[cctalk] Re: Punch card info

Another minor detail about column alignment: There was a variant of the 029 punch (I don't remember the specific model) that could interpret/print on already punched cards. It printed 80 column aligned characters. With a drum card, it could be set to skip some and only do the desired ones. ("Regular" models of 029 printed along the top only while punching) (There was also a model of 029 for "verifying", where it read an already punched card while the operator was "punching" from the same data. If the key presses and data on thecards matched, then it would put a small notch on theend of the card. Some "service bureaus" cheated, and used it to "duplicate" blank cards, to have cards that were already "verifiaction notched" before they were even punched.) The 447? stand-alone interpreter did reasonably high speed interpret/print of decks of already punched cards. BUT, it could only do 60? columns on a pass, and they were not column aligned. It had a wire plug board to set which columns, printing positions, etc. Thus, 447 was fine for cards handed to customers/managers, etc., but for programmers who wanted aligned interpreting of specific cloumns, as being more convenient than manually deciphering the pattern of holes, the 29 variant was better, albeit slower. -- Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin(a)xenosoft.com