At 18 12 04, 01:04 PM, Bill Potts wrote: >First, please note that your message contains some sequences (e.g., ᾯ >and —, presumably intended to be left and right typographical quotes >respectively -- not supported in text mode) that badly affect readability.
Sorry about that -- I used a wordprocessor, but used a generic "paste" rather than "paste unformatted" as I normally do. >The maximum theoretical capacity of an 80-column punch card is actually 120 >bytes (12 hole positions per column). However, not too many computers were >equipped to read cards in binary mode and there was no data entry equipment >(e.g., keypunches) that could punch them in that mode (nor would it have >been practical to do so). In practice, each column contained less >information than today's byte. Rather, it contained only as much information >as a 6-bit character. You certainly remember punch cards better than I do, but your 6-bit character does not make sense to me. 2^6 is 64, but the alphabet (upper & lower case) plus 10 digits is 62 different characters, not counting punctuation. If memory serves, the cards DID support both upper and lower case, plus a variety of punctuation symbols. What am I missing here? Jim Elwell Jim Elwell, CAMS Electrical Engineer Industrial manufacturing manager Salt Lake City, Utah, USA www.qsicorp.com
