I started mainframes in 1988, and worked punch cards until 1991. I even had the glorious experience of a multi-file floor sort exercise, thankfully the cards all had sequence numbers so all I had to do was run them through the interpreter, and then put them back in sequence by hand. The sequence numbers didn't intersect, so I got lucky that time, they were easy to tell apart. I also had the joy of working keypunch when the machines bent, folded, spindled, or mutilated the cards, which was relatively frequently.
I was glad to see them go, since the interpreter (which was near the door) had a grounding problem, and we'd get some yahoo seemingly every month that put their hand on the machine and then touched the metal doorknob to exit the room, despite the brightly colored large sign posted nearby warning people not to touch the equipment. Gary Diehl Systems Administration "Water seeks it's own level" - Aristotle ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
