21 lines
3.0 KiB
HTML
21 lines
3.0 KiB
HTML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" standalone="no"?>
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<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><title>punched card</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="../../jargon.css" type="text/css"/><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.61.0"/><link rel="home" href="../index.html" title="The Jargon File"/><link rel="up" href="../P.html" title="P"/><link rel="previous" href="pumpking.html" title="pumpking"/><link rel="next" href="punt.html" title="punt"/></head><body><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">punched card</th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="pumpking.html">Prev</a> </td><th width="60%" align="center">P</th><td width="20%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="punt.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr/></div><dt><a id="punched-card"/><dt xmlns="" id="punched-card"><b>punched card</b>: </dt></dt><dd><p> [techspeak] (alt.: <span class="firstterm">punch card</span>)
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The signature medium of computing's <a href="../S/Stone-Age.html"><i class="glossterm">Stone Age</i></a>, now
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obsolescent. The punched card actually predated computers considerably,
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originating in 1801 as a control device for mechanical looms. The version
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patented by Hollerith and used with mechanical tabulating machines in the
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1890 U.S. Census was a piece of cardboard about 90 mm by 215 mm. There is
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a widespread myth that it was designed to fit in the currency trays used
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for that era's larger dollar bills, but recent investigations have
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falsified this.</p><p>IBM (which originated as a tabulating-machine manufacturer) married
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the punched card to computers, encoding binary information as patterns of
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small rectangular holes; one character per column, 80 columns per card.
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Other coding schemes, sizes of card, and hole shapes were tried at various
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times.</p><p>The 80-column width of most character terminals is a legacy of the
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IBM punched card; so is the size of the quick-reference cards distributed
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with many varieties of computers even today. See
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<a href="../C/chad.html"><i class="glossterm">chad</i></a>, <a href="../C/chad-box.html"><i class="glossterm">chad box</i></a>,
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<a href="../E/eighty-column-mind.html"><i class="glossterm">eighty-column mind</i></a>,
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<a href="../G/green-card.html"><i class="glossterm">green card</i></a>, <a href="../D/dusty-deck.html"><i class="glossterm">dusty deck</i></a>,
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<a href="../C/code-grinder.html"><i class="glossterm">code grinder</i></a>.</p></dd><div class="navfooter"><hr/><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="pumpking.html">Prev</a> </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="../P.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="punt.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">pumpking </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="../index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"> punt</td></tr></table></div></body></html>
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