[COFF] The Elements Of Style: UNIX As Literature

[Tom Ivar Helbekkmo]

Peter Jeremy via COFF <coff at minnie.tuhs.org> writes:

> Since no-one has mentioned it, the reason why Fortran and Cobol ignore
> columns 73-80 goes back to the IBM 711 card reader - which could read any
> (but usually configured for the first) 72 columns into pairs of 36-bit words
> in an IBM 701.

...and for those who, like me, did a double-take on that, thinking "WTF?
That would mean it read *rows* of bits from the card into machine words!",
I checked, and yes, that's exactly what it did.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punched_card_input/output#Binary_format

-tih (who learned FORTRAN using punched cards on a UNIVAC)
-- 
Most people who graduate with CS degrees don't understand the significance
of Lisp.  Lisp is the most important idea in computer science.  --Alan Kay