I used 026, 029, and 129 machines. (And the 010 machines; remember those!) Never bothered me, but I agree with the comment that their use (and punched cards in general) encouraged me to be much more careful with my "on paper" programming before starting to punch cards. Dunno how to translate this "feeling" into the modern world where we start typing (on a graphics screen) before we have finished deciding how the program "should" work. Times certainly change.
Also as mentioned, I quickly found it was better to do my own keypunching! I had lots of "hands on" on 1620s, 1401s, 1410s, and 7040s. (I used 7090s and 7094s, but not "hands on"!) Being ancient and over the hill, I cannot remember how I worked with our 1130s and 1800s (and 1500s, if you remember those). I remember paper tape on one of the 1620s and I hated it! Trying to make modern sense of this discussion (if possible) I can see where starting to type before most of the thinking process is complete can lead to a "liking" for interpreted languages --- where at least some of the error messages occur at the typing stage --- instead of much later times that occur long after the keypunching stage! In a sense, it often seems that some of our "modern" techniques have eliminated inspecting compiler listings. ....... Why sequence numbers? Like many of us, I used a carefully drawn diagonal line (with a "magic marker") across the top of the card deck as a useful restoration tool when I dropped the deck! Bill Ogden ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
