[getting old punched cards read]

Ethan Dicks &lt;erd(a)infinet.com&gt; wrote: I know these programs exist. There are some for the Spectrum and ZX-81, too. However, I could generalize and say they were all DOS-based, written in Pascal or assembler, don't come with source code, have poor documentation, etc. and I want to roll my own in straight portable C. I'd rather make it general to handle old S-100 tapes, C-64 tapes, etc. instead of just hard-coding one flavor. It should be ready in the year 2010. Tony Duell wrote: No, my point is that it's more useful to have generic tools to help rescue old data. Sure, QuickCams are nearly disposable now. Cheap $1,500 PCs include them these days. Five years from now, they'll be embedded in cheap monitors. Ten years from now, they'll be in cereal boxes. Unless the hobby of collecting computer junk is adopted by Hollywood stars, I humbly suggest that it will be at least *more difficult* for you to find spares for your original equipment than it will be for me to find something that could deliver a bitmap by looking at my punched card. :-) - John Jefferson Computer Museum <http://www.threedee.com/jcm>