Sep 30, 2026, 8:38 PM@nyrath @n1xnx @TerryHancock yes indeed, tabstop cards would do that.
I know their theory but not practically.
After my WATFOR self-study Orono summer of '76 (concurrent w Calc 1), I only ever needed the punch for duplicating a damaged data card or making a //JCL card to name the file the data deck was to load to.
Sep 30, 2026, 8:38 PM
Oct 1, 2026, 12:47 AMPracticality of using a tab stop card? I seem to remember that when I bothered to make one, it did seem to speed up data entry. Otherwise you are forever carefully counting spaces to ensure that the data values were proprrlyaligned in their columns
Oct 1, 2026, 1:14 AM@nyrath @n1xnx @TerryHancock
Oh yes, that's it to a t.
I never did more than one data card repair on the punch at a time, using DUPlicate for a many columns of bad card were readable.
For that client, if we hand keyed data it was on terminal (double keyed and compared).
Cards were only on mark-sense workflow.
So while I knew about tab control (from typing class obviously useful!) I never used it with punch.
Oct 1, 2026, 1:29 AM@nyrath @n1xnx @TerryHancock
I definitely used tab stops in IBM editors that considered files as virtual card decks.!
@n1vux @nyrath @n1xnx @TerryHancock I think one of the first ed macros I wrote was to insert a new line followed by 5 spaces and a c. You can probably guess which language I was writing in.
Oct 1, 2026, 1:31 PM@ianturton @nyrath @n1xnx @TerryHancock
Indeed!
Oct 1, 2026, 2:54 PM@ianturton @nyrath @n1xnx @TerryHancock
40ish years ago I was assisting one of my elders (semi famous) with his second ever C program.
I looked it over and asked him if his first language was FORTRAN, as his C had a pronounced 'accent'. (Yes)
I may have avoided the brain damage oft attributed to both BASIC&FORTRAN (a) by the TA teaching flowcharts being clued on evolving Structured Programming (b) by doing both (& FOCAL) in quick succession after reading a PL/I book from remainders pile.
Oct 1, 2026, 2:58 PM@ianturton @nyrath @n1xnx @TerryHancock
I even had one FORTRAN ii program on the DEC EduSystem (after doing WATFOR / WATFIV dialect of Fort iv), the one with the way jump IF (no THEN, let alone ELSE). Weird!