In article <[email protected]> Joel Ewing wrote:
> On 01/13/2017 02:21 PM, Tom Marchant wrote: >> On Fri, 13 Jan 2017 13:56:57 -0600, Mike Schwab wrote: >> >>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punched_tape >>> About 1974-75, I lived with my dad, manager of a Kroger store. At >>> night he would insert various strips of punch film into a reader to >>> report the store's daily transactions. >> Well into the 1970's almost every mainframe shop used paper tape. >> >> What was it used for? >> > I would question the "almost every mainframe" part, unless you possibly > restrict consideration to non-IBM mainframes. IBM mainframes more > commonly used punched cards as input/output media, with punched tape > only available as a cheaper (and less capable) alternative to cards on > smaller systems. Of the roughly 10 IBM systems I had contact with > during 1960's and 1970's, only one had paper tape I/O. He's referring to the carriage control tape that was used in lineprinters. It was not punched under mainframe control, but by operators, as part of helping the mainframe control the forms within the printer. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
