🚀 go-pugleaf

(The Cooper Union Computer Center was centered around
the PDP11/45 running Version 6 UNIX at the time,
so most folks never needed cards.
Now it has Vaxen, microVaxen, PS2s, 3B2s and other stuff).

You could actually insert and delete text on punched cards.
To delete: firmly hold the card you're punching in place.
	Pressing space will advance the original card.
To insert: hold the original card in place while typing.

The nicest keypunches I ever used were by Decision Data.
They had 2 hoppers and 2 stackers.
They had indicators for all error conditions (hopper full, jam),
quite unlike the IBM keypunches that just locked the keyboard for
ANY error condition.
They buffered the entire card and punched the entire card
when you pressed "release" (the keypunch equivalent of "enter"/"return").
This allowed you to back up and correct mistakes!
They also had modes to verify cards, enter corrections while verifying,
interpret cards, even duplicate a deck!

"You can't erase a hole" doesn't mean anything anymore.
Recent anecdotes aren't about folding, stapling and spindling of
cards but of floppy disks.

I was chatting to a co-worker who claimed that he never used punched cards.
Now that's starting to make me feel old!

PS: a fellow once asked for some unused cards for his collection.
I finally found the cards, but lost who asked.

Jeffrey Jonas
jeffj@synsys.uucp
synsys!je...@uunet.uu.net