > > I haven't seen this mentioned. The punch card codes for letters went > > like > > this: > > > > A - I rows 1 - 9 > > J - R rows 1 - 9 > > S - Z rows 2 - 9 > > > > So why was S assigned to row 2 instead of row 1? The answer I was > > taught was that row 1 was too close to an adjacent location. The > > punching/reading devices and card stock of the day could not reliably > > handle punches that close together, so row 1 was skipped for the third > > alphabetic sequence. > > > > What's amusing is that this pattern was carried over to EBCDIC. The > > code for S likewise skips a possible combination: D9 to E2; 'E1' is > > not assigned to an alphabetic character. > > > > > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, > send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
-- Mike A Schwab, Springfield IL USA Where do Forest Rangers go to get away from it all? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
