punching paper tape

steven at malikoff.com steven at malikoff.com
Fri Mar 26 16:15:25 CDT 2021


Guy said
>   You are correct, the Whirlwind tape was only seven tracks wide, with
> the same pitch as what became eight-track tape.
> http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/mit/whirlwind/Whirlwind_Paper_Tape_Format.pdf
>
>   I'll admit that I was expecting it to be hard to find someone with an
> eight-track punch and blank tape, without even trying for seven track...
> There are a few of the original Flexowriters out there somewhere, but
> I'm certainly not going to try using one.  The tape is for "pedagogical"
> purposes, so indeed seven would be better than eight, but eight will do
> fine.
>   But if you can suggest a way to punch a seven track paper tape, I'm
> glad to give it a try!


Do you have some more detailed specs for Whirlwind tape?
I can add it to ptap2dxf   https://github.com/1944GPW/ptap2dxf

It can do 8-level, 7-level, 5-level, Creed, USN Wheatstone, Morse, Teletype chadless and
variations of those (mirrored, inverse, letters, sprocket hole any position etc) so another
obscure format would be fun to add. Only a few of these have been physically tested mind
you, as I don't have anything to read the odd ones with.

Steve.




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