On Thu, 02 Jan 2020 17:01:01 +0000, Ahem A Rivet's Shot wrote:

> Heck when I started learning programming paper tape was the best
> portable format, when I started working at it 8 inch floppies were.
> Compared to them ZIP drives were wonderful.
>
FWIW by first encounter with computers also involved paper tape - the
machine was my university's Elliott 503 (some of its smaller 803 siblings
still exist at Bletchley - the 503 was a scientific computer using
ferrite core and discrete transistors - and we used a Flexowriter
(smaller, faster and much nicer to use than a teletype) to write and edit
Algol 60 programs on paper tape.

Paper tape had one terrific advantage over cards: if the dropped the rool
and got it tangled, just throw it down a stair well, put the end you'd
held onto onto the winder and wind it up.

If you dropped a card deck you'd hope that its line numbering was up to
date and the card sorter was working and available.


--
Martin    | martin at
Gregorie  | gregorie dot org

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